September 29, 2012

Udaipur, India September

If you close your eyes and dream about going to India from Africa......it might become a nightmare!
It begins at 8:30 am leaving our hotel in Johannesburg (which happens to be next to the airport), to catch our 11:00 am flight to Nairobi.  Finding it cancelled - although they tell you it's just delayed, we would miss our connecting flight from Nairobi to Mumbai, India.  We finally got a flight leaving at 1:00 pm-but it was delayed until 2:00 pm.  The flight took 4- 1/2 hours to Nairobi, then we waited 5 hours for the next flight to Mumbai (which was delayed another hour), flew 6 hours to Mumbai, waited in the airport for 3 hours for our flight to Udaipur, India.  (We were supposed to spend the night in Mumbai, but with delays we missed a full night).  It was a 1- 1/2 hours to Udaipur, then picked up at the airport and driven 40 minutes to where we caught a short boat ride to our amazingly beautiful Oberoi Hotel set on Lake Pichola.  It is a palace and a welcome site.  That was a 24 hour ordeal.  India has it's own time change across the whole country and we are 12 1/2 hours ahead of USA mountain time.

We have come to India the last two weeks of the projected monsoon season so it is not quite tourist time yet (which helps on the cost of our hotels).  The hills are green and beautiful in the countryside and the people have a pleasant aura about them.

Around the towns and temple areas there are masses of people but it seems to be a harmonic chaos.  There are cars, tuk tuk's, camel carts, donkey's, cows, dogs, kids, and even some elephants all using the roads.  If you are walking-don't stop, as the traffic around you predicts where you are going and flows around you.  Horns honk at each and every passing (on the right, left, or middle, it doesn't matter) as a courtesy- "I'm here" and not "Get out of my way".  It is like a pebble flowing down a river-taking the path of least resistance.

Tuk tuk's are the local taxi's

Camel in the road

Masses of people

Donkey in the road

We have hired a car and driver to take us around the cities and drive us between cities.  (Since it is not high season the flights are not running this time of year).  Our driver's name is Anis (say Ah nees).  He is 30 years old, married, and has 2 children.  He will drive us from Udaipur to Jaipur (5 hours), to Agra (6 hours), to Delhi (4 hours), as well as on our touring.
Barb with Anis


Udaipur has been called the other Venice.  There are many man made lakes dating back to the 16th century, with palaces and lush gardens and towns built around them.  The Oberoi Hotel is on Lake Pichola and is a copy of the palace.  We are in an amazing suite with its own swimming pool and butler.
Our first view of the Oberoi Hotel coming in on a boat


From the garden

The private pool for our Suite

Barb at our suite

The candle room at the hotel

Barb and Scott
Barb coming from workout

Our Suite

Our bathroom in the suite

Bedroom

Dinner in the restaurant

Swimming in the hotel pool

Scott at our private pool

Night view

There are three palaces owned by the royal family, the City Palace, the Monsoon Palace and the Summer Palace.  The Winter Palace or City Palace is in the main town, the Monsoon Palace is high on the hillside and is used during the rainy season, as it is above the clouds, and the Summer Palace (also known as the Pleasure Palace) is out in the middle of the lake.  The royalty of Udaipur, the Mewar, have been in control for many centuries.  They were never conquered but had to make a couple of treaties in order to survive.  The royal family is figure head only but has much respect and honor.  The Maharaja recently won first prize in the Concourse d Elegance in California for one of his Rolls Royce.  The James Bond movie Octopussy was filmed in Udaipur and used cars from the the Maharaja's family collection.
With the MG 

Scott had a 1957 MG in high school.  The interior of this '47 MG is the same as Scott's '57.


Morning yoga at the hotel begins the day, and then we are off to explore.  The City Palace has part of it in use as the Palace, part of it is a hotel, and the other part is a museum.  The doors into the courtyard have large spikes part way up.  They were to deter ramming elephants from getting inside.
The spikes on the upper part of the gates of the city palace were there to deter elephants from ramming the gate

Scott at the winter palace or city palace

There are lots of paintings on the walls

Inside the city palace
There are horse stalls at the city palace (made out of marble), and in the center of the courtyard there are actually places made for the elephants to rest with raised edges so it is easier for them to get up.  Big metal rings with chains are in the marble floor.

Their horses are a different breed with funny hooked ears.


Marble horse stalls



The Monsoon palace:
View of the Monsoon palace


Monkeys at the top of the Monsoon Palace

The monsoon palace

View from the top


Nursing monkey-that looks like it might hurt!
The Pleasure Palace or Summer Palace:
The Pleasure palace-out on an island in the middle of the lake



There are 33,000 Hindu Gods.  The main Hindu Gods are Braham the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. Shiva is a good God.  He destroys evil.

The Shiva Temple was alive with sounds and bright colored sarees as they all came to give offerings.  We removed our shoes and walked through the Temple.

Large crowds going to the temple

Wormen sell flowers for offerings

Beautiful carvings




Erotic carvings seem to be on all temples

Very colorful





Scott

Women walk around temples clockwise


A drive to the countryside to see the real life of the Indian people is an eye catching experience.  The confusion seems overwhelming but everyone makes their way without accident.  The things you can see along 100 feet of roadway are: barbers cutting hair; people pressing clothes with heavy old fashioned irons, tailors sewing;  fruits and vegetable vendors; and of course, wall to wall people, cows, camels, donkeys, cars, bicycles, and motorbikes.  These sights and sounds leave a colorful mosaic etched in your mind.  Women doing hard construction labor in their sarees while most of the men are relaxing and chatting in small circles.  Women seem to be in charge of goat tending, hauling water and other freight on top of their heads.

Typical Tuk tuk (taxi)

Cows everywhere

Barb with the BMW and the cow

The wormen are hard workers

Hard worker

Pressing clothes with an old heavy iron

Yes, this is a barber shop

Women tending the goats
Women doing the work


Women doing the washing

A lemon with peppers on a tail pipe brings good luck


The Temple located in Nagda was built in the 10th and 11th cenuries and is 25 kilometers outside of Udaipur.  There are 108 temples.  We went to the Sas-Bahu temple totally carved out of marble.  It was dedicated to the God Vishnu, the preserver.  The carvings both inside and outside are incredible, and they only had a chisel available to them at that time.  There are lots of erotic carvings here.
We passed water buffalo along the way


Small erotic carving
Erotic Carving

Interior carving


More carvings

Completely carved from marble


Scott

Ancient carvers appreciated the beauty of the female form




View of temple


The small village of Kailashpuri dates back to the 8th century and we bought offerings of flowers to give to the priest at the Eklingji Temple.  Alive with color and sounds, we watched offerings and people rubbing henna on a sacred cow, all for the Shiva God.  As a sign of respect the people will often bow down and touch the ground as a sign of respect for the Gods and their Elders before they enter the Temples.

Going into the temple in the village


Women carry everything on their head

In the village

They rub the sacred cow with henna

School boys in the village

Selling corn in the village - notice she is sitting on the table - I wish I could do that!

Village life


Enjoy some water or lunch

Women in their sarees going to the temple
A folklore performance was performed in a courtyard near the river in the evening.   They had music, dancing and a puppet show.


Dancing with 12 clay pots on her head



The music for the performance


Folklore dancing


Now we are off to Jaipur.

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