Oct 18, 2001- Going to Jodhpur
We will be leaving Udaipur shortly for Jodhpur. Hope
it will be as nice as here. It is actually something completely different for me traveling with someone else and the truth is I do prefer alone but it is good having him for these few weeks as I couldn’t afford to do what I am doing in this style by myself, and even with these conditions (AC car, nice hotels etc,) it is still very difficult for me. Any other trips I will make to India I will do at my own leisure pace but getting around in Rajastan is best by car and nice to stay in better accommodations.
10:30 AM. We have left and are driving through
Udaipur to go to the post office. Outside the old
city area where we were staying it is a nice modern
city with wide clean streets, no pollution, lots of
green and tended public gardens, actually seems like a
really nice place to live and there are neighborhoods
with REALLY beautiful homes like Herzlia style…walled
in with gardens peaking out, beautifully painted
stucco walls and iron grid work and VERY large…and the
clothing here of the women is amazingly colorful.
1 PM. (This was written originally, like everything
else, by hand in my notebook, and the writing is
really funny and difficult to read, all squiggly and
jumping all over the page…quite funny)
We are way out in the country on REAL Indian
roads!!…and it is as if we have come through a time
warp. We are taking lots of pics but I doubt if any
of them can describe the experience of seeing life
which has stood still in time!!
2:00 PM.. Ranakpur Jain Temple.
It is now after 3 and we have just finished lunch and
now I can write. It was impossible to write in the
car. I tried very hard to write but I couldn’t/
The countryside we saw was unbelievable. Time stands
still here literally and it is like being in a film
about country life 500 years ago. There are not even
any electrical wires. It is really as it was back in
time. And the way women work here is impossible to
describe. The loads they carry on their heads, the
field and road work they do…and at the same time
…still beautifully and colorfully dressed…don’t
understand how they can maneuver in those clothes.
Then we saw the Jain Temple which was carved from
marble 500 years ago and to my mind cannot as yet
fathom how these carvings were made. They are
amazing. 1444 pillars each one different in addition
to enormous domed roofs, recesses, cupolas, all
intricately carved with every type of design, figure,
animal, human, etc., you can imagine.
Now we have just finished lunch and I had a full buffet
of Indian food, basically a do-it-yourself Thali,
absolutely 100% not spicey. But the only people who
eat in this out of the way place are tourists and they
know how to cook for us. Quite satisfying.
Same day. Still traveling to Jodhpur…it is now 6 PM
and we are still driving for what seems like ages and
haven’t arrived yet. We stopped for toilet and chai
and guess we will arrive soon. This part of the trip
was basically boring…nothing particular to see but we
traveled on the “the highway” and went as fast as 70
kph sometimes!!!
8:30. We arrived and came first to a really fancy
hotel where I was sure we would not stay. It has a
swimming pool, fancy restaurants, enormous gardens and
each room is a separate cottage. Same level as a
fancy hotel in Eilat and just beautiful There
starting price was 3600 rupees plus tax not including
breakfast for not the best room. Shlomo got the price
of 2375 including breakfast and taxes for the BEST
room!!. So we are staying. I don’t think I will go
anywhere to site see…just sit and enjoy!!. They even
have an ayurveda massage parlor but it is very
expensive.
Our driver will pick us up at 11 AM but it seems a
shame to leave here to go see another palace! Maybe
I’ll convince shlomo to just make believe I am not
here and go on his own!
Friday, 5AM
I am soooooooooo
tired right now I am dizzy. The drive yesterday was
actually very pleasant but after what I wrote
yesterday about the nice hotel that we should have
been in at 8:30 PM, shlomo did something so “I don’t
know how to describe it” after coercing this reception
manager into giving us this good price…that the guy
basically told him to “fuck off” and leave my hotel
(in a very pleasant way of course but there was no
doubt from the look on his face what he meant). At
this point I was already dizzy from exhaustion and
hunger and the idiot of a man had me following him
around from place to place to bargain for a cheaper
room. Understand, for him this wasn’t a question of
money…he has plenty… it was like a macho challenge to
see how far he could get the owner’s to lower their
prices…like a game and finally I just told him “do
whatever you want (he wanted me with him to translate
from Hebrew what he was saying) I am sitting in the
car with the driver”. Even the driver, a very sweet
young Indian was pissed by now as he also wanted to
eat and sleep. To make a long story short, I did not
get food until 11 PM and then the only thing available
was hot Indian food so I ate toast and rice for supper
and I am now starving in addition to everything else.
The room we have is really really nice but I don’t
know how much I will enjoy it…I think it is time for
me to end this trip.
Maybe I’ll suggest going from here straight to Jaipur
and then home to delhi. And I want to just sleep here
for 2 days and see how I feel. Hope I find a good
place at least to eat.
2:30…I read and then fell back to sleep for about an
hour but Jodhpur is an Air force training area and so
the planes woke me. Mr. Kishen, our driver, took us
to see the 2 magnificent sites in Jodhpur. The
current Maharaja’s palace which is ½ a hotel and ½ the
family still occupies. It was built in 1929. Before
that they lived in the fort which was built in 1450 or something and it is truly a wonder. Walking around was amazing and interesting and we got vibes of a long dead way of life. But what a life…such excessive riches and today I imagine the situation in India is not much different. Excesses in both poverty and wealth and a gap which can never be filled.
We changed our plans completely, as so often happens
in India. I cannot see myself spending more days on
the road even in a nice comfy AC car just to see
another desert city…I’m sure it is also amazing from
the pictures I’ve seen, but neither of us finds this
our “cup of tea”. So tomorrow, we are leaving for
Jaipur to do some shopping and ride on an elephant and
then the car will take us to delhi and hopefully the
same evening we will leave for Pathankot on the way to
McLeod. Just have to make reservations. We will be
there several days and Shlomo is planning for us to go
to Thailand but I think I might just head home. It’s
an opportunity for me but don’t know if I am up to it.
Belive it or not, I am now sitting at the swimming
pool and despite the heat here, the water is too cold
for me to go in to! But I am resting and will then go
up and finally take a bath. I hope! The last two
times I tried, once in Udaipur and once here, as soon
as the tub finally filled up and I got my lavendar in,
Shlomo just got in as if I had prepared it for him
without a single thought or question as to whether I
was planning to use the filled tub for any reason. He
thought it was very funny but I really could have
murdered him, especially when he pulled it the second
time!.
The sun will go down soon and then the mosquitoes will
set in with a passion…so I’m off.
I know now that I am not meant for this intensive type
of travel. If I could afford it, I would stay in
these towns each for 5-6 days and just relax in the
luxurious surroundings and then travel to the next
town and spend more time pampering myself. But I
can’t do it this way. Hope to rest again and eat well
up north.
This hotel also must have been something in its heyday
but it is almost completely empty now and it is quite
sad to see. The gardens, rooms, public areas, all are
quite elegant and well kept but I doubt there is much
tourism in these parts these days, or for anywhere for
that matter.
it will be as nice as here. It is actually something completely different for me traveling with someone else and the truth is I do prefer alone but it is good having him for these few weeks as I couldn’t afford to do what I am doing in this style by myself, and even with these conditions (AC car, nice hotels etc,) it is still very difficult for me. Any other trips I will make to India I will do at my own leisure pace but getting around in Rajastan is best by car and nice to stay in better accommodations.
10:30 AM. We have left and are driving through
Udaipur to go to the post office. Outside the old
city area where we were staying it is a nice modern
city with wide clean streets, no pollution, lots of
green and tended public gardens, actually seems like a
really nice place to live and there are neighborhoods
with REALLY beautiful homes like Herzlia style…walled
in with gardens peaking out, beautifully painted
stucco walls and iron grid work and VERY large…and the
clothing here of the women is amazingly colorful.
1 PM. (This was written originally, like everything
else, by hand in my notebook, and the writing is
really funny and difficult to read, all squiggly and
jumping all over the page…quite funny)
We are way out in the country on REAL Indian
roads!!…and it is as if we have come through a time
warp. We are taking lots of pics but I doubt if any
of them can describe the experience of seeing life
which has stood still in time!!
2:00 PM.. Ranakpur Jain Temple.
It is now after 3 and we have just finished lunch and
now I can write. It was impossible to write in the
car. I tried very hard to write but I couldn’t/
The countryside we saw was unbelievable. Time stands
still here literally and it is like being in a film
about country life 500 years ago. There are not even
any electrical wires. It is really as it was back in
time. And the way women work here is impossible to
describe. The loads they carry on their heads, the
field and road work they do…and at the same time
…still beautifully and colorfully dressed…don’t
understand how they can maneuver in those clothes.
Then we saw the Jain Temple which was carved from
marble 500 years ago and to my mind cannot as yet
fathom how these carvings were made. They are
amazing. 1444 pillars each one different in addition
to enormous domed roofs, recesses, cupolas, all
intricately carved with every type of design, figure,
animal, human, etc., you can imagine.
Now we have just finished lunch and I had a full buffet
of Indian food, basically a do-it-yourself Thali,
absolutely 100% not spicey. But the only people who
eat in this out of the way place are tourists and they
know how to cook for us. Quite satisfying.
Same day. Still traveling to Jodhpur…it is now 6 PM
and we are still driving for what seems like ages and
haven’t arrived yet. We stopped for toilet and chai
and guess we will arrive soon. This part of the trip
was basically boring…nothing particular to see but we
traveled on the “the highway” and went as fast as 70
kph sometimes!!!
8:30. We arrived and came first to a really fancy
hotel where I was sure we would not stay. It has a
swimming pool, fancy restaurants, enormous gardens and
each room is a separate cottage. Same level as a
fancy hotel in Eilat and just beautiful There
starting price was 3600 rupees plus tax not including
breakfast for not the best room. Shlomo got the price
of 2375 including breakfast and taxes for the BEST
room!!. So we are staying. I don’t think I will go
anywhere to site see…just sit and enjoy!!. They even
have an ayurveda massage parlor but it is very
expensive.
Our driver will pick us up at 11 AM but it seems a
shame to leave here to go see another palace! Maybe
I’ll convince shlomo to just make believe I am not
here and go on his own!
Friday, 5AM
I am soooooooooo
tired right now I am dizzy. The drive yesterday was
actually very pleasant but after what I wrote
yesterday about the nice hotel that we should have
been in at 8:30 PM, shlomo did something so “I don’t
know how to describe it” after coercing this reception
manager into giving us this good price…that the guy
basically told him to “fuck off” and leave my hotel
(in a very pleasant way of course but there was no
doubt from the look on his face what he meant). At
this point I was already dizzy from exhaustion and
hunger and the idiot of a man had me following him
around from place to place to bargain for a cheaper
room. Understand, for him this wasn’t a question of
money…he has plenty… it was like a macho challenge to
see how far he could get the owner’s to lower their
prices…like a game and finally I just told him “do
whatever you want (he wanted me with him to translate
from Hebrew what he was saying) I am sitting in the
car with the driver”. Even the driver, a very sweet
young Indian was pissed by now as he also wanted to
eat and sleep. To make a long story short, I did not
get food until 11 PM and then the only thing available
was hot Indian food so I ate toast and rice for supper
and I am now starving in addition to everything else.
The room we have is really really nice but I don’t
know how much I will enjoy it…I think it is time for
me to end this trip.
Maybe I’ll suggest going from here straight to Jaipur
and then home to delhi. And I want to just sleep here
for 2 days and see how I feel. Hope I find a good
place at least to eat.
2:30…I read and then fell back to sleep for about an
hour but Jodhpur is an Air force training area and so
the planes woke me. Mr. Kishen, our driver, took us
to see the 2 magnificent sites in Jodhpur. The
current Maharaja’s palace which is ½ a hotel and ½ the
family still occupies. It was built in 1929. Before
that they lived in the fort which was built in 1450 or something and it is truly a wonder. Walking around was amazing and interesting and we got vibes of a long dead way of life. But what a life…such excessive riches and today I imagine the situation in India is not much different. Excesses in both poverty and wealth and a gap which can never be filled.
We changed our plans completely, as so often happens
in India. I cannot see myself spending more days on
the road even in a nice comfy AC car just to see
another desert city…I’m sure it is also amazing from
the pictures I’ve seen, but neither of us finds this
our “cup of tea”. So tomorrow, we are leaving for
Jaipur to do some shopping and ride on an elephant and
then the car will take us to delhi and hopefully the
same evening we will leave for Pathankot on the way to
McLeod. Just have to make reservations. We will be
there several days and Shlomo is planning for us to go
to Thailand but I think I might just head home. It’s
an opportunity for me but don’t know if I am up to it.
Belive it or not, I am now sitting at the swimming
pool and despite the heat here, the water is too cold
for me to go in to! But I am resting and will then go
up and finally take a bath. I hope! The last two
times I tried, once in Udaipur and once here, as soon
as the tub finally filled up and I got my lavendar in,
Shlomo just got in as if I had prepared it for him
without a single thought or question as to whether I
was planning to use the filled tub for any reason. He
thought it was very funny but I really could have
murdered him, especially when he pulled it the second
time!.
The sun will go down soon and then the mosquitoes will
set in with a passion…so I’m off.
I know now that I am not meant for this intensive type
of travel. If I could afford it, I would stay in
these towns each for 5-6 days and just relax in the
luxurious surroundings and then travel to the next
town and spend more time pampering myself. But I
can’t do it this way. Hope to rest again and eat well
up north.
This hotel also must have been something in its heyday
but it is almost completely empty now and it is quite
sad to see. The gardens, rooms, public areas, all are
quite elegant and well kept but I doubt there is much
tourism in these parts these days, or for anywhere for
that matter.
posted by Jane @ 7:17 PM
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