Udaipur, totally different to what we had seen previously! Beautiful lakes, grand palaces with fantastic wall decorations, less traffic and people and not everyone is trying to sell you something. In fact we've made some Indian friends; one a maker of books and another is a student of the amazing art of miniatures (paintings with such fine detail that you almost need a magnifying glass to see and they're only allowed to paint for one hour a day to save eyes and because of concentration).
As one of Phil's photos shows, our hotel has a lovely garden backing onto the walls of the city palace - very restfull - and we enjoy dining on the rooftop. (I think the garden is unusual for most Indian houses.)
The gardens in Udaipur are magnificent; most were designed by some Maharaja for a wife or handmaidens, beautifully laid out with fountains, pergolas, pools and paths. As it is very warm here we have been making the most of any stray spray.
Today we teemed up with an English guy and hired a vehicle (a proper car!) to drive to an amazing fort at the top of a hill in the Aravelli ranges. The hills around here remind us a little of Alice as it is so dry but really unlike Alice in that they're much higher, there is evidence of man made walls - either huge fortifications or dry rock walls for farming and there is often water in the rivers in the valley. On the way to the fort we passed continuous farming in the valleys of wheat, cattle, goats and not sure what else. There are no riches here, with simple brick and render houses, washing on a rock by the river, cattle walking round in circles to operate a water wheel, people hand threshing wheat, or herding goats along the road. Many of the married women wear huge decorative nose rings and cover their heads with a scarf (part of the dress or saree) when we go by.
After visiting the fort we drove on to an incredible marble temple, very cool, very intricately carved and also very 'holy'. The Hindus have over 3 600 gods, 36 of these are the main ones that people seem to choose from as their favourite to worship. This particular temple is a Jain one although I haven't quite fathomed the relationship between Jainism and Hinduism - there is one, I know there is.
Tomorrow we're off with Dave, our English friend, to Mt Abu the honeymoon capital of Rajasthan.
