The journey to Kumbalgarh was really nice, Rais stopped in few nice
places to take some pictures of camels, a cow powered irrigation system to
distribute water from a well etc. When we arrived at our destination, as usual,
we were surprised of the place we found ourselves, it was at the entry of the
fort in a little guest house called Lucky. The owner was a little Indian guy
with an approximate English, his house which was below the guest house, was a
bit rough. There was no ensuite toilet (it was downstairs, disgusting and full
of flies) and no shower in the bathroom. We wanted to do a little trek in the
wild life sanctuary of Kumbalgarh so Rais organised everything for us (bag
drop, trek, lunch etc) so during one hour he was talking with the owner to arrange
everything and in the end he told to the owner to take care of us really well
because we were like his brother and sister. Rais left and we had a veg lunch
prepared by the owner. After lunch the owner insisted that we come, with his
family, to a festival in a town 8 km from the hotel but we had already decided
to go to the fort and the idea of going on a motorbike with 2 Indians on Indian
road was not very appealing, so we went to the fort just next door. During the
walk Jacquie started to have a stomach ache, so we visited to fort quickly.
This fort was built by Maharaja Kumba in the 15 century on the top of a huge
hill, and the fortification was 32 km length with 360 temples and 700 canon
bunkers, it was the most important fort after Chittor. It was taken only one
time by X(Look his name on internet)X Akbar plus 2 other armies but they managed
to hold it for only 2 days.
We came back at the guest house Jacquie rested and we decided to
cancel the trek for the day after. The owner came back from the festival and
asked what we wanted to have for dinner. After a little chat with Marc the
owner presented him to all his family, he had a wife, 4 daughters and 1 little
boy. He called the restaurant Lucky after one of his daughters. He invited us
to have dinner in his house, but it was not a really good idea for the stomach
of Jacquie. Later the owner knocked on the door and asked us to come and watch
them cooking and to take pictures of them. But it was a trap to get us to eat
with them! We came downstairs to his home, the outdoor kitchen consisted of a
concrete hearth moulded out of the concrete floor. We were not really sure of
the food (because of Jacquie’s stomach) but it was the only food we could find.
The dinner was really good, they cooked it without much spice for us first and
when we finished they added spoonfuls of chilly powder to the pot. Throughout
the meal they continuously asked us if we wanted more rice, chicken chapatti,
vegetable, and we tried to eat as much as we could mot to offend them. When
they made the food spicy they forced us to try it even though we said no
several time. Whilst having dinner the dog started to growl and the guy say:”
panther! panther!”, but it’s not a threat for the village. After we finished eating
we made some excuses to go back upstairs.
The next morning after a good sleep, the owner arranged a taxi for
us to Ranakpur for 9.30am. The car was a brand new jeep of his “best friend”. The trip was
really bumpy but the scenery was really nice, dry bushland interspersed with wheat
and corn fields. People were waving at us on seeing the brand new jeep.
Arriving at the temple, after few head bumps (India is too
small for Marc!), we left our rucksack in the temple office. We had a
traditional Rajasthan lunch (really tasty) for 20 RPS, and then we could visit
the largest Jain temple in India. It
is a beautiful building with numerous small spires and one large central one,
on the roof. The style was quite different from that of the other temples
(predominantly Hindu temples) that we had seen. The building was made from
milky white marble (with a few features in sandstone for a contrasting colour)
and the entire structure was covered in intricate carvings. Inside the building
are 1444 pillars, all delicately carved with demons, dancing girls and gods,
with no two pillars being the same. One pillar was built deliberately bent
because only gods (and not humans) can achieve perfection. The deities were
depicted in a much simpler manner than in Hindu temples. The god would be
plainly, but skilfully carved, as sitting cross legged with a serene smile on
his face. Interestingly, the eyes of the gods were made from beaten silver and
glass (to show the inner beauty of the deity) and reflected the light so it
almost looked like the gods eyes were glowing in the dark, staring at you. To
sit inside certainly gave a feeling of peace, space and harmony. After a
peaceful few hours at the temple, we jumped on a series of busses to Johdpur.
