Well Amrita and I departed the 50 degree heat of
Jodhpur last week and headed straight for the cool and balmy clean air of
Mount Abu. It is Rajasthan's only hill station at a height of 1200m and it is
totally gorgeous.. It lies on the boarder of Rajasthan and Gujarat. We dropped
15 degrees of temperature ascending the mountain pass which is the
stereotypical snaking mountain round with a 27km journey from the train
station with the obligatory sheer drops on
one side.. It was absolutely
heavenly to arrive there and be able to breathe again and in the evenings it
was beautifully cool...It is a real spot for Indian newly weds and
honeymooners and although a little bit cheesy with ice cream stands and tacky
swan boats on the lake it is a great place to relax and chill a while.
We found a great guest house on the edge of the town and got rooms for 80 rupees (about GBP 1.00). The best thing about it was that it was also quite a family place so we got to meet some families and their kids in the parks and even more of a bonus was that for once the Indian tourists got a whole lot more hassle than we ever did!!! Bliss! We did not however escape the usual "Please one photo sister" etc....but what can you do when you're a celebrity ???
The guy whose family run the guest house was a really kind bloke and spoke amazing English... would you believe there is an Irish school there that was once run by Irish teachers, hence his great English. He was a great source of information about the area, the Crocodile Dundee of Mt Abu.
We did the local Indian bus tour that cost us 36
rupees for a six hour trip and we went around all the usual temples, forts and
the Spiritual University (more of that later) and then we climbed
to the
highest point of the mountain and took in the spectacular views from up
there... Amrita and I had previously thought we'd sign up at the spiritual
university for a couple of days to get a full on dose of Om shanthi, but after
a brief look around, decided to bail on that idea. I think what swung it was
the getting up at 3.30 a.m. to go charging up a mountain for meditation and
brekkie wasn't until around 11 a.m. and frankly we weren't that desperate to
find our inner light and the supreme light!!! And although relatively harmless
it is a sort of sect and we didn't fancy it so much after talking to the
people who ran it... hmmmm! So we chilled out and did our own Om Shanthi by
way of sitting on the rooftop of our hotel and talking to Lalit (Crocodile
Dundee) and eating ice cream!
Lalit took us on a mountain walk one evening before sunset and he took us to the places the tourists don't know about as he knows the mountains so well. This however entailed crawling up the side of the mountain on a virtually non existent track and chucking in a spot of scrabbling up rocks to get to the top... and all this achieved in my flip flops... not recommended. Lalit kept on taking the piss out of me climbing in my flip flops (which he earlier sanctioned as perfectly ok footwear!!) and saying "And you're gonna do base camp there's no hope.. I did point out to him that I hadn't the slightest intention of trekking to Everest in my flip flops and this momentarily harnessed his jokes!!! We watched the sun go down from the top of the mountain and then made our way back. The previous evening we had seen a bear on the mountain side via binoculars but sadly it didn't put in an appearance for us nor did the mountain leopard.. thankfully I guess. Must have heard my flip flops and squeals and done a runner!!! We could see down the mountain to the crowds amassing at Sunset point the local evening hotspot and felt eternally grateful to be seeing it from our own secret place! There is also a secret lake in the mountains somewhere that we could have gone for a swim but we didn't have time as we left on the bus the next morning for the totally uneventful 5 hour journey to Udaipur where we now reside. It was great to spend a few days there and anyone who is in this neck of the woods should definitely check it out!
So now we are in Udaipur, the Venice of the East, and to be fair haven't done very much except lounge around the pool and swim and take a few walks in the evenings. Tomorrow we start with gusto on the tour of Udaipur and we also want to do one of the local Indian cooking courses while we are here so that will take up a few hours of each day. And of course the must do in Udaipur is to go to the Lake Palace hotel that floats in the middle of the lake and have dinner, which is going to cost us an entire week's and then some budget... But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!!! The other must do in Udaipur is the bhang lassis and watching Octopussy in some cheesy backpackers so we fully intend to participate in the experience and I feel a few "Robbie photos" coming on.... We met an English guy called Neil in Abu and he arrived at our hotel yesterday so we're kinda hanging out with him for a few days and then sadly I'll be saying cheerie oh to Amrita and Neil and heading off on my journey to Nepal. Amrita flies home from Delhi a couple of days after me so we may be able to catch up in Delhi around that time which will be cool. It's amazing how many people you actually bump into again even in a country the size of India....
After Udaipur I am bailing on India and probably cutting out Varanasi as it's gonna be 2 days on a train, (why is this country so huge???) plus a few days there and then another 24 hours to cross the boarder and get to Kathmandu.. instead I am thinking of booking a flight to Kathmandu and returning to Delhi to get my flight to Hong Kong mid June. Having already put it back I cannot delay it any further and I really need a good three/four weeks in Nepal to get around and of course see Everest....
So that's about all for now folks, there will be some more photos on the website shortly and will let you all know when they are there... Hope you Guerns had a fab Lib Day (any goss I should know about?)
Loads lurve
Lisa/ Lillie
xxx