(Relative) Peace and Quiet

Some of the beautiful, bright saris

We decided to keep heading south into Rajasthan to visit Udaipur. Again, getting there was an experience. We took a 10-hour overnight sleeper bus. The sleeper was an area above the seats --about 3 inches too short for Chris and a bit too nasty for Alex.  We pushed down the dirty blankets, wiped the vinyl with toilet paper, then wiped it again with hand sanitizer, and finally used papers and a magazine on the pillow area. There wasn't much sleep that night.

But the three days we've spent in Udaipur have been great. The city is small, compact, and situated on a lake. The best part is that unlike the last 2 places we've been, it's far cleaner and has hardly any traffic (and the associated incessant honking and pollution). The city is made up of narrow alleys and we can walk basically everywhere.  It's built on 2 sides of Lake Pichola, a man-made lake with 2 beautiful palaces in the middle (one was used for filming Octopussy).  The views from the many roof-top restaurants are incredible.  We spent one memorable evening enjoying drinks on the lake and watching the sunset.  Really, the name given to Udaipur as "the most romantic city in India" seems to fit.

Sunset on the lake

 

A nighttime view of the City Palace from dinner

We've been able to relax, visiting the bazaars (Alex bought a simple ring to wear as a wedding band) and the City Palace. The Raj family still lives there and we saw the prince a couple times (always on his cell phone) and the king as he left the palace for a procession. We've also had some great times getting off the beaten path -- visiting residential areas, sitting with a group of men to play cards (understanding the game was hopeless), meals at non-touristed restaurants, and spending time in a large park that isn't mentioned in our guidebook.

Ring shopping

 

Watching a confusing card game...it seemed to have no rules.

We're also here in the midst of a 9-night festival, which has been very fun. The nights are filled with dancing, music, and performances.  Last night's dance was huge: it filled the length of a main street with 2 circles of dancers.  The women rotated around the inside and men around the outside, all hitting sticks together on the same beats.  Today, the last day, we've seen truckloads of people with effigies of the gods and covered in colored powder sing and yell their way to the lake.  There they take the gods to the water and dump them, sometimes off a boat.  Everyone is extremely happy and there's a lot of celebrating with dancing and banging drums and firecrackers. Alex, especially, has loved this having really wanted to see a festival here.

Another cool experience we've had was taking yoga classes.  They're run in a small room by a teacher who has a nice balance of pushing us and understanding that we suck at yoga.  Although it's hard we both liked it a lot and Alex is definitely interested in pursuing it more in the future.  We might try it again in Varanasi.

We continue to take in the sights and sounds and adjust to life on the road.  There are obviously some things that don't work out according to plan but usually it turns out fine.  It's also great to have so much flexibility--Udaipur being a great example of that.