Do You Know Ricky Ponting & World's Largest Turban
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
169
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Udaipur,
Rajasthan,
India
Friday, December 12, 2008
We rolled into the "Venice Of The East", Udaipur at around 4am and after some hardcore negotiations with auto rickshaw drivers and the compulsory team meeting of drivers was had to discuss the directions of where we wanted to go, the guy had us follow him in the dark, with our packs on, on foot the wrong way around a roundabout to find his rig
Lal Ghats without fog cover
. A suspect situation which could have been a stitch up and a dangerous place to be walking in alot of traffic so we aborted him and walked away to find another guy. Then the guy comes screaming up behind us in his rickshaw and still wants the fare despite us ditching him earlier and so the fare negotiations began again. Then while driving through the city towards the Hanuman Ghat area, we were suddenly ambushed by two guys, hotel touts on a motorbike who stopped our rickshaw and try to get us to go to their hotel, we thought it was a robbery. We refused and made the driver take us to the Hanuman Ghat Hotel where we knew they would check us in at the early time. Harry was the guy who eventually woke up and let us in after we rang the bell for ten minutes. Harry has a head of thick, luxurious, oiled, Bollywood style hair and let us in only to find that two Israelis were asleep in our reserved room. We crashed out in the Maharaja room instead which was normally 500rupees a night and had it's own balcony that overlooked the Ganghour Ghats on Lake Pichola, we bargained it down to 250rupees a night, a good deal considering it had a playboy mansion sized bathroom.
We slept for awhile then woke to watch the ladies washing their laundry on the steps of the ghats then did the chillout chai on the rooftop. We met a guy from Poland, a guy from Scotland, two Aussies and a Frenchman. We also met Munchi Baba who is a delightful and funny man with a very long, combed, red henna dyed beard and was wearing a spotless white kaftan with matching Kufi muslim hat when we met him, he was also a big, sleazy liar and tried to scam us a couple of times with prices for things
poster for Octopussy movie
. The hotel chill out is good and they have good pulley system to move items like eggs from rooftop to rooftop or to pull things up from ground level below. This saves anyone having to climb up and down stairs and promotes friendliness between neighbouring buildings. There's a hardworking child who works the breakfast at our hotel carrying chai cups around. I gave him a good tip and a love letter on a napkin telling him he is a good worker, he was well happy.Tourism numbers are down in Udaipur and the vendors say it is because of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. We're more scared of being hit by a vehicle of some kind than terrorists. We visited the Jagdish temple in the middle of town after receiving some toothless smiles from the warm faces of the Sadhus sitting on the steps leading up to the shrines. Some were crocheting the muti-coloured woolly baba bags they carry all their possessions in and some of the more photogenic and business minded ones were posing for tourists photos then taking donations. One guy was putting his holy marks on his forehead using a hand held mirror to apply the paint from his fingers. In the temple was
a black stone image of Vishnu as the Lord Of The Universe and a shiny brass image of Guruda covered in garlands of flowers. There was some good carvings of elephants and exotic dancing ladies decorating the exterior.
Munshi Baba had hooked us up with a good rickshaw driver that would take us to enjoy an Indian sunset at Sajjan Garh (Monsoon Palace), a fairy tale house built by Maharaja Sajjan Singh right on the very top of a mountain in the Aravalli Hills
the ladies
. There are many places in Udaipur which were used in the filming of the James Bond film Octopussy and this once glamorous house was one of them. The palace has a tower you can climb and once up the top of it, you can look over the hills and pretend you are Rapunzel letting down her golden hair, like i said, fairy tale house. The views from inside the palace were good although there wasn't any furnishings. There were lots of little squirrels and we saw monkeys playing around the site. We watched one sitting as though in meditation as the sun went down. I also saw a beaver, the animal that is. I also hope to see a sloth bear and an Indian porcupine whilst in India. Our driver was keen to hit the road after the sun was gone because it seems all the drivers have a race down the steep mountain roads every day. Our guy gave us a good adrenalin rush as he glided around corners and floored it past other rickshaws. Not sure if he won that day but he sure gave it all his effort and got us to the Rooftop Restaurant in time for us to do the daggy tourist thing and watch the Octopussy film that appears to be shown in all the budget restaurants and hotels every night. There's alot happening in Udaipur off the ground level and up on the rooftops. Our restaurant which boasted the highest rooftop in town had been showing the same movie at 7:00pm every night for 18 years. We felt sorry for the waiters.We ate a good quality Rajastan thali, curry and a good slice of chocolate cake (no bhang)
tiger trapping cage
. Octopussy (1983) is the thirteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. In the film, Bond is assigned the task of following a general stealing jewels and relics from the Russian government. This leads him to a wealthy Afghan prince, Kamal Khan, and his associate, Octopussy. Bond uncovers a plot to force disarmament in Europe with the use of a nuclear weapon. It was quite a laugh. During dinner and the movie we had a good view of the town's centerpiece, the exclusive Lake Palace Hotel, a floating palace which was used in the film.Udaipur is a romantic city with a certain charm. We checked out the Lal Ghat area and had a closer look in at the dhobi (clothes washing) area we can see from our room. Ladies were hard at it scrubbing and spanking their laundry with wooden paddles. We've been hand washing our clothes in hotel room sinks these days and this method works quite well in India. Washing machines are not available. Somehow all the school children in India leave for school looking immaculate with flawless, clean and pressed uniforms, socks and hair oiled and styled to perfection. Some of these kids live in filthy conditions but the mothers always get them off to school in top notch style. They put us in our backpacker threads to shame. I tried on some horrendous silk dresses and we bought produce from a guy with a shop the size of a closet. The sign on the shop says "Small shop, many things"
puppeteer
. Nice one.We ran into Micheal from Australia who we had first met at the Shamanism Conference in Iquitos in Peru, small world. I had my palm read by one of the Rajput-Moghul style miniature painting artists that Udaipur is famous for. Apparently i must "think less, try thinking less". Well, that was a good start and the whole path was right there. Then, "you will have a girl child and a boy child, if you try for number three you will die". Also, i will build a house and travel forever. Well, if i am always travelling then what would be the necessity of a house? "If your work is in travel then you will be enjoy and your husband travel forever too, he will give you money for you travel". I have conical fingers like his so my subject is Art. I must wear red coral for confidence. I thought it was stitch up and he was going to sell me the necessary coral, he didn't but he did ask me to buy one of his intricate paintings of Ganesh that he had lovingly crafted onto an insect-eaten-the-veins-out-of-it leaf. I gave him money (200 rupees) instead which he immediately gave to someone in the street to donate to God.
We visited the grand City Palace and Museums which were built by various Maharajas (great kings). to use your camera cost an extra 200 rupees so we just did the sneaky sniper shots when the guardians weren't looking. The highly extravagent castle was mammoth and seemed like an endless maze of rooms and corridors, most of it is made from marble and it's decorated with paintings, mirrorwork and tiles
Kate with world's largest wok pots
. There's one room where some random couple who have the largest collection of Ganesha (hindu elephant deity) statues keep their loot on display. There was even Ganeshas dressed as the Indian cricket team. A little bit creepy and obsessive i thought. It took us a while to get around because there was schools of girls more interested in us and our clothes than the palace itself and we had to stop to be in many photographs. People often stop us to have their children photographed with us. It's payback for us taking all the sniper shots in Morocco. There's a cool tiger catching cage outside the entrance to the palace that was primo to get inside for a photo. We also went to the government museum which had an ancient taxidermist kangaroo?? which the guards were very excited to show us once they knew our country of origin. We are so happy to see a kangaroo stuffed. There's a set of siamese cows, a scary looking monkey holding a lamp shade and lots of knives and swords but not much else. On sunset we visited a really nice venue called Bagore ki-Haveli which was built in the 18th century and sits on the waters edge overlooking the lake palace. We were allowed to run around peeping into some of the 138 rooms without a guide. Just us and the precious treasures in a great big house. There were some cool rooms like the musical instrument room, the utensil room, an art gallery and a strange room filled with world famous monuments carved from white polystyrene. The highlight for us was the room that contained the world's biggest turban and we had fun doing Israeli tourist poses with it
a maharaja
. Later we returned to the house for a great Rajastan classical dance performance by a group called Dharohar. The costumed performers did their thing in the upper courtyard of the house and acts included women twirling in saris or swinging instruments, carrying up to nine water pots on their heads while walking on broken glass and also a puppeteer from Jaipur who worked traditional puppets like the pair i bought in Pushkar. The best part was when he made the male puppet take his head off and dance whilst carrying his head in the air or on his feet. The group had three musicians who sang and played tabla. Outside the haveli is an old chariot made from iron, wood, bamboo and leather that used to be pulled through the streets by a team of two elephants.Another good thing we did was go to the see the Maharaja's Vintage Car Collection, he has fantastic taste in cars and is quite the glamour man. There were 22 vehicles housed in individual garages presented in a horseshoe. A guardian opened each door one at a time, every time building suspense and then unveiling another funky automobile. There was a 1934 Rolls Royce and a 1938 Cadillac plus Morris Minors, Chevy trucks, old Fords, hunting safari and polo Jeeps, solar powered rickshaws (a very good invention) and the Phantom that was used in the film Octopussy. The town just keeps on cashing in on that one. I was keen to take the Rolls Royce for spin and particularly liked the leather picnic trunk on the back. I also had my eye one of the queen's thrones and some trunks once owned by royalty that we saw in an antique shop on the way to the cars
the friendly sadhu
. I'm also a big fan of the giant woks they use on the street. They remind me of the pots that cannibals would boil people up in after kidnapping them and carrying them in nets on bamboo poles through the jungle. Now, how to ship a throne to Australia? I fully believe i was an Indian princess in a past life because i have de-ja-vu alot here. We were hard up finding any unique places to eat and many had the same menu (with the Octopussy film) The second night we ate at the Sunrise Restaurant where we had home cooked thali and onion pakora (deep fried in batter). We also drank chai from clay pots served on cute beatrix Potter saucers at the Buddha Cafe. Often when you're trying to relax and have a conversation in India, a local person will come and either butt in or sit very close to you and listen to your talking. It's a bit of a nuisance. Waiters often do it and it gets me because you must be polite and include them. This way we never get to discuss our plans or reflect on the day because we are busy making conversation with the locals and it's often the same questions we are asked by them or signing autographs (not joking) or having our picture taken on every 12-18 year old boy's mobile phone camera. We do love to chat with them but would also like some time alone without having to retreat to our hotel room. It's hard being famous.
We had enjoyed Udaipur but were also keen to get off the tourist trail a bit and get amongst it. So, we're heading into the city of Ahmedadbad (Amdavad).
Friendly facts for today:
Five weeks in India and we haven't been sick.
Indians are very straightforward and will listen in on a personal conversation, stand in your space, stare at you and butt in at any time they want to
murals
. No subject is really taboo.Some more questions we have been asked by friendly Indians are:
where are you from?
then, Do you know Claire?
What about Sarah, she's in business in Australia?
Do you live in a house in Australia?
Who is the best singer in Australia?
Do your parents approve of you travelling?
What do you like to eat?
Are you a Christian?
Are you a Hindu?
Are you a veg or non-veg?
Some frequently asked questions are:
What is your good name?
Do you study in Australia?
Do you know Ricky Ponting?
How about Shane Warne?
Where are you staying, which hotel?
Is it your first time in India?
How long will you stay?
What is your feelings (on India)?
What is your profession?
How much money do you earn?
How old are you? and the most popular question of all,
Are you married? then why not?
For the last question we always reply with a "not yet" otherwise they think there is something seriuosly wrong with us because all Indian women are married very young.
Nadine had been told she looks like Ricky Ponting and i am Kate who looks like like Kate Winslet.
There isn't much Indian people won't do in the street in public, from farting unashamedly without any reaction to shitting to cutting their toenails, it's a wide open, non censored look at humanity, i like the rawness and truth in it. Go you good things.
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
