Boys night in, Udaipur
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Udaipur,
India
Monday, June 9, 2008
Udaipur was an experience and a half for mesen. It started with an
overnight train (im getting the hang of these things now...dump your
bag under the chairs and chain it to the chair leg...!) which arrived
at 6am, no prepaid booth at the station, at least it wasnt manned at
this time in the morning so i was reduced to some good old fashioned
bargaining.
This normally involves walking out onto any street or public walkway
where there is a moment of blissful silence, it then registers in the
wallah's brain receptors via their eyes that i am infact, a european
white as a sheet tourist, pupils are sure enough replaced with $$$$
signs and once that moment of silence ends it replaced by pleas and shouts of
"SIR SIR FOR YOU SPECIAL PRICE TAXI COME COME SIT GIVE YOUR BAG SIR
COME SIT" along with dramatic hand signals and waving.
The learning curve i have experienced here is akin to a sheer drop, its
almost like being a baby again, learning to crawl and talk and walk in
a differant way. Generally with taxi's the best way to get a local
price is the prepaid booth as a meter charge is open to intrepretation
or multiplying the fare at the drivers discreetion. Suffice to say,
remembering that it is infact your business that they want, it is often
very easy to gauge a few prices, laugh them off and then walk away as
they slash the prices accordingly.
However in Udaipur fate would lead me to meet with a chap called
"manu". Manu stood by his autorickshaw silently and just gave me a
friendly wave, aha bingo i thought, threw my stuff into his rickshaw
and away we went, manu (if your ever in Udaipur, or are inspired to
visit there...it was the setting for the film octopussy which is shown
on most hotel rooftops nightly....infact every night!) was a regal old
fashioned gent.
Firstly having recommended me a top class affordable hotel with a
rooftop cafe with views over the ghat (lakeview hotel for those that
are interested) at 250 rupees per night (or 3 pound fifty) i took him
on as my guide, not only did he insist on buying me chai whenever i
wanted, charged me local prices as apposed to the usual inflated ones
that most drivers try on you, he also showed me the sights of the city
of Udaipar which you can hopefully see in the thumbnails dotted around
this entry.
The night before i left the owner abu and manu called me over to their
table as with most nights when i wasnt talking to other travellers or
reading, it turns out they were holding a monthly meeting to discuss
"social" matters, business matters etc with other prominent men of
the town, sure enough one by one they arrived bringing presents and offering, the
highlight being a two litre bottle of scotch.
This as it turns out was the catalyst for debate, it was a glorified drunken
mothers meeting with plenty of kingfishers and watered down whisky
which covered everything from commission rates from various businesses
like the tourist buses to shops, fruit and veg stalls, rice and grain
etc to who owed who money, the debates would often go off on a tagent
towards social issues or talk of god as if to justify a decision.
It was funny to note that often or not, marriages and similar
arrangements were agreed with the casual sipping of a drink or
inhalation of a hookah, whilst the bargaining of about 120-180 rupee
(two quid) turned into shouting matches damning shiva ohm and various
other gods to come to an agreement.
My role in the meeting was established just as everyone arrived, there
were lots of handshakes and the hotel owner introduced me first in
hindu and then translated "i told them your here as a guest, your job
is to tell jokes when it gets too serious". The hotel owner got us off
the mark with the general scheme for things on a comedic basis and as
you can imagine the majority of the jokes are not for repeating on a
public website.
That brought Udaipur nicely to a hazy close as i retired to my room
drunk on new found friendship, the next day id get a tourist bus to
pushkar via the transport hub town Amjer.
