The Final Adventure - 14th Stop: Jodhpur

When we were making out our list of destinations, long before the trip had started, we were humming and hawing about whether to include Jodhpur at all as we had heard mixed reviews. We decided to give it a day in the end as it was en route anyway, and it had a couple of things worth seeing. Really we had very little expectations, and I was actually wondering how I’d write a blog entry about a single day in a mediocre town... I needn't have worried, Jodhpur was absolutely incredible! It really was! A dark horse if ever there was one! We only had a day here but it was probably the best day of the trip so far!

I mentioned last time around that we were taking a night bus here from Udaipur, certainly not ideal, but there's no train line between the two cities, and we didn't want to waste a day by travelling during sunlight. We had little choice, so we booked two sleeper tickets, leaving Udaipur at 9pm and arriving in Jodhpur at 5am - a little early in the morning, but this was actually the latest time we could get.

At this point, I just want to say that we've taken night buses before in Laos and China, and they were actually quite nice. But we just knew that India was going to be a different story...

So, we arrived at the travel office at around 8:30pm and waited for our bus. Maybe 20 minutes later, we were called up to the main desk and informed that our bus would be delayed by 3 hours, and that we could either wait for it, or get a seat (that’s seat, not bed) on a bus that was leaving right away with a different company. Of course, we’d have to pay for the priviledge to downgrade. It’s one of those situations where you’re really at the mercy of the people in charge and even though the whole thing stank of bullshit, there wasn’t much we could do. Even now, I wonder what other options there were in the situation... I guess we could've called his bluff and said we'll wait for our bus (if it even existed). The problem was, a) we didn’t want to wait 3 hours in their dusty roadside office, and b) we certainly didn’t want to wait 3 hours with the strong suspicion that no bus would actually show up. So, we just had to swallow the crap they fed us, pay the money, get on the new bus and try (largely in vain) to get some sleep.

Fast forward a bit and we're abruptly woken at 2:30am, apparently we're in Jodhpur, even though we're not due to arrive for another 2 and a half hours. We seem to be the only ones getting off here too. Again, this is another situation where your fate is really in the hands of these dodgy operators. We couldn’t really say “I don’t believe you, we’re staying on the bus”, so again, we just had to trust them and stepped off, not at a bus station or anything, just by the side of the road. We really could’ve been anywhere in India at that stage and we wouldn’t have known any better. 

There was one rickshaw waiting there as we alighted - a stroke of good fortune, or was the night about to get a whole lot worse? Well, again, we didn't really have much choice (or much bargaining power), so we negotiated a price to the old town. The fact that he acknowledged that we were actually in Jodhpur was a relief at least, he then took out his phone and showed me a message, with my name on it! As it turns out, our guesthouse had paid him to collect us at 5am, so I guess he was just driving around, looking for passengers until then, and he found us! Double phew - we were in the right city, and more importantly, this guy wasn’t just some late-night opportunist, ready to drag us off to his rape cave!

Even though we weren’t due to arrive at the hostel til after 5, we showed up before 3am, and in fairness they couldn’t have been nicer about it. All of their rooms were full but they gave us blankets and pillows, and let us sleep on a couch in the reception area until the morning, free of charge! We were just glad to be somewhere safe and lying down!

So, Jodhpur started with a pretty topsy-turvey entrance, but after that it was all smooth sailing! I mean, just look at the first thing we saw the next morning when we climbed the stairs for breakfast:

(Frankie not included)

Sorry for the long-winded intro, I promise the rest of the entry will be just like Jodhpur - picture perfect! We only really saw a couple of things, Mehrangarh Fort being the main focus of our attentions, but that alone can easily hold its own up there with the best things we've ever seen. And as you can see from above, our guesthouse (Hem Guesthouse - they deserve a mention for being so nice) had incredible views of it from their rooftop restaurant. And if you're thinking it looks slightly familiar, you might just recognise it from The Dark Knight Rises.

And if you haven't seen The Dark Knight Rises, then congratulations! Your life is 3 hours better off!

Our guesthouse was located in the old part of the city which, like Chittorgarh (if you can remember from the previous entry) is quite blue! It was a great area to stay in too as you really felt like you were stepping back in time, walking these narrow, winding streets, up to this grand fortress, looming overhead.

Some places we've been on our travels look lovely and pretty from the outside, but fall on their faces once you step through the gates. Not so with Mehrangarh. We've also come across a few sites where guide books tell you to spend half a day, and we're often out the gap in less than an hour, but again, not this place.

Why? Well, first of all, the fort is beautiful; on the inside, on the outside, views of it, views from it - everywhere you look, you can't go wrong!

You even get a free audio guide with your entrance ticket which was interesting in parts, plus you could just skip anything not worth learning about anyway. At the very least, it leads you around the grounds so you don't miss anything. And well, it's free!

The fort also had a few quirky little attractions to make your visit even more memorable, and you know how much we love things like this! The first was a palm reader. I'd like to say I went in there with an open mind, but I didn't, and this experience only served to wedge it shut even more. I'm still glad we did it though! He started with me, reeling off generic statements and character traits that could apply to anyone, 

"Oh, I see here you like to travel...?"

"Well, I'm in fucking India, you dipshit!"

He even used a magnifying glass and a protractor at one stage because, of course, this is a real science. He then moved on to Aisling and again said nothing to set him apart from a tabloid horoscope. He even said she'd do very well in her career at the age of 24... Now, if you're psychic, you should at least have a rough idea of someone's age, and if not, overestimate surely, say 34 or 44! But that's not even the worst part; we wrote down our dates of birth at the very start! Not only was he atrocious at cold reading, he doesn't even have a grasp of basic arithmetic!

But as I said, check him out! It's worth the fee for the laughs alone!

After that thoroughly life changing experience, we actually had a thoroughly life changing experience! Well, if not life changing, then certainly life enhancing. It was... yes, I think I'm going to say it, the best thing we've done on all of our travels. All of them. Ever. Mehrangarh Fort is amazing enough as it is, but do you know what would make it even better, correction, do you know what would make absolutely anything even better? Ziplining. I’d zip from one pile of dirt to another and be thrilled with myself, but throw in the simply astounding beauty of this place and you’ve got a match made in heaven.

It's with a company called Flying Fox, and there are 6 ziplines overall, taking you around the outer walls and giving you views of the fort and the Blue City that you otherwise wouldn't see. It really was spectacular and we loved every second of it. And even better was that we were the only two people there, so we didn't have to wait in line, or have other people in the way of our photos - the whole thing was just perfect!

We made our video at the end point too, which is worth watching simply just to see the fort in real time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvaexLioL1k

We did a couple of other things on our one and only day in town, like the nearby White Temple, and the Royal Palace, which were both nice and all, but Mehrangarh was where the action was at!

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As I mentioned, we only had a day in town, but maybe that's why we loved it so much. One day, full to the brim with excellence, as opposed to maybe three days that were all quite nice. And to top it all off, we ended the day as we started it, in awe, watching the sun set over the fort on our very own rooftop restaurant.

The next morning, in fact, very early the next morning, we were on the move again, and thankfully back on the rails, as we made our way to the desert city of Jaisalmer. See you then!

The Final Adventure - 13th Stop: Udaipur

Udaipur, aka The White City, aka The City of Lakes, aka Venice of the East (it has a lot of nicknames), was stop number 13 of our final travel stint in Asia; unlucky for some, but certainly not for us! It was a lovely little town, with a nice relaxed atmosphere, where you could easily let a week slip by without even noticing. We didn't really have that luxury, but we lapped up the three days we did spend here. There's just something about being by the waterside that's good for the soul.

We arrived in Udaipur after a quick flight up from Mumbai. Although the flight itself was only an hour long, the whole thing added up to four and a half hours door to door, between getting to and from the airports, waiting around for our flight itself, check-in, baggage etc. On reflection, night trains are probably the better option of the two, even though they take much longer, you actually do get a good sleep, and the train stations are usually very central, as opposed to airports. In fact, as soon as we arrived at our accommodation, the first thing we did was take a nap for four hours!

So, the day finally started for us that afternoon as we took a wander around town, first paying a visit to the nearby Jagdish Temple, which was quite nice, but only really notable for this statue!

I don't know how anyone can keep a straight face while praying to this guy. He looks like Phil Lynott!

Afterwards, we walked to the main feature of the Udaipur landscape - the City Palace, only to be told by one of the security guards that it was closed for the Prince's Wedding! That sounded like a pretty made-up excuse to us. You get things like this sometimes, where people will tell you something is closed, and then a waiting rickshaw driver will swoop in and offer to take you somewhere else instead. We were having none of it, so walked around to a different gate... and then another... and as it turned out, the Prince actually was getting married! Oops! Glad we didn't scale the wall and accidentally crash the wedding in our disbelief!

And because of the wedding, the Palace was closed for two whole days! It's a good thing we had rationed ourselves three here, or we would've been cursing our bad luck.

We were in no rush anyway, which was good because it's not the kind of town to be in a rush. We just sauntered about to nowhere in particular. We did see a hotel advertising an Octopussy Show every evening. Kinda strange that they would be showing any James Bond movie, never mind the same one every night! It was only later on when we saw a few other places offering the same thing that we suspected that there must be something about this movie that we’re missing... (either that, or we complete misunderstood the phrase ‘Octopussy Show'!).

As it turns out, it was completely innocent and the movie Octopussy was actually filmed here in Udaipur! We’ve never seen it so it didn’t really ring any bells. In fact, we still haven't seen it, so even now it's not really familiar!

We finished the afternoon with a boat tour of the lake for sunset, which would be a fitting end to any day, but it wasn't over yet! We hold Udaipur in such high regard, partly due to the lovely scenery and stress-free ambiance, but another major factor in our top class stay here was the food! We pretty much camped ourselves in the one restaurant for our entire stay in town, and I'd do it all over again! Big recommendation for the Jagat Niwas Hotel (we didn't even stay there!), by far the nicest food of the trip and well up there with the nicest ever. And the view takes some beating too!

We've been very good so far on this trip for eating local food, something that we probably don’t do often enough on our travels, but it certainly helps that we love Indian food anyway! 

On our second day, we went on a little excursion to Chittargarh Fort, about 2 and a half hours away by bus. It was definitely worth the trip though to, what is, the biggest fort in India, and because of its size, we hired a rickshaw driver to chauffeur us around the grounds for the afternoon.

The fort itself was very nice, and it also afforded great views over the city below which, like Jodhpur (our next stop after this), has a huge number of blue buildings, making for quite a surreal cityscape.

Day 3, our last in town, and the royal wedding was finally over, so we got to see the inner workings of the City Palace. We spent the morning walking around inside and it's actually very nice with great views of the city too.

 

It doesn't look like an Indian city at all really, does it? Far too classy!

I have to say, even though Udaipur was super, I think a lot of that was down to where we were staying, and I don’t mean our accommodation (which was also very nice), but the area of Lal Ghat – a quiet cul-de-sac that leads onto the lakefront. It had a variety of cool little cafes and shops, a good neighbourhood to be in, and away from any bit of hustle and bustle in town. I think the same was true for Mumbai, in terms of where in the city we were staying, and I think something like that (especially if you only have a couple of days in town) can have a huge influence on your experience and your lasting impression. 

Being honest, it’s probably true for one of our least favourite destinations (and one of our first too), Phuket. The area where we were situated wasn’t nice at all and it gave us a very bad opinion of the island as a whole, which is perhaps a bit unfair on reflection. Maybe we’ll have to go back again some time to give it a second chance...

Manila is still hell on Earth though, no second chances there!

Back to Udaipur, and next up was the Monsoon Palace which, as a building, isn't at all impressive and completely rundown, but it’s located on a cliff that overlooks the whole of the city, so it's definitely worth visiting for the incredible views. It’s actually in some animal reserve park (although we didn’t really see any animals...) and at first we thought that our driver had taken us to the wrong place. But once you buy your ticket at the entrance, you get in a jeep and it takes you up the long and winding hills to the palace and viewpoint.

When we came back down, we went on the boat tour again, as it was cheap, right next to us, and we had the evening to kill anyway before we left that night. It was good to see it in full daylight too, as well as just sunset.

And here's another video diary from the roof of our hotel, another spot with lovely views!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y129Pd4R0mU

We certainly kept ourselves busy anyway until it was time to leave that night, not by train, but by bus; our first (and last) night bus in India. We had kinda been dreading it ever since we arrived in the country, and for good reason as things panned out! Our next blog will be from Jodhpur (if indeed we made it there in one piece). You'll just have to tune in next time to find out!

The Final Adventure - 12th Stop: Mumbai

Mumbai, the next phase of our Indian initiation. The majority of the time we've spent so far in the country has been in smaller towns, with Bangalore being our only real taste of big city life. We were pleasantly surprised with our time there, much different to what we were expecting, but now we were about to step into a different league. This time we were anticipating absolute chaos; the real, crazy India that you see on TV, some Slumdog Millionaire type shit! As our train pulled into Mumbai CST, we braced ourselves for utter bedlam... but there wasn't. In fact, it was actually quite nice. Very nice in fact. Architecturally, it’s probably one of the most classically beautiful cities you’ll see; with countless old, colonial style buildings that greeted us right as we got off the train.

And these aren't palaces or forts or anything important like that; these are just everyday buildings like train stations and post offices. We were really taken aback by it.

The strangest thing though wasn't the beauty of the place, but the relative calmness. Of course it’s a huge city with over 12 million people, so you’re always going to have traffic and beeping and general noise, but it wasn't at all the picture that I had in my head. I can concede a large part of that was probably the area we were staying, in the vicinity of Mumbai University and the High Court, so it was probably a bit more of an upscale neighbourhood. But I can only give my opinion on what we saw, and what we saw was lovely!

We arrived in Mumbai after another very straight-forward night train. They really are the best way to travel in India, just make sure to book well in advance. If you are planning on visiting here, cleartrip.com will be your best friend when it comes to transport.

It was 7:30 when we got to the hostel and check in was at 12pm, so we had a few hours of waiting around in the corridor til then. Still, we had been without internet for the past few days in Aurangabad so we had plenty to catch up on. After we got our room and got settled, we just went for a general wander around the neighbourhood, admiring the loveliness of it all. We also paid a visit to the Gandhi Museum, housed in the building where he lived for 17 years. 

We're not too big on museums, but this one was quite good (and quite small, which helped). Probably the most notable thing in the whole place was a letter he wrote to Hitler. It's just strange to think that this pair, who are arguably two of the most influential people in history, had some sort of correspondence. (It's like seeing celebrities tweeting at each other!). It's even strange to think that they were around in the same era, such is the complete contrast in their respective impacts on the world.

Above is said letter, although it's probably too small to read, so here is the transcript:

Dear friend,

Friends have been urging me to write to you for the sake of humanity. But I have resisted their request, because of the feeling that any letter from me would be an impertinence. Something tells me that I must not calculate and that I must make my appeal for whatever it may be worth.

It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to a savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success? Any way I anticipate your forgiveness, if I have erred in writing to you.

I remain,

Your sincere friend
M. K. Gandhi

As an aside, Gandhi is pretty huge here in India (probably unsurprising), and I think there seems to be a Mahatma Gandhi Road in every city in the country. Plus, he appears on all the bank notes here and there's countless statues of him too. Everybody loves the Gandmeister!

The next morning, we got our first real taste of slum life in India as we visited Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat - Mumbai's very own, open air washing district. Here, laundry from all over the city (hotels, stores, factories etc.) is painstakingly scrubbed and wrung and hung out to dry by the locals who work 14 hour days, submerged in these dyed and bleached waters. I have to say, it was one of the most interesting things we've seen in our time in India and gave us a real insight into an entirely different world.

We first viewed the scene from the bridge above, and it was just awash with colours (pardon the pun); from clothes lines hung with rows and rows of uniform white bedsheets and blue jeans, to multicoloured sarees and gowns, it was just a feast for the eyes. Then came the hard part - getting inside this alien world, to see everything close up. We circled down and around the perimeter, half-intimidated to penetrate the outer walls and walk amongst the washers at work. Our cause wasn't helped by locals at the various entrances, claiming that we couldn't go in without a guide. We weren't sure if this was true or not, but they seemed quite adament about not letting us in without paying one of them for a guided tour. In the end, we teamed up with a lovely, English couple and split the price, just to avoid the hassle really, and it actually was helpful to have someone to show us around; from the washing area, to the living quarters and all the intricate alleyways in between.

It was more reassuring having a local guide with us too, as I felt more comfortable taking pictures and more comfortable just being there really.

Afterwards, we hopped on a train back to our area of Churchgate (all for 5 cent each!) and walked to another pair of Mumbai attractions - The Gateway of India (which was just a big archway) and the Taj Mahal Hotel (which actually was very impressive).

And guess who had a spot of high-tea there? These guys! It was seriously swanky, much too swanky for us. We felt just as out of place there as we did earlier in the slums! We went into the bar to get a drink, just to be part of the surroundings, and after looking at the menu it was quite literally a case of “give us two of your cheapest drinks, please!”. We got some free nibbles too though, and our juices were incredible so it was worth the cost. 

It really was a day of contrasts, from the early morning slums, to the mid-afternoon luxury, and that night we experienced another major facet of Indian culture, and one that brings every citizen from every class together - Bollywood! We had seen some clips in Bangalore, but this time we actually went to the cinema to see a real, full on Bollywood movie. It was in fact, the highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time - Dhoom 3! 

And it really was great fun! About 60% of the dialogue was in Hindi (even though it was set in Chicago), but it was still pretty easy to follow. It was everything you'd expect from a Bollywood movie - action, song, dance, but apart from that, it actually wasn't bad as a movie in itself. All in all, a very cultural day for us in Mumbai. We even had to stand for the national anthem before the show started!

We didn't get much sleep either that night as we had to be up at half 2 to be at the airport in time for our flight. We actually forgot to make our Mumbai video diary too, so we had to do it as soon as we arrived in our next destination, Udaipur. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuLtlRXhQbw

And we'll pick things up from Udaipur next time around. See you then!