Our first stop in Rajasthan was Udaipur, a vast desert landscape broken by the rich colour of the villagers and their vibrant textiles. Out of complete desperation Brony and I decided to fly Mumbai to Udaipur as we couldn't stand another second of the steaming, rat infested Mumbai...we agree that it was our best decision yet! We were fortunate enough to stay at a Guesthouse owned by two friends I met in Yoga School, Marie and Dilip...Their hospitality and kindness
were astounding, the minute we walked up the spiral rot-iron staircase we were in love with Dream Heaven Guesthouse...The place was filled with fellow yogi/yoginis which made our stay even more entertaining...Udaipur is known as India's most romantic city and lives up to its name with marble lake palaces, narrow laneways and ornate architecture. We visited various monuments and temples (including one spectacular Jain Buddhist Temple) and, as you do,
generally just soaked up the atmosphere. Every night fireworks erupted as the sun set which sent hundreds (possibly thousands) of huge bats flying over the lake and our guesthouse..Very Harry Potterish indeed and a fabulous sight (once the fear dissappated)...Days were spent lounging, touring, shopping, exploring
the various delicious restaurants in search of our beloved (and what felt like long lost)vino...which indeed we found and proceeded to drink quite heavily (India is extremely dry which doesn't always bode well with a couple of Nova Scotians)...We met a Danish fella who was making a documentary so he invited us to join him and several other travelers one night at Savage Garden (the restaurant we discovered the wine)...What ensued was some mad open mic action which got much more entertaining as the bottles of wine were emptied...we closed the bar and decided we couldn't stand to waste the good thing we had found so we headed lakeside and continued the entertainment...Brony managed to get her hands on a couple additional bottles of wine which we quickly finished off...relatively soon after this Bron proceeded to demonstrate her intoxication with a quick dip (or should I say complete wipeout) into the lake, hilarious I hear but I unfortunately missed it...
To wrap it up, I'll leave you with some "Udaipur" Highlights:
In an attempt to dress conservatively in the "holy city" Brony failed to notice her fly was wide open and proceeded to find out day 1 from a curious Indian man...
Our first day walking the streets shopping we were invited into about 5 Indian homes/shops for the famous "chai"- these people were lively characters...a furry eared aritst who read our plams and drew elephants on our fingernails, a family with extremely uncontrollable children, a really hot Indian version of Johnny Depp named Manu who sold us jewelry and pierced our noses while again feeding us
chai, a couple female massuses, one of which was trying to open her own business and ever so smoothly slipped her business card into Bron's shirt...and many more who were obsessed with getting their pictures taken with some foreigners who they would later show off to their friends and claim they "are our good friends
from Canada"....
All in all, Udaipur was by far an amazing beginning to our Rajasthan
adventures...Hopefully Dilip and Marie will make it to Canada someday soon so we can return the hospitality they showed us...
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