Today we have a short ride to Udaipur known as the Venice of the east. We will be travelling through the Aravali mountains, and I am threatened with a little detour circuit to satisfy my lust for more adventurous roads to hark me back to my endruo days.
Udaipur is one of the highest cities above sea level with dense forest and built around the Pichola lake.
Sorry for the lateness in sending this, but they turn the internet off to save energy !!!!!
I got my wish of some nice off road blatting, before we took a winding path up the mountains to visit a water wheel drawn by two cows and a little guy just sitting there going round and round all day !. On route Bourdain brought biscuits and did not offer them round and we were suddenly going to find out why, as we turned the corner up the mountain Monkeys hundred of them and as soon as he got the biscuits out they attacked !! They were jumping on the bikes over the support truck and chasing Bourdain down the road, it was some and out of a cartoon ! Sadly such fun has to come to an end and off we set back up the mountains and as usual trying to find our way to a temple we find a wedding in full swing uninvited of course we gate crash and you can read about it on the photo of me dancing ! Yes dancing …
Now for the sad element of the journey so far, we were tabbing along the dual carriageway around 90-100 k’s and some young lad came past us, after about 500 metres he failed to make a sweeping turn as he had left his side stand down. He could not correct and was forced into the central reservation where he hit the curb in a cloud of dust! We turned back but he was motionless. Many others stopped that were better equipped than us, and so we journeyed on. It makes you realise how a single second can alter your life (not always for the worse). The rest of the ride into Udaipur was pretty much subdued. Udaipur has many lakes it reminds me of how Switzerland would be without greenery and chocolate box houses and watches and … well ok it’s nothing like Switzerland except it has a lake well many lakes and a palace in the middle made famous to the general world via Octopussy. We had the afternoon to wander before some unremarkable food in a place called savage garden, the food was and there was no garden .. maybe the German owner just liked the name of the band. The hotel well no flushing water in the loo, had to fill a bucket to flush it and when one turned the tap on one was drenched as one did not see the shower rose above my head !!! The sink also had no running water !! I am spoilt living in a five star hotel. Bed calls and the noise outside is like I am living in an industrial kitchen that is killing wild dogs ready for tomorrow’s lunch … glad I am leaving this hotel … but the view from the roof is great.
One post script so tonight I was walking through the streets and digs are coming towards me barking, above my head is a monkey it’s large standing up over 4ft, it is running on the wall then jumps onto the electrical wires running down the street , can’t keep its balance and then drops to the road and straight into an apartment block , followed by four barking dogs , and then another monkey chasing them !!!. The ironic thing here is that 3 mins later a guy from the top floor drops a basket on a rope and a delivery guy delivers bananas!!! Only in india !