Day 7 – Tordi Sagar to Pushkar
Today there was an optional hike up to a fort for sunrise. Unfortunately we missed this walk as Dan was suffering mild concussion due to hitting his head on the doors four times! Instead he opted for a game of cricket with Will, Tim (The Aussies) and our Indian guide. Let’s just say England didn’t perform very well!!
After checking out we got back into the Jeeps for our next destination that was Pushkar. Pushkar is a religious area and therefore it is a dry state where no alcohol is allowed. It is also a vegetarian place and meat is also banned….. needless to say we were worried about the next 2 days!
In the afternoon we went on an orientation walk around the town. It was so busy because there was a camel fair on, however the town itself had a lot of cool, quirky shops to see. After this we played some pool and then had an early night.
Day 8 – Pushkar & Camel Safari
The highlight of today was the evening activity that we had opted for, which was the camel safari into the desert. We walked through the town to where the camels were and then attempted gracefully to get on the camel. If any of you have ever been on a camel, you will know how hard this actually is! The one piece of advice we were given was to stay away from their faces as they can bite and kick. However when Dan’s camel was tied to my camel and his head (the camel’s) was next to me all the way through the safari, staying away wasn’t the easiest thing to do! After about an hour on the camel we made it to the spot in the dessert where we were staying for the evening. We were given traditional Indian clothing to wear and had evening entertainment by a magician who was really good! He was also very amusing and after each trick he did he would just say ‘this is magic trick’ in a thick accent to the shocked and disbelieving looks on our faces! After this we had dinner and were then joined by some Indians of the travelling community who played us traditional music and showed us traditional dancing and obviously got us all dancing too!! We got a jeep back to the hotel and witnessed our 1st crash as our jeep clipped a moped driver on the route home. To be fair, I’m quite amazed that was the first we saw! Again we had a relatively early night as we couldn’t drink!
Day 9 – Travelling to Udaipur
Today we boarded the local train to Udaipur. This again, like the bus, only had ‘natural aircon’ and was a scrum to get on, find your seat (as the local people ignored allocated seat numbers) and find somewhere for our bags to go. Public transport in India is an experience! After a few hours on the train we reached our next destination of Udaipur in which we were staying for three nights. We got off the train and two children tried to put their hands in Liz’s handbag and steal from it. As you can imagine she wasn’t very happy! However in hindsight we worked out they might have been trying to steal the crisps that were poking out of the top of her bag rather than anything of any value!
We got to the hotel and checked into our room, it had a very strong smell of air freshener in which Dan was convinced was masking another smell. This was the beginning of ‘Mousegate’…. to be continued!
After the smell, the potential robbing incident and the fact we had been in the dry state of Pushkar for two days, it was time for a beer with lunch! Later in the afternoon we went on an orientation walk around Udaipur, which is also known as the Venice of the East. It was a great place to stay, there were lots of things to see and lots of shops to visit. We went to an art gallery for a demonstration and the artists also performed nail art on one of our nails; the detail was incredible. After our walk we had dinner out as a group along with a couple of drinks.
Day 10 – Udaipur
Today we went for a cooking demonstration at a family home. It was lovely to see a family home and how life is really like for people. The food she cooked was really good and it kept coming! The home made pakoras and mango chutney were incredible! The lady also made different varieties of curry, rice and breads, all which were really good and we ate like kings for lunch!
In the afternoon we went on a boat cruise which was quite amusing as at no point in India were seat belts an option on the craziest roads we have either seen, but getting on the slowest boat we have ever been on, we all had to put life jackets on!! It was Erica’s birthday on the tour and we went to a lovely restaurant on the river for dinner as a group. After this we got DJ tuk tuks and went to “Codys” roof top bar, aka Bar Code. We only stayed for one before we carried on the rooftop tradition back at the hotel. When we entered our room, the smell hit you! Mousegate continued… more air freshener was sprayed!
Day 11 – Udaipur
We had a full day to ourselves today and we started the morning off by going to meet Will and Tim at a rooftop bar! We had a sprite! After going for food and wandering around some of the shops we headed back to the hotel via the art gallery to buy a picture. When we got back to the room, the smell was back! We went to tell reception again who gave us a new room. The smell was that bad, other guests were coming out of their rooms as they could smell it as well! The hotel porter came to help us move, and told us it is a dead mouse somewhere that cant be found. The hotel obviously knew there was a problem however it took until day 3 to be informed!
7 months out of office 