Liketytrip

We left cosmopolitan Mumbai and plummeted back into the India of yesteryear. Rajasthan is awash with colourful buildings and turbans, vibrant saris, golden deserts, plodding camels, ancient forts and Maharajas. Our souls instantly became calm again and we were mixed up in a whirl of ancient history.

First stop Udaipur with its stunning Lake Palace Hotel which seems to float upon the water. The narrow cobbled streets were pretty and wound their way up and down the local terrain. Whilst there were still plenty of wandering cows and motorbikes to dodge we loved this sweet town. Views to the Lake Palace Hotel were aplenty; the hotel is a rather swanky affair and was used in the Octopussy movie (so any discerning backpacker guest house showed re-runs of the film every night).

We made ourselves busy wandering round the City Palace on the mainland for a few hours. And whilst sitting on our hotel rooftop admiring the sunset across the lake, another guest arrived who we instantly recognised from the Swarambayath Stupa in Kathmandu. He wasn’t hard to forget. The first time we saw him we thought he was a Bollywood star; intricate facial hair, cowboy boots and an air of superstar about. I had sneeked a picture of him at the time and we later asked a few Indians if they recognised the person in the snapshot but we only got blank faces (unfortunately we sent this pic home on a cd). This time round, Guy bounded over to say Hello and We meet again! It turns out he was Frederic Cartier from the one-and-only diamond jeweller Cartier family. And before we knew it we’d been asked to join him for drinks that evening at a local restaurant. How could one refuse?
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I want you to come on a day-trip with me. It’s just one example from a country that loves to test you by throwing you as much unpredictability as it can at you. Today it got too much.

07:15 hrs: Scheduled arrival of overnight train from Udaipur to Jaipur

09:00 hrs: Actual arrival into Jaipur, nearly 2hrs late.

We’d both had a bad night’s sleep; My belly woke me up at 1am and I immediately took a powerful Cypro tablet to quell the pain. And Guy had been sleeping near the door to the whole carriage which had been banging closed every time someone went through it (being near the loos, this was a lot).

We shrugged off the keen rickshaw tout at the pre-paid booth who tried to get us to go with him. It was early, we were tired and we couldn’t be bothered to deal with his banter or behaviour when he started jumping the queue of Indians to get the westerners to the front. He soon disappeared when he realised we wouldn’t be giving him a tip or using him for sightseeing that day.

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