Greetings from Udaipur, our last city in Rajasthan! We head to Rishikesh, in the North tomorrow. I suspect that none of us will miss the pollution, dustiness, and dessert-like atmosphere, but we will miss the forts, palaces and dramatic cities.
Backing up to last week in Jodhpur...
Leanne got sick right after Holi, so Joanna and I ventured out on our own to explore the Jodhpur fort. Our tour began with a ziplining adventure over the fort (really between the fort and the outer protective wall, over a moat). It was Joanna's first time ziplining, and we have found ourselves a convert. Ziplining in Rishikesh is now a definite possibility. Other highlights from the fort: the 19th century Maharajah had what look like glass-blown ornaments hanging from the ceiling in his bedroom, the havelis (courtyards) where women would eavesdrop on court comings-and-goings, and a breakroom where we got to listen to a performance of classical Indian meditation music. The fort is covered in pigeons, and there are pigeon nests on the undersides of the courtyard balconies.
In the afternoon Joanna and I went to see the mausoleum where all of the old Maharajahs (going back to the 14th century) are memorialized, and to a large public park, where I got to climb a tree, and almost got attacked by monkeys. Park employees feed the monkeys, so I assumed they were friendly to humans. Apparently I got a bit too close to a few monkeys' personal space, which led them to flash their very sharp teeth at me, and reach out to scratch me. Undoubtedly, had Akiva been there the monkeys would have accepted him as one of their own, and gotten along much better.
Unfortunately, that evening Joanna also got sick, which did not bode well for our 8-hour bus trip to Udaipur on Thursday. We had been completely unsuccessful at researching what the different classes of public busses actually meant. While previously we had taken "Volvo Mercedes" busses, we took a "Semi-Deluxe" this go around, which, in retrospect, was a poor choice. There was no air-conditioning, and the bus was overcrowded with broken seats. Now we know.
The city of Udaipur is built around a series of lakes, which were constructed to form an irrigation system, starting in the 15th century. In the center of one of the lakes is the Taj Lake Palace, where Octopussy was filmed. Octopussy is now screened every night at multiple restaurant rooftops, all with views of the lake.
Shabbat was pretty low-key--there was yoga on the roof of our guest house, and in the afternoon we went on a long walk to the zoo, only to discover that contrary to the advice that we had gotten, they did, in fact, charge an entrance fee, so we walked back. On Sunday we both went on a tour of the City Palace, which was less impressive than the other forts and palaces that we had visited, and also went to the zoo, where we got to ride a golf cart around the different animal enclosures. Animals spotted included lions, a Bengal tiger, white tigers, a Ballou Bear (yes, where the Jungle Book bear gets his name from), a hyena, Ronny the leopard, deer, tortoises, a wolf, ostriches, emus etc. I find it amusing that the zoo has three different varieties of deer, which I think of as totally pedestrian animals, but no elephants, monkeys or oxen, because those can be found in the marketplace.
Leanne had been hoping to drive the golf cart around the zoo herself, and was quite disappointed that the golf carts came with drivers. Somehow, she managed to finagle both the golf cart driver and our rickshaw driver into letting her take the wheel of both vehicles. I was fine with her driving the golf cart around the zoo, but when she started driving the rickshaw around the streets of Udaipur, I started saying Tehillim.
Today, in an attempt to care for my long-suffering lower back, newly aggravated by not very comfortable Indian beds, I got an Ayurvedic massage. Bad move. My masseuse completely ignored my howls of pain, and I left in considerably worse shape than when I walked in. I'm feeling much better now, and I am hopeful that in Rishikesh the ashram staff will have some good ideas for me.
*Title comes from Jeremiah 2:2 "How you followed me in the desert, in a land not sown"
Backing up to last week in Jodhpur...
Leanne got sick right after Holi, so Joanna and I ventured out on our own to explore the Jodhpur fort. Our tour began with a ziplining adventure over the fort (really between the fort and the outer protective wall, over a moat). It was Joanna's first time ziplining, and we have found ourselves a convert. Ziplining in Rishikesh is now a definite possibility. Other highlights from the fort: the 19th century Maharajah had what look like glass-blown ornaments hanging from the ceiling in his bedroom, the havelis (courtyards) where women would eavesdrop on court comings-and-goings, and a breakroom where we got to listen to a performance of classical Indian meditation music. The fort is covered in pigeons, and there are pigeon nests on the undersides of the courtyard balconies.
In the afternoon Joanna and I went to see the mausoleum where all of the old Maharajahs (going back to the 14th century) are memorialized, and to a large public park, where I got to climb a tree, and almost got attacked by monkeys. Park employees feed the monkeys, so I assumed they were friendly to humans. Apparently I got a bit too close to a few monkeys' personal space, which led them to flash their very sharp teeth at me, and reach out to scratch me. Undoubtedly, had Akiva been there the monkeys would have accepted him as one of their own, and gotten along much better.
Unfortunately, that evening Joanna also got sick, which did not bode well for our 8-hour bus trip to Udaipur on Thursday. We had been completely unsuccessful at researching what the different classes of public busses actually meant. While previously we had taken "Volvo Mercedes" busses, we took a "Semi-Deluxe" this go around, which, in retrospect, was a poor choice. There was no air-conditioning, and the bus was overcrowded with broken seats. Now we know.
The city of Udaipur is built around a series of lakes, which were constructed to form an irrigation system, starting in the 15th century. In the center of one of the lakes is the Taj Lake Palace, where Octopussy was filmed. Octopussy is now screened every night at multiple restaurant rooftops, all with views of the lake.
Shabbat was pretty low-key--there was yoga on the roof of our guest house, and in the afternoon we went on a long walk to the zoo, only to discover that contrary to the advice that we had gotten, they did, in fact, charge an entrance fee, so we walked back. On Sunday we both went on a tour of the City Palace, which was less impressive than the other forts and palaces that we had visited, and also went to the zoo, where we got to ride a golf cart around the different animal enclosures. Animals spotted included lions, a Bengal tiger, white tigers, a Ballou Bear (yes, where the Jungle Book bear gets his name from), a hyena, Ronny the leopard, deer, tortoises, a wolf, ostriches, emus etc. I find it amusing that the zoo has three different varieties of deer, which I think of as totally pedestrian animals, but no elephants, monkeys or oxen, because those can be found in the marketplace.
Leanne had been hoping to drive the golf cart around the zoo herself, and was quite disappointed that the golf carts came with drivers. Somehow, she managed to finagle both the golf cart driver and our rickshaw driver into letting her take the wheel of both vehicles. I was fine with her driving the golf cart around the zoo, but when she started driving the rickshaw around the streets of Udaipur, I started saying Tehillim.
Today, in an attempt to care for my long-suffering lower back, newly aggravated by not very comfortable Indian beds, I got an Ayurvedic massage. Bad move. My masseuse completely ignored my howls of pain, and I left in considerably worse shape than when I walked in. I'm feeling much better now, and I am hopeful that in Rishikesh the ashram staff will have some good ideas for me.
*Title comes from Jeremiah 2:2 "How you followed me in the desert, in a land not sown"
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