The Road to Udaipur, India…

It is a LONG way (particularly on India’s roads) from Jaipur to Udaipur. Originally, our tour company had scheduled a detour so that we could visit – yet another – of Rajasthan’s seemingly innumerable “forts.” Our driver suggested a different path — via Pushkar, described by our guide as the second-most holy place for Hindus — and it was FAR more interesting and enjoyable. We rode camels into the desert, and then walked through the bustling market of this very small village (of roughly 20,000-30,000 people). The market is among the bigger we have seen here, thriving based on the hundreds of thousands of visitors it gets each year due to its “holy” status.

Camels: First, the camels. Zoe and I each rode our own camel, while Max and Jackie (feeling a bit out of sorts) elected the royal treatment of lying down and being pulled on cart. Camels are (at first) awkward to ride, but really fun and the air is surprisingly breezy that high up, even in the desert. By the way, my camel guide (last of the camel photos below) may look 114, but he is only 52 — the summers in India are just that withering and brutal! 😉

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Pushkar, India: Is a small village by India standards, but our tour guide says that the town of 20,000 swells by several hundred thousand visitors, particularly in November, when there are festivals and when pilgrims come to the Hindu Brahma temple, the only one of its kind in India (I won’t bore you with the story of why it’s the only one, but it involves a “curse” by the second wife). There is a great market that leads to and from the Temple, and to Pushkar Lake, where people come to bathe in the holy water AND to spread the ashes of their cremated dead. (As Zoe pointed out – it seems kind of unsanitary for people to bathe where others distribute the remains of their dead, but we didn’t pursue that line of inquiry with the tour guide). Some pics below:

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The road from Jaipur to Udaipur: I have made a few comments about the roads and how crazy the traffic is — no clear lanes, and where lanes exist, they are clearly viewed as mere “suggestions” for where to drive, bike or scooter at some point during the journey. There is another aspect to driving large swaths of Rajasthan, India, and that is the apparent, ever-present poverty — seemingly everywhere. Entire families (lacking resources to own a car) pile onto a single moped (see the family of 5 on a moped pictured below); people travel seemingly significant distances by walking, biking and moped; there are miles of shacks along the roadside, which do not appear to have running water, electricity or other basics we take for granted. Below are a series of pictures from the roads we have traveled.

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Below is a photo of something we saw repeatedly… people gathering water and carrying it back (presumably to their dwellings) in containers. Below are several children, and though it is hard to see, in the background are others, apparently pumping the water.

Our hotel: Finally, after about 8 hours of driving (in addition to our time in Pushkar), we arrived in Udaipur, which was a LOT greener and more colorful than the rest of the Rajasthan desert trek we have been on thus far. We explore Udaipur tomorrow, but I love what I’ve seen so far: our hotel is a wonderful boutique near the Lake Pichola, and our guide recommended a great restaurant nearby (with lakeside views) where I had a fantastic meal (without the family, who were exhausted and wanted to stay at the hotel). Pics below:

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