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I didn't realise that a whole week had passed since I last wrote! Where has it gone?
Well, Udaipur was lovely, yet another mistake with accom reservations but the lady (who was Dutch) that owned the hotel got us in another place that was great. It was situated at the top end of the lake and the rooftop restaurant had a great view of the city palace, the lake palace and all around. Did all the tourist things on day one but that night an American bloke told us of what he had done. Next day we hired a rickshaw for the day 400Rs (a fiver) and went way out into the country up a huge mountain. The scenery was stunning. We ended up at a temple on the top of the mountain that you entered into a cave to the shrine.
Udaipur was OK but there wasn't more than two days worth. My next stop was Mount Abu.
It's nice to have company but I was quite glad to be back on my own doing my own thing at my own pace.
Mt Abu is a hill station. It's over a mile up and it's the type of place the British used to go to to escape the heat. It was about twenty degrees cooler too. That put it in the low eighties which was nice. In the evening when the sun went down it was bloody freezing. I had on three shirts and two pairs of trousers with a blanket round me! Mind you i kept them on too when I went to bed I'm sure I could see that mattress moving. It was a real shithouse of a room but for 100Rs (1.25) a night what do you expect? On my first morning I joined the hotels organised (easy) trek. Easy my arse. There was a Dutch couple a Latvian bloke and me and we just sweated buckets following the guide up serious mountains. The views were stunning, but it was hard work. We were told all about the wildlife we would see. We did see some bear and cub tracks and fresh evidence of bears digging but the sum total of wildlife was three butterflies and a snake! When I got back I drank three litre bottles of water, I had two pots of tea more water and coke and in the evening I was still peeing a funny colour! Told you it was hard work.
So yesterday I set off again. I got the local bus down off the mountain. Travelling on Indian buses is just pure entertainment. 20 Rs for a one hour journey! Then I had time to kill before my train. I just went for a wander and ended up chatting to some locals and drinking tea. Then I got the train to Jodhpur. There were a good bunch of Indians around me and the five hour journey flew by. The hotel collected me from the platform and my room is spotless with a proper working hot shower. (We were chatting the other day and it turned out that most of us hadn't had a shower for about five days because they never work or they are freezing or you just don't have one!) Last night I went straight to the rooftop restaurant and was enjoying sitting still. I was invited to join a group and it turned out to be the owner and his friends. I'm his best buddy now. Might be handy.
Tomorrow I take the overnight train to Agra arriving 6am to see the Taj Mahal and then I leave that night at 9pm overnight to Varanassi where everyone tells me is THE place. I need to stop for a while as the constant movement wears you out.
Off to see the huge fort behind me. Bye!