The beauty of Rajasthan | India
- giulia
- Nov 30, 2017
- 4 min read
on the train
Sitting on the lower seat of a sleeper class compartment on the longest train ride we will probably have in India. We boarded in Jodhpur at 10.30am with the usual 20-30 minutes delay and we are headed to Hardiwar the closest stop to Rishikesh were we will get to around 9.15am of tomorrow. Roughly 20 hours of train..I also just had a "train station" accident since one of these little guys pulling a small carts with gigantic Santa Claus brown sacks, dropped two on my head and I consequently fell over the bench in front of me hitting my elbow and my chin on the metal frame..Oh India! Like the Australians we met this morning said: it's enough but enough. So true.
the only day in Jodhpur (click o enlarge)
In the past few weeks we've been to a lot of beautiful places and busy visiting that we didn't really have so much time to write. I'll try to sum it up here. The highlights were definitely Udaipur & Jaisalmer.
Udaipur has a white marble Royal vibe all around the streets and hosts some beautiful palaces and forts which belonged to the royal family and were donated to the public not so long ago. I'm a fan of queens and kings and palaces so I really enjoyed the architecture and the furnishing and breath taking sights at each small window of these palaces.
We followed the advice of the happy gang (Shushi and the Latinos) and went to a really beautifully located restaurant " Sun N Moon rooftop" on our first night in Udaipur. The honey chilli potatoes and the curries were so good we asked for the recipes and inquired on the possibilities of doing a cooking class. In response one of the 4 owners of the restaurant came to speak to us and kindly proposed that we go to their kitchen the day after and do a trial cooking class. His name is Jayanth (J) and as many young & entrepreneurial business men in India he is only 25 years old. When he speaks though he sounds very well educated and knowledgeable. The day after we went to the restaurant for breakfast to enjoy the early morning view on the top table they have and had a long pleasant conversation with J who enjoys to speak about politics. We later found out that the 3 favourite topics of conversation in Indian are politics, cricket and Bollywood; no food because "food they just eat" . The same afternoon we went back for the cooking class but the kitchen was too busy so we agreed to go back the day after at lunch time. The cooking class was more to say a quick 30 minutes full immersion into an Indian kitchen. The chef was cooking and explaining and showing ingredients all at the same time. He cooked the honey chilli potatoes and a paneer curry and some chapati on the spot. Indian cooking actually takes a lot of preparation especially curries with thick gravies which can take more than 2 hours to make the creamy delicious consistency. I was honestly shocked by the amount of oil, butter, cream and condensed milk they use to make the curry dishes, not a very healthy cuisine if you consider western standards. Still, the result was so yummi and flavourful we definitely want to try making it again. After another long conversation and exchange with J and Vicky (the bar tender partner) we left the restaurant and promised we will keep in touch and would wait for their emails with the recipes to replicate it and cook for our friends. Still waiting for the email, but I'm sure we will get it.
Udaipur (post continues with Jaisalmer after Udaipur pictures)
On our second to last day in Udaipur we spontaneously decided to go to Jaisalmer first instead of heading straight to Rishikesh. I found an article on the VegPlanet magazine(a really cool vegetarian magazine in India) and an Indian woman had previously recommended it so we decided to go for it. The bus ride to Jaisalmer was quite noisy, cold and not very comfortable but we still made it on time and got picked up by our hotel at the bus stand. The pol haveli hotel were we stayed was a gem in Jaisalmer, a medium sized heritage building decorated with saree arranged as colourful curtains everywhere. The room was the best we had in India so far and very comfortable. The young owner was busy organising his 21 year old's sister wedding on the 29th of November to the 3rd of December. He actually invited us to go but we will be in Varanasi then. After a bit of debate we decided to go for a 1 night safari in the dunes which Surya( the owner) sold to us as a non-touristy tour. Well, it turned out to be wonderful and way exceeded my expectations. The crew and the setting and the food and even the camels and the doggies that kept us company were all so nice. I can't even describe the feeling of sleeping with an open sky with billions of stars and so many shooting stars; so amazing. We met 2 Indian guys who came with us for the safari and had pleasant conversation with them in the evening while waiting for our crew to make us wonderful dinner with pakoras, dhal, rice and chapati. What a memorable adventure with Ali baba & the camels and the night in the desert!
Jaisalmer itself is also a very cute city, sand & stone city I would call it as the main colour is sand stone. The climate is that of a desert area with dry and very intense sun in daytime and cold and a bit windy (at least in the desert) at night time. The fort is quite lively and people and shops and restaurants are allowed inside so it feels more like a market with beautiful architecture rather than an ancient fort. Lots of marvellous view points around it too. People looked rather settled and content in Jaisalmer and I didn't find them as pushy as in other bigger cities. Cows and goats and dogs are all part of the same tight community too.
We have 2 more weeks in India now but I'm glad I feel I've learnt a lot about the culture and the spiritual nature and the struggles too, of the Indian people. As always photos are courtesy of my beautiful beardy man: Andy!Enjoy xxSent from my iPhone
Enjoy the photos xoxo (click to enlarge)
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