Udaiphur

Reached by the day from hell!
Pushkar ended on a high, as I wandered from my rooftop hideaway (I have the only inhabited room on an unfinished rooftop in the hotel, miles from any other soul-creepy, but fantastic views of the mountains, and very quiet!!-so unfinished, in fact, that when I phoned reception to get my bags, the chap assured me I must have the wrong room number as ‘roof not rooms’) into the town.
The kite festival we’d seen preparations for in every town was in full swing, and the crowds descending in their finery to bath in the lake.
Everywhere temples were handing out free food, and music/drums/bands etc in full swing-party atmosphere.
But by noon we had to be on the move again………
A packed minibus to reach the only long distance bus running from Pushkar, as today is a major holy day, and the start of a long religious festival.
The ‘sleeper’ bus-luggage racks converted into boxes with ventilation holes to hold inordinate amount of people/livestock- set off at 1pm. By 1.15pm we were so overloaded my ‘reserved seat’ was full of Indians, children and smelly packages, and bare feet from the boxes overhead…
We lurched, bumped and hiccupped through towns/lakes/dust-lots of dust-until a brief stop at 3.30, when everyone fell out….and once in, the driver refused to stop unless to let people off as whenever he did, more and more people simply climbed in and on…
So we went on till 8pm without a break.
The hotel in Udaiphur seems the best so far, but everyone is past carrying-we went straight to supper, and up to bed-my bones think they’ve all been shattered and can’t knit together.
Romi isn’t the best ceo in terms of communication-he’s very keen on his food, takes the best seats, and tends to forget what he’s told us to do and then shout at us for not knowing. In fairness, he’s apparently done 4 or so tours back to back, but ….still, the group have bounded in trying to work around him rather than with him, and at least he gets us around together.

Day 2 in Udaiphur.
Woke feeling as if I would never be able to move-the mountain climb, two hours on a camel and 8 on a metal seat in the bus from hell has beaten my body.

But eventually I made it out of bed and crawled off to the ‘orientation walk’-this time to a miniature painting business where a great chap painted an elephant on my nail and served us refreshing chai.

A wander around the spectacular City Palace museum was more fun than it sounds-like most of India, the palace is superb, on a scale far greater than envisaged, with intricate paintings, glorious carvings, inlaid marble and silver, precious stones woven into the walls, tapestry, etc.
Home of many of British rulers, the recent rooms show the changing face of India as the British influence took over the interior design-fascinating.
Lunch at ‘The Whistling Teal’, yes, an archetypal tea shop, where I had a delicious pizza (anything which isn’t curry is now delicious) and at supper tonight I had a vegetarian macaroni with cheese which was fabulous-so glad to not have curry or chapattis!!!
Went to the cultural show before supper, which, like the palace, undersells itself name –wise, an hour of whirling dervishes, fire dancers, women balancing 12 pots and dancing on glass…..enough excitement to build up a very healthy appetite for our supper on a rooftop terrace overlooking the lake and its island buildings-complete with fireworks –home from home.