From (almost) dessert to a city with lots of lakes
The last breakfast at the homestay was special, again. Not so much because of the food, and certainly not because of the quality from the coffee, but because of the conversation and contradictions. It certainly is a family which deeply respects tradition and casts. It was far most the same routine as the day before: when we come in, the lady of the house is greeting us and asking to sit down, she comes to sit with us. There are three plates on the table: two for us, non for her. After a short while her father comes in, she stands up, down on her knees, greeting him and wishes him well. He greets us and sits. The third plate is for him. Today the younger daughter enjoyd us; also for her no plate. The conversation starts with asking us about yesterday, no real responds from their side. The husband comes in and gets orders from his wife, what he has to do for our breakfast. The lady of the house starts inquiring us, again. Almost every answer followed by a question about an other subject. The husband is bringing our toasts and gets directions of his wife how to deliver it for us. The daughter picks up a small plate, starts to prepare something to eat, but starts not eating. At some point I took the opportunity to ask about their family, the daughter kicks in to answer. But in the middle of a sentence she stands up, says that grandmother calls and takes the prepared food with her out of the room. The wife asked us – beacause of her older (expecting) daughter – which food we in Germany would give to an expecting woman or young mother. Keen, to follow modern insights. In her tradional family. Almost finished with breakfast, the lady of the house is asking us about something to drink. I had the courage to ask for black coffee. Definitely, it was without milk and sugar. Definitely, it was not black, some dark yellow, maybe. Though, learn about other cultures! (Don’t use your back-home references.) We went up to our room, packed the last things, and when we came down, again, the husband was sitting all alone eating his breakfast, without any company our well served plate. Some strange. We got the impression, he was not really accepted in the family, including his daughters.
We nearly left Jodhpur when our driver received a phone call. Surely private. Somehow he felt urged to explain to us, that his wife had called for his birthday. Happy birthday!
On our way, he stopped by a Hindu Temple. As far as I remembered from my trip to Mumbai, its common to pray for good luck on somebody’s birthday. I did. To Shiva. Hope, she don’t mind. Sacrificed as recommended.
Main stop was at the Jaintemple in Ranakpur. Jain’s belief is build on five rules: don’t harm anything, always speak the truth, don’t lie or mislead, be abstinent, cut (material) ties. Especially the last was mentally a bit hard to combine with de magnificence of the temple. All those stone carvings! The detail, the thoughts and architecture. Leaving all the tourists out of the picture, you definitely can come to pease at such a place.
Through the woods and the mountains we came to an other quick stop for the next (bad) coffee. Not easy for me… I’m surely not free of addictions 🙁
In the afternoon we reached Udaipur. A completely different city from the once we saw so far. This was our last ride with this driver. Definitely worth a recommendation!
Placed in a heritage hotel, we have an amazing view out of our room. Went out for a quick snack, even find a place to buy a bottle of wine and went back to the roof top of our hotel. What a lovely evening.