North and South
Two days to cover. Even on vacations, days are sometimes too short.
Sunday, again, we enjoyed our rooftop breakfast. An amazing view with the lake, the palaces, the hills across the lake. Down in the lake a old man took a bath, didn’t bother about the rubbish in it. Aside a woman started to work some laundry. First she got a black shirt out of her bucket. For a sec I was worried it could be my laundry I gave to the hotel. Next was a sari. Puff!
Outside the hotel I went looking for “my” tuk-tuk to pick up my camera. The driver wasn’t there… but he had sent … another brother. Ok then. I really hoped, they could fix my camera! Back in the shop: they did!! On a Saturday night, delivering on Sunday morning. You should try that in Europe! Bought some UV-filters, which I had on my wishlist already for a while. For my lens he couldn’t find the right sunshade. That really got him. Paid an amount, that wouldn’t have covered the first diagnostics in Europe. Back in business!
The shop was near the Sajjan Niwas park. Not far from the gate. The tuk-tuk driver resisted to bring us there, no extra charge. Right after the gate we spotted flying foxes in a tree. Took me a while to reset my camera to my preferences. And? The man from the shop came along. He had find the right sunshade for my lens. Proud he was! If I would like to have it? Sure! Indian service. Indian business.
The park was a nice, almost silent retreat in the city. We even took a ride with the small train running around the park. Funny little thing. It’s a bit a pity that they maintain such places so badly. But probably for years they had her hands full to just survive, no reserve for such a luxury as maintaining a park. Now, they pick it up, starting to restaurate. The rose garden and the walk around was nice. In an other part we spotted monkeys and (to us) special birds. We had not the courage to go into the zoo. What we had seen from the little train, the caches were extremely bad: far too small, not maintained, no (real) care for the animals. Only the deer had some space. Even monkeys had no room to move or the climb, birds had no room to fly. Outside we had seen a marder, a playful little fellow. Quite right.
After a short lunch I took the footpath to the next lake and back through the bazars. Fateh Sagar had more greenery around than Lake Pichola, more locals, less foreign tourists. Interesting. In the bazars I ignored all the sellers. It’s amazing what you can see and spot when you just take your time to observe! Back at Gangaur gate I incidentally stumbled in the make of a Bollywood(like) scene. They captured a Holi-scene, with music and dance as in (I think) all Bollywood movies. You should try one, once! No need to understand the text, it’s all clear by itself. But surely different. Watched it for a while and went back to the hotel. Watched another sunset. Time for dinner, again on another rooftop. Plenty of choices! Then it was packing, again. Had to leave at 4:45 to the airport for our flight to the south. Finally, two hours to sleep. So much for vacation and relaxing. 😉
The hotel’s own driver brought us to the airport. Quite a chatty. Told us about the holiday today: honoring – and I’m quite sure I misunderstood – the chicken pocks god by women. The day before they had to prepare all the food, on the holiday no warm food is eaten. They wear new clothes and were already on their way to temple to bring their scarifies. The driver was also a farmer, living with his family in a village nearby. His three sons he sent to private schools because public schools only cover basics and Hindi. He was the first, who asked not only about our children, but also about our husbands. We gave him a answer with no answer. Here, they are already confused enough with two women traveling alone, nog even sisters.
At the check-in we had to pay for extra luggage… for domestic flights only 15 kg are allowed. (Almost) Not possible with luggage for 4 week and different climates. At security they didn’t bother about water bottles. We went through. Finally, our plane left 15 minutes earlier then scheduled. Why not?
For our stopover in Mumbai we had basically to cross the whole terminal to get to our next plane. Inbetween a security check. Here, they did bother about the bottles. Okay. We sit tight and packed in the plane at the gate for at least half an hour before we left for the runway. Glad that the first plane didn’t have any delays. In Kochi we landed with a delay of only 15 minutes. It’s a small airport, where you have to walk about 50m from the plane to the terminal. They have a luggage belt: outside the terminal about 5 m to put the luggage on by hand (in the heat), inside about 20m to pick up your luggage (air-conditioned). We left Udaipur in the morning by about 18ºC, here at noon it was 31ºC. Puff! This time, our pick-up taxi wasn’t there. Called the hotel, had to call back: the driver was down with a cold. Arranged a pre-paid taxi. Solved. Little difficulty: the driver had no clue where to go. Nothing to worry about, certainly not here, certainly not by pre-paid taxi.
Program for the rest of the day: relax, chill, roam the area and dinner. It’s about 300m to the coastline (you wouldn’t swim here). Saw the Chinese fisher nets and tried a coconut. Saw some other heritage places, went for a drink (not easily to find!) and finally had a dinner in a quite special garden restaurant. They had no license to sell alcohol, but watching the scene during the evening it definitely was their main source of income. Costumers trunked beer from coffee mugs, put the bottle consistently under table. We had a cocktail. Tasted funny, thus we asked what they used. Vodka, was the answer. In the Mojito, the Pinacolada, in all of it. Quite sure, it was moonshine. We also ordered food. By the time they needed to prepare it, I’m convinced that the menu is nothing but an excuse. The grilled seafood was delicious at the end. Some tables away from us, bit by bit a group came together you could label (yes, sometimes I do that) as hippies. Fun, joins, alcohol, almost no limits. Special place. Special place.