Chitty Chitty Chittorgarh

Before we start, can we thank all of you who have already sponsored us for our rally that begins on 28 December.  We’re 29% of the way toward our target and are genuinely humbled by your generosity.

Red Fort Delhi

You never see places at their best when you arrive in the dark although we could sense the difference between Udaipur and Delhi as soon as we stepped off the plane.  A major difference was the amount of cows wandering the roads around which we regularly have to swerve – as traffic calming measures go, the sacred cow is preferable to the vicious Indian speed bump anyday. 

We’re staying in the old town, a jumble of tiny streets where pedestrians compete with tuktuks and cars to negotiate their way past polite vendors who unusually, are prepared to take ‘No’ for an answer.

The hotel Jaiwana Haveli is a well-kept old fashioned mansion overlooking Lake Pichola and affording great views of the stunning sunsets and the Taj Lake Palace Hotel which sits in the middle of the lake and which is sadly beyond our means.

Taj Lake Hotel - No riff raff

After a good night’s sleep aided by a few refreshments we spend the day exploring (aka Getting Lost) in the maze of back streets before visiting the City Palace.  It’s an amazing mix of balconies, towers and cupolas and gives good views of the lake and the city below.  

Inside, the marble chess-board patterned floors and the bejeweled and mosaic walls demonstrate the taste and depth of pocket of the Maharanas who lived here.

The City Palace is huge although many of the internal passageways between the chambers are very narrow and the low doorways suggest that the people who lived here were short arses.  The passageways twist up and down stairs leading to unexpected delights at each turn.  

Upstairs we emerge into a treelined square, in another passage we come to the royal bedchambers and entertaining rooms. I am amazed at the number of Indians who are on holiday and who, true to form, zoom though the Palace in double-quick time.

We leave the Palace just as school finishes for the day and the throng of children who are walking, cycling, jumping into tuktuks or climbing aboard scooters carries us along. The shrill noise they generate makes a pneumatic drill sound quiet.

We seek refuge in the Jagdish Temple.  The temple is in perfect condition and was restored by hand 5 years ago.  There’s an air of calm serenity that one always feels when entering temples and we pause to get our breath.  Walking around the outside, we’re befriended by an elder who suggests that we traverse in a clockwise direction as to do otherwise is poor form in a Hindu temple.  We’re glad of his presence when a group of amorous Indian boys get a little to attached to me and he dispatches them with some stern, if unintelligible words.  

The Temple provides food daily for more than 40 of the poor and homeless.  However after leaving a healthy donation for food we end up in the elders ‘Art School’.  Udaipur is famous for its miniatures and the paintings on paper, silk and camel bone are exquisite.  Now the hard sell begins. Small is beautiful but comes with a hefty price tag – with a much better defence than the English batsmen we hold out for stumps and emerge with our wallets intact accompanied it must be said by a bit of sledging from the unsuccessful vendor.

Standing at the edge of the lake we find ourselves pursued by a couple of large cows blocking our exit.  We’re saved from the option of swimming for it by the timely appearance of a man wielding a big stick.

Man with stick will surely follow....

Advertising is on every spare space but some of it doesn’t mean a great deal to us although we think that too much of the former

Might lead to the latter.

Spent a bloody fortune on Optrex

The next day we head for Chittorgarh, the fort (garh) on the Chittor – talking about the Chittor, no that’s for another day.  We hire a car and driver for the 130 kilometers journey during which we reflect on the madness of driving on these roads.  If the lorries don’t get you the meandering cows present a considerable challenge.

Have any of you been in the dairy?

The standard of driving is seriously scary and the mad scramble for gaps to get past the slower traffic can be hair-raising and is further complicated by the lack of any lane discipline and the odd wandering cow, to the extent that vehicles drive into the oncoming traffic because the route is slightly quicker or less busy.

Chittorgarh is a sprawling town of blue coloured buildings that spread from the base of the fort that rises like a great rock island from the plain below.  The zigzag ascent to the fort takes us through six outer gates and the site itself extends over 6 km.  Luckily for 20 rupees we can take the car and our driver is more than happy to drive us to each site.  Buying the entry tickets got a bit hairy when a guy decided to jump the queue in front of John who soon bounced him to the back of the queue.

Each part of the fort is in various stages of disrepair but the overall scale is awesome and there are great views of chittorgarh from the ramparts.  Funnily enough, despite the scale and location of the fort, defensively it was a bit like Manchester United’s back four – prone to poor defending and the fort was sacked a number of times.

The Tower of Victory is nine stories high and visitors can ascend the 157 narrow steps to the top. 

It had to be done!

Obviously John wasn’t going to miss the opportunity of getting to grips with this big erection and headed off into the narrow confines of the tower leaving me at the mercy of the throng of young men who think having their photos taking next to westerners is the ultimate addition to their iphone.  They are all polite enough but do get very close and luckily for me the security man stepped in to manage all requests for photos - thank heavens John was in and out quickly.

Minding my own business

Padmini was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in Rajasthan and her palace stands aside a small lake.  The gardens are beautiful although the lake itself has largely dried up

Finally, Surajpol and the Tower of Fame on the east side offer views over the plains below.

The journey back to Udaipur after lunch was just as harrowing although our capable driver inspired enough confidence to allow John to sleep most of the way back although I was kept alert by the usual mix of roadside challenges.  

I think a relaxing evening is called for over looking the lake.