India Part 4: Udaipur and Jaipur

We have now officially left the state of Rajasthan. We flew out of Jaipur yesterday and are currently in Mumbai (Bombay). Here's our hijinks's in Udaipur and Jaipur.

Udaipur

So far the city of Udaipur is my favorite Indian city. Located beside a lake it doesn't get that hot and the city seems to have a great mix of old and modern buildings.

In order to get to Udaipur we had to take an 8 hour bus ride from Jophur. The trip was actually surprisely pleasant and we got to see a lot of the Indian country side. We arrived in Udaipur on May 21 and left May 24th.

Udaipur was the city used in the James Bond film "Octapussy". Haven't seen "Octapussy"? Well good news, every single hotel and restaurant will play it for you!

Bonus review of Octapussy (since I basically had to watch it): I forgot how awesome/dirty the old Bond movies can be. The action sequences are so campy that it is physically impossible not to love them. My favorite part is how the movie managed to fit in every Indian stereotype within 30 minutes.

Kite Flying

One day I chilling in the hotel restaurant. The restaurant was located on the hotel roof top and it had a beautiful view of the city. It was especially picturesque since it was possible to see the city palace, a temple and lake in one view.

Due to the closeness of the lake a gentle breeze is always blowing through the city. I looking upon the roof tops when I noticed that kids were flying kites. The led me to remember a conversation I had with Kiran a couple days before about kites and our failure to successfully fly them as childern.

It was at that moment that I decided that the most important thing in my life was to fly a kite off the roof tops of Udaipur.

I sprung into action and tried to find a kite. By the way, if you want to try something challenging, try describing a kite to shop owners who don't speak the same language as you.

After 45 minutes of looking I found a stall that sold kites. The kites were made up of tissue paper that was attacked to a light frame creating a diamond shape. The most expensive part of the kite was the string.

I quickly purchased my kite and bought it back to the hotel. The dude at the restaurant helped me tie it and I excitedly ran to the roof.

The kite was easily lifted by the wind and started to soar above the roof tops. Seeing the kite rise seemed to remove all my problems and made me care free.

I felt alive.

5 seconds later the kite took a nose dive onto a patio chair located on the roof. It was mangled and couldn't fly anymore. I was destroyed.

The next day I went and purchased 4 kites. I was going successfully fly one of these things or die trying.

Kiran and I took to the roof. The restaurant was slow so the two dudes who worked at the resturant were able to help us out.

Kiran and I tried the first kite. It quickly took a nose dive and was damaged.

The hotel guy rigged up the next kite and it was flying. It looked like it was going to make it high into the sky. However, it crossed the string of another persons kite. Our string was cut and our kite plucked out of the air.

Kiran and I attempted to fly our final 2 kites. One got badly damaged and the other got stuck on a distant roof.

It was getting late, but Kiran and I weren't giving up. We taped up our first damaged kite and set it in the air. It kept rising and rising until it was far above the city. At that moment, our lives were complete.

Jaipur

After Udaipur we headed to our last stop in Rajasthan: Jaipur. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and located in the very east of the state.

To get to Jaipur we took a 10 hour night train from Udaipur. We were there from May 25th to May 28th.

Many tourists on a schedule don't go any farther that Jaipur since it's big, relatively close to Delhi and contains a pretty awesome desert fort. I think this is a shame because while Jaipur is cool, I thought the other cities we went to in Rajasthan had more charm.

Jaipur is often called "the Pink City" because the old city (where most of the tourist sites and shopping are located) is painted pink. Well it's more of an orange color, but pink enough I guess.

We hit up the city palace and the other sites located in the city. To be honest, my favorite part of the sites in the city was we finally got to see a snake charmer. It was cool.

The Desert Death Hike (again)

The major site of Jaipur is the Amber Fort, a huge desert fort/palace located on the outskirts of the city. This is main site for good reason since it's quite large and impressive.

After touring the palace we decided to hike up to the upper forts that overlook the city. It should be noted at this point that is it 2pm (high sun) and it was over 40 degrees outside. But basically it wouldn't be a summer unless we were involved in some form of a death hike through the desert.

The hike actually wasn't so bad. Sure I went through all my water in the first 10% of the journey and lost 10 pounds in sweat, but it was manageable. It was only a 45 minute walk up the hill and we were able to rest.

The fort on the top gave some awesome views and was filled with monkeys. So it easily made the hike worth it.

Star Wars

It should be mention that it's the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. So to celebrate I made Kiran and Richard watch episode 3 (one and a half times). Speaking for Kiran & Richard: It was the best moments of their lives. Any comments they may make later are nothing but lies.

Currently we are in Mumbai. We arrived here yesterday and are staying in a flat owned by Kiran's parents. We are going to be for the next couple of days till we're off to Goa.

Next Time: Mumbai