We were a bit tired after a 6-hour bus journey from Udaipur and so arrived in a less than fair mood. Luckily we were warned about a commission scam, and were advised to get a rickshaw to the train station and tell them we were leaving on the train: this work surprisingly well. We got to our hotel room and got upgraded to a better room - bonus - but I had to kill three giant cockroaches - bummer. El was freaked out but promising that we would put the mosquito net up that night, seemed to calm her down :-)
We walked into the city and dived into a luxury guest house that was in the bible (loney planet) and which had a very nice rooftop lounge with sofas: nothing like escaping the madness of India by climbing five floors of stairs. We had some more masala tea (I am really going to miss the chai here), tea and milk heated together with some spices, and admired the blue city... to be honest, the one in five blue houses, so mostly blue city. The fort on top of a massive hill in the middle of the old city was quite impressive and a nice looking palace in the distance that is a looky likey for the Taj. We passed the afternoon in lazy mood by reading the Indian Times and books, and I tried to draw the fort in my new sketch book that I bought in Udaipur. I do not have one ounce of talent but I am really enjoying it, I got the inspiration from a book I read called The Art of Travel, which suggested sketching a place instead of taking pictures, as it forces you to pay more attention to what you are seeing, so far my skills have not increased but I am paying attention more to buildings and tea pots and chair (just some of my subjects).
We had a great dinner at the guest house, Chickpea curry, and Garlic fry (thats right massala sauce with nothing but garlic). El was over the moon at finding garlic fry on the menu, I sometimes wonder if you can be addicted to garlic!!
The next day we went to the fort and used the audio tour equipment, which was surprisingly good and gave you a sense of history. One of the main gates has cannon ball marks in the walls, and the audio tour gives you the sound affects :-). The most surprising thing about this Indian state, Rajasthan is the sense of history within the forts and the fact that some of the major battles / events were only a hundred years ago, not 500 hundred as with most of English castles. On the audio tour you had the Raj speaking and telling you that his title had been stripped of all powers after Independence just after he got back from University and the Queen telling you about her wedding day and arriving by train to the fort and being lead to the ladies quarters, imagine going to a castle in England and hearing Henry the eighth account of a beheading, madness.
The view from the fort was also a lot more impressive as more residents seem to paint their house blue on the fort side, thus the view from the fort is of a very blue city and very beautiful...fantastic that's India for you.
We have our last Indian night train tonight, in a few hours, and tomorrow we have to go to a town just south of Delhi to reprint our flight tickets (long story). Fingers crossed this will not take all day, but as Sophie (El sister) said in her sage advice. "In India (posting a letter) can take 5 mins, or all day", so we will see, if this apply's to BA's travel shop as well as the post office.
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