Mood: Energized!
The Peanut Countdown: 59 days.
POD:
Rajputana Resort
Beehive at City Palace
View of Udaipur from City Palace
Day 2: India - Udaipur (Christmas Eve)
I'm going to try to be really diligent about updating my blog each and every day, with stories from another day on our trip. This is the ultimate test of my memory, so wish me luck. :)
Bright and early (or dark and late, depending on how you look at it) the next morning at 3am, Shehrzad and I got our first of many wakeup calls from my mom. Why we never remembered to pack an alarm clock, or why, after a week of wakeup calls from my mom we never went out and bought an alarm clock, I'll never know. Part of me thinks we liked pretending we were staying in hotels fancy enough to offer wakeup calls. :)
Our flight from Mumbai to Udaipur was scheduled to leave at 6am that morning, so we pulled ourselves out of bed, into the shower, out the door and onto the bus. Our tour group was made up of about 35 Americans, most experiencing India for the first time. As our bus made its way to the airport, I remember being amazed at the number of people we saw sleeping on the sidewalks. Not like in SF where there's a homeless person sleeping in every entryway or one every 20 feet, but there were literally thousands of people sleeping, one right next to the other, laid out like sardines. It was so sad and eye opening.
One of the coolest things about traveling with my parents is my dad's understanding of how far a US$1 tip can go. At every single airport, at all the hotels, everywhere, Shehrzad and I never had to handle our own baggage. My dad would flag down a coolie (porter), flash him the 50 rupee note, and they would jump into action, following my dad's every move. None of the other people on our tour really got the hand of it, which was good for us because then we never had any other travellers to compete with. :)
On the plane to Udaipur, about 10 minutes the flight, my dad comes over to our seats 10 rows in front of theirs and tells me to come back to where they're sitting -- he's got a really big surprise for me. Believe it or not, my aunt (my dad's sister) who lives in Detroit, my cousin, her husband, and their two kids are all on the same flight to Udaipur! Unbelieveable. We knew they were going to be in India at the same time as us and we also knew we were going to try to meet up with them in Udaipur, but what kind of crazy coincidence is it that they end up being on the same flight as us?? It was pretty unreal. And even more unbelievable, my aunt's assigned seat was right next to my dad's! Weird.
The flight to Udaipur was only about an hour long so by the time we made it to our hotel in Udaipur, we still had the whole day to sightsee. The picture above is from the balcony outside our hotel room at Rajputana Resort. It looks like a pretty nice hotel no? It was naaaasty. I think most of these "resorts" in India spend all their money making the grounds look really nice, to the point where there's no money left to make the rooms even halfway decent. Ugh, it was a long 4 nights. No hot water even in the shower, freezing cold in the room especially at night, and this is where Shehrzad's first illness hit, so that was the icing on the crap cake. :) On a good note, there was a really nice couch right outside our room that looked out over the view above and where the sun hit it just right, so I spent many an hour chilling there listening to my iPod, waiting for the next event on the tour.
Once the tour group got together, we were off for our first day of real sightseeing! We first went to the City Palace, one of many palaces in India that must have been absolutely breathtaking in its day. In general, I wasn't all that impressed with the actual architecture in India, but the sheer size of everything was amazing. I just couldn't imagine people actually living in a palace of that size! I would have had to carry around a map to not get lost on my way to the bathroom. :) And oh my gosh, there were some seriously humongous beehives hanging from one of the walls. See the picture above. Crazy. After our tour of the palace, we took a boat ride around Lake Pichola which was ok. Then we made a pit stop at some temple in the middle of the lake, but at this point Shehrzad and I were so pooped that we opted to just stay on the boat and take pictures from there. Back at the hotel, the four of us just crashed and pretty much slept through the Christmas Eve party that evening. I know, we're crazy. :)
Overall, an interesting day. The sightseeing was ok, but the thing I found I enjoyed most was people watching. I loved being on the bus or sitting on a bench or standing on a curb, watching the people. I loved watching the kids, the families, the animals, just all the activity going on. Whereever you looked, there was *always* something to see.
Daily Dose of Lubna: Had a fantastic weekend decompressing from our trip and catching up on sleep!
The Peanut Countdown: 59 days.
POD:
Rajputana Resort
Beehive at City Palace
View of Udaipur from City Palace
Day 2: India - Udaipur (Christmas Eve)
I'm going to try to be really diligent about updating my blog each and every day, with stories from another day on our trip. This is the ultimate test of my memory, so wish me luck. :)
Bright and early (or dark and late, depending on how you look at it) the next morning at 3am, Shehrzad and I got our first of many wakeup calls from my mom. Why we never remembered to pack an alarm clock, or why, after a week of wakeup calls from my mom we never went out and bought an alarm clock, I'll never know. Part of me thinks we liked pretending we were staying in hotels fancy enough to offer wakeup calls. :)
Our flight from Mumbai to Udaipur was scheduled to leave at 6am that morning, so we pulled ourselves out of bed, into the shower, out the door and onto the bus. Our tour group was made up of about 35 Americans, most experiencing India for the first time. As our bus made its way to the airport, I remember being amazed at the number of people we saw sleeping on the sidewalks. Not like in SF where there's a homeless person sleeping in every entryway or one every 20 feet, but there were literally thousands of people sleeping, one right next to the other, laid out like sardines. It was so sad and eye opening.
One of the coolest things about traveling with my parents is my dad's understanding of how far a US$1 tip can go. At every single airport, at all the hotels, everywhere, Shehrzad and I never had to handle our own baggage. My dad would flag down a coolie (porter), flash him the 50 rupee note, and they would jump into action, following my dad's every move. None of the other people on our tour really got the hand of it, which was good for us because then we never had any other travellers to compete with. :)
On the plane to Udaipur, about 10 minutes the flight, my dad comes over to our seats 10 rows in front of theirs and tells me to come back to where they're sitting -- he's got a really big surprise for me. Believe it or not, my aunt (my dad's sister) who lives in Detroit, my cousin, her husband, and their two kids are all on the same flight to Udaipur! Unbelieveable. We knew they were going to be in India at the same time as us and we also knew we were going to try to meet up with them in Udaipur, but what kind of crazy coincidence is it that they end up being on the same flight as us?? It was pretty unreal. And even more unbelievable, my aunt's assigned seat was right next to my dad's! Weird.
The flight to Udaipur was only about an hour long so by the time we made it to our hotel in Udaipur, we still had the whole day to sightsee. The picture above is from the balcony outside our hotel room at Rajputana Resort. It looks like a pretty nice hotel no? It was naaaasty. I think most of these "resorts" in India spend all their money making the grounds look really nice, to the point where there's no money left to make the rooms even halfway decent. Ugh, it was a long 4 nights. No hot water even in the shower, freezing cold in the room especially at night, and this is where Shehrzad's first illness hit, so that was the icing on the crap cake. :) On a good note, there was a really nice couch right outside our room that looked out over the view above and where the sun hit it just right, so I spent many an hour chilling there listening to my iPod, waiting for the next event on the tour.
Once the tour group got together, we were off for our first day of real sightseeing! We first went to the City Palace, one of many palaces in India that must have been absolutely breathtaking in its day. In general, I wasn't all that impressed with the actual architecture in India, but the sheer size of everything was amazing. I just couldn't imagine people actually living in a palace of that size! I would have had to carry around a map to not get lost on my way to the bathroom. :) And oh my gosh, there were some seriously humongous beehives hanging from one of the walls. See the picture above. Crazy. After our tour of the palace, we took a boat ride around Lake Pichola which was ok. Then we made a pit stop at some temple in the middle of the lake, but at this point Shehrzad and I were so pooped that we opted to just stay on the boat and take pictures from there. Back at the hotel, the four of us just crashed and pretty much slept through the Christmas Eve party that evening. I know, we're crazy. :)
Overall, an interesting day. The sightseeing was ok, but the thing I found I enjoyed most was people watching. I loved being on the bus or sitting on a bench or standing on a curb, watching the people. I loved watching the kids, the families, the animals, just all the activity going on. Whereever you looked, there was *always* something to see.
Daily Dose of Lubna: Had a fantastic weekend decompressing from our trip and catching up on sleep!
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