Udaipur Part II

It is possible that not everyone got the memo: I am not returning to TO on Aug 10th, as originally planned, but Aug 22nd. I extended my stay because I am having such a lousy time (not).

Today seemed like a free day in Udaipur because I had originally planned to spend it in Mount Abu. The french canadian that rode to MA with me told me about a place in Udaipur that a taxi driver told him about called the Kings' Crematorium, where all the Udai kings since the city was founded were cremated (and all their multiple wives threw themselves on the pyre, as any good Mewari wife must. Apparently all 21 wives of one of king threw themselves on his funeral pyre). Actually he did'nt tell me all these details, he only showed me his photos, I thought the place looked really interesting and I found out the rest online. For whatever reason, the city doesnt advertise the place and it is completely off the tourist map. But if you ask locals they know it (except my rickshaw driver) and will tell you where it is.

So I waited out the morning's rain and finally found an auto rickshaw driver who would drive me there for Rs 50 rather than the Rs 150 that the others wanted. I don't know if it turned out to be a little further than he originally thought or just what but he had a long talk in hindi with lots of arms gestures indicating turns this way and that  with two other auto drivers before we set off. In any event, when we arrived he asked for more money claiming that I had told him it wasnt as far as it was. There was a grain of truth about that and a couple of months ago I'd have given him the money but I'm getting more hard-assed about this sort of thing these days and, as a result, he was out of luck. I mean it wasn't really even a Rs 50 fare in the first place.

The place is beautiful and fascinating but entirely without explanation or interpretation. There must be a couple of hundred shrines or cenotaphs (or temples?) all packed together cheek by jowl, some only 8 inches or a foot apart. I must have taken over 100 photos (alas only a couple on my phone so that is all you are going to be able to see now) before getting heck for that from the guard on the way out. Naturally, he asked for a camera fee but by then I was with a Gujarati family that I had befriended and who had also taken photos and the guard gave up trying to charge just the foreign lady. In the circumstances, the idea of admission charges was a little lame anyway. The place doesn't even have a sign and the only visitors were myself and the Gujaratis. I doubt that they could even issue me an entry ticket.

According to this website: http://www.eternalmewar.in/collaboration/temples/shri-mahasatyaji/index.aspx
19 kings were cremated here but there are obviously way more cenotaphs so I'm not sure what's going on - unless all the wives qnd some nobility also got memorials.

After that, I walked most of the way back, through one street with a lot of musical instrument makers (dolaks, tablas, harmoniums, sitars and bells) and then through Bapu Bazaar, both of which are places for locals rather than tourists.

The attached photos of me eating ware taken by a street food vendor. I have Rohit at DEF to thank for introducing me to gol golpaa: bite sized hollow poori shells that the vendor pokes a hole into with his thumb and then fills with some chick pea stuff, spices, syrup and spicy water with round balls of something  floating in it. You have to pop each one whole into your mouth and usually I end up with liquid running down my wrist. They serve them to you one at a time and you get 5 for Rs 10, or sometimes Rs 20. I know I wasn't the vendor's first foreign customer (he showed me photos of at least one more) but he wanted to photograph me on his phone all the same. He also photographed me stirring his pot of daal like I worked at the stand.

All in all, a nice day even if a little rainy. I'm glad I got to spend some extra time in Udaipur. In a perfect world I might have opted for the extra day or two in Ladakh, but what can you do. And now with this post I think I am caught up on my blog. Don't expect it to last.

I hope all the photos aren't rotated sideways in this blog post. I know that the blogger ap can only handle photos one way and I think it is portrait, but I'm not 100% sure. Someone, let me know.