My least favourite place in India...
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2009
1
18
Trip End
Nov 27, 2009
Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The town is well-known because of its lake and good (for India!) climate. One of the most popular things to do is to climb up to Sunset Hill to - you guessed it! - watch the sunset. I love sunsets, but pretty well every sunset I saw in India was very anti-climactic - the sky turned pinkish and then the sun just disappeared into a haze. Not really photo worthy. That may just have been because of the time of year that I was in India, I don't really know...
Anyway, we dutifully climbed up to Sunset Hill and tried in vain to find a spot to stand in the crowd where you could actually SEE the sun! It was pretty crowded - even for India.
One of the main sights in town is a complex of Jain Temples called Dilwara Temples. I've attached a pretty crap picture that I took from the street outside as pictures are prohibited in the temple. The temple was one of the coolest temples I've ever seen - it's all carved out of very intricate marble. It was really beautiful - here's a picture from Wikipedia:
These temples were built between the 11th and 13th centuries and apparently a few years ago someone made the decision to "restore" them and started painting all of the original marble over with WHITE PAINT!! In one of the temples you can see where part of the structure has been painted - it's so sad. Evidently a court order was obtained to stop the "restoration" and maintain protect the original marble.
What I'll most remember about my time in Mount Abu is probably the bus ride back down the mountain to the train station. I would absolutely consider it the number one most terrifying ride of my life. I was sitting in the back of a Jeep and was quite thankful not to be in the front because it was less scary not being able to see the oncoming traffic as we rushed towards in - usually in the wrong lane, without proper headlights after dark, down winding s-curve mountain roads with rock on one side and a cliff (and thus certain death) on the other. Just the swerving in and out of traffic was enough to make me feel pretty nauseous, and I don't really get car sick! I swear every driver in India drives like he's on an errand of earth-shattering urgence. I really did feel each and every time I climbed into a car (or tuk tuk) as if I might possibly die.
