Uidapur onto Bombay (Madras)

Trip Start Aug 28, 2004

Trip End Aug 2005

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Flag of India Udaipur, Madras, India
Wednesday, December 8, 2004

The trains thro' Rajhastan going south are limited and so we took a bus down to Udaipur, for a 16 hour stint, but in typical H&M style we manage to grab the one and only straight thro' bus which because of some elections taking place we have to change midway, great! Finally we get to Udaipur and book into the nearest Hotel available (and close to the train station) at 5am, get some extra kip and then go exploring this lovely city. Udaipur is home to the filming of "Octopussy" with the floating Palace in the middle of a lake, only when we found it, the lake was half dry and the sight is somewhat less impressive and a tad disappointing to see........It was exceptionally hot on this day and so we took refuge in some of the local shops whilst looking fro some miniature paintings to send home. We finally found some, but martin felt we could get a better deal, so we left it a while and eventually went back to collect the very same ones after a lot of inspection of other shops. One includes a scene of all the three cities, Jaiselmer "Golden City", Jodphur "Blue City" and Jaipur "Pink City" and the other is of Elephants as that is what signifies India for me

Palace, Udaipur City

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We discovered a wonderful Black and White Photographic Exhibition on at a local museum and indulged in some lovely representations of India throughout the western part of India, Rajhistan, Goa, Kernataka and Kerala.........We even got to speak to the man himself Waswo.x.Waswo, he's trying to introduce the idea of Photography into India and develop the viewing of work further a very interesting guy.

We regret only having given one day to see Udaipur, and maybe will come back one day as it truly is a nice city with a casual buzz about it, another to recommend, theres lots to both see and do and there's way too much temptation to buy out all the local wares!

We made a long trip of one and a half days on an overnight train from Udaipur changing with a slim connection in Amhemabad onto Bombay (Mumbai as it's better known now)

Udaipur fort

. This city is a real eye opener to the real poverty of India, as is Dehli, as for the many miles you trawl into the city at a very slow snails pace you can see the shanty town that has been created all alongside the rail track. Apparently when the British left in 1947 only 5% of the cities population was slum and now it is about 60%, what a difference but obviously there are other factors involved too.(I think they call it corruption ,the disturbing thing is while we all know communism is the bogey man and democracy rules, I never saw anybody begging in China. So you take's your choice freedom of speech or food and shelter) We decided to be sensible with the onslaught of December and many people coming over for their Hols to book all our trains thro to Goa and onwards........Once done with the Burocracy at the rail stations a legacy from British rule (You really have to experience it to appreciate) it we found as cheap an option for a hotel to stay in. The result? A Hostel for sailor men types which sounds really terrible but it was in fact one of the cleanest and most efficiently run places we have stayed in all round (and cheap!!). The rooms even came with TV's!!!

We explored the very local area and ate very fast food we confess to a MacDonalds, but with my dodge tum it was in order! Martin got our films developed and burned to CD as well as invest in a CD player? So we are now with some music, although it appears the CD player does not work!!!! Off marched a very cross Martin back to the proprietor, and strangely enough being 10pm he was not open!!!(The beggars of all ages I'd (martin now) thrown a few coins to earlier in the day were now lying all over the road drugged up eyes rolled back and off somewhere a lot more pleasant than their sorry sad day to day. Oh yes as luck would have it we got the Cd working. Unfortunately we did not get to see the port or sea in Bombay but you wins some you lose some.

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