What a fantastic day, one that we will always remember! The brief play by play is - We awoke, hungover... checked out of our hotel where I had a fight with the manager. We then had breakfast at a cafe. After breakfast we explored a royal palace & museum before having lunch & beers at a lakeside, rooftop restaurant. After lunch we had a nap at the restaurant!
Then went shopping & spent $600 on his & hers jewellery & one of a kind Indian art.
After shopping we had dinner, desert & cocktails on another roof top restaurant & watched the sun set over the water palace. On our way to get our bags we walked through a bright & boisterous street market, were harassed by children until we got mean.
Were now off to catch our first Indian overnight train to New Delhi, the Capitol of India !
Now for the detailed version! We awoke at 7am to both of our alarms that were silenced, reset & then snoozed till 8.15am.
We had a check out time of 9am, very early by Australian, Chinese, Nepalese & other Indian hotels.
We both showered & started to pack our bags, which included unwrapping our laundry that was delivered the night before.
I was devastated to discover one of my brand new Indian dresses has been destroyed! The hand painted block pattern has been stripped of the dress & multiple areas of seam have come undone & the straps are frayed. I was very upset considering the laundry charge was so expensive! We paid 1200 INR for our washing to be done, 25 INR per item & each item was supposedly, individually hand washed. That's nearly half the price I paid for the one of a kind dress that was destroyed.
I had a few minutes to compose myself then took the dress down stairs to talk to management about it. My composure didn't last long, due to the hotel managers complete rudeness.
He initially tried to dismiss me, stating he would talk to Tom about this & not me, which infuriated me. Then he told me my dress was a cheap fake, which I refused to believe because I brought it with Rachna, my Indian friend who helped pick it out & vouched for its design, quality, price & traditional meaning. He then told me that my Indian friend was a liar & then tried to tell me that my dress had been washed individually by hand in cold water. Complete bullshit, I told him it was bull shit & asked if he knew what I was referring to, it's all over the god damn street in India from the holy cows! Conveniently I could gesture outside the glass door where a cow was conveniently standing.
I also said I would be seeing Rachna again in 2 days & telling her what he said & what had happened to my beautiful dress, he seemed to loose a bit of steam at this point. But quickly regained momentum & then told me to get Rachna to phone him if there was a problem. At this point I grabbed my dress & pointed my finger in his face while stating there will be a problem & storming upstairs to my room.
At no point did he apologize or make efforts to fix the wrongs done by his hotel & the company he supposedly hired to wash the clothes.
Instead he blamed me, Tom, Rachna, the washing company, the person who made the dress & called the same people liars. I know that if I had washed this dress it would be perfect still. I bet $100 he threw it in a hot washing machine with all our other clothes & a heavy duty detergent.
After packing our bags & going downstairs the same manager once again made a snipey remark at me over Tom's shoulder stating "it's bad quality" to which I just raised my eyebrows, turned away & ignored him.
Once we had checked out & stowed our luggage we went to a local cafe for spinach & cheese subs & masala chai tea for breakfast. My anger was significantly soothed by food & tea. Despite some residual anger, I couldn't deny it was a beautiful day & we both noticed the Indian people we passed seemed extra happy & friendly. Nearly every person waved, smiled & said hello or wished us a good day. Saturday fever, perhaps?
It was then off to explore the palaces of Udaipur! We walked 20 minutes to the Jetty side of the lake to visit the lake palace featured in the James Bond Octopussy film. We were disappointed to be told that we couldn't go see it unless we were staying on the island in the palace, damn!
We set off to see the City Palace & museum, the huge series of palace like structures up on the hill that we had been admiring from Pichola lake side.
While walking between the palaces we encountered multiple women & children who seen us coming & approached us to beg for money. None of these people looked homeless or poor. One of the women looked wealthy with bright shiny jewellery, make up, perfume (she smelt better than me) & a beautiful saree on! It was very unusual. We would later find out these girls were probably transgender girls.
At the ticket counter we were given 2 tickets each for the palace/museum & the outside garden. Costing 330 INR each. Tom handed over a 2000 INR note to the cashier & was given 340 INR change with the tickets before we moved aside. Immediately I felt like this was wrong & added up the ticket price clearly written on the tickets before pushing back into the line & telling the cashier he had ripped us off by 1000 INR. He looked shocked & put up very little resistance before handing over the 1000 INR he owed is. Possibly my angry face was the reason for the minimal argument I expected to get. I was in no mood to be ripped off or treated like a walking ATM today.
The inside of the palace was beautiful & regal, though somewhat a bit tacky compared to other Indian architecture we have seen. There were a lot of rooms full of mirrors, bright paintings or wall paper that was peeling off and stained glass that gave us this impression, in comparison to the marble and mosaic art we have previously seen in India.
After the mornings exploration we made our way to the Natural view roof top restaurant, where we had dinner the previous night.
We ordered beer and veggie pizza for lunch!
It was delicious & combined with the midday heat we started to get sleepy ! Having checked out of our hotel room created a small problem as to where we could nap. In the restaurant they had a room with floor cushions where they must show the film octopussy, we have seen signs advertising it all around town. We asked the manager if we could sit in there & both took a nap for 2 hours. I'm not sure if I'm proud or embarrassed by this fact. The staff didn't seem to care.
After our nap we ordered coffee & walked the nearby streets exploring the street art & local shops. It was at this point we realised the general populations extra happy behaviour was due to a festival. Green carpet was laid out on walkways that had been freshly washed, big white canopies were strung up between balconies & walkways, drums & bells chimed while people sung & danced. There was balloons & flowers everywhere!
We went into one particular textile & clothing store where I tried on multiple dresses & brought a beautiful light blue & silver, silk dressing gown. Not what I thought I would buy, but very happy!
After this we strayed into a silver shop where Tom brought 3 rings, including a square one of a Nepalese design & a chain necklace.
I would also buy a small finger ring, a toe ring & an anklet.
Following the silver shop we went into an art shop. One of many we have been into while exploring Udaipur which seems to be bursting with artistic talent.
Tom found an intricate elephant painting done on a carved camel bone. The painting also had a mirror twin & they looked complete as a pair. The detail on the paintings was astounding & we brought them, along with insurance & postage for 5 kilos of other stuff we have accumulated through India, which Tom went back to the hotel to get. I hope they survive the trip, despite insurance it would be a real shame if they are damaged! They are such individual, beautifully detailed & memorable pieces of art. We will have to get some sort of membership at a framing place when we get back!
I'm excited to get home & unwrap all of our packages, see all our worldly memories & give our friends & family the gifts we've brought them.
After organising the postage we went to a different roof top restaurant to have dinner, desert & some cocktails. We had an amazing alfredo pasta with a Greek salad & a sizzling walnut brownie with ice cream for dessert.
It was a beautiful evening & we were spoilt with the sunset & water palace views. A perfect last night in Udaipur.
At 9.30pm, we walked back through town & the festival that was getting busier. I would have loved to observe the festival & discover what it was about but as soon as we approached, swarms of children ran up & started hassling us for money & trying to put hands in our pockets. None of these kids looked homeless or starving & followed us down the road for 500 meters until I got mean & yelled at them to go away. On our walk back to get our bags we would be approached by lots of women, children & priests trying to bless us & beg for money.
We collected our bags from storage lockers & got a tuk tuk to the train station with an hours time to spare.
I was relieved to see no beggars at the train station & we were able to sit in peace until the train arrived.
We were in an AC three tier sleeper carriage, with our booth of 8 beds empty except for us.
We were happy to receive linen & that the train left on time at 11.10pm hopefully sleep would come easy. It our first train ride in India, a 13 hour overnight trip that will take us from Udaipur to New Delhi before we continue on to Rishikesh.
- Alli
Then went shopping & spent $600 on his & hers jewellery & one of a kind Indian art.
After shopping we had dinner, desert & cocktails on another roof top restaurant & watched the sun set over the water palace. On our way to get our bags we walked through a bright & boisterous street market, were harassed by children until we got mean.
Were now off to catch our first Indian overnight train to New Delhi, the Capitol of India !
Now for the detailed version! We awoke at 7am to both of our alarms that were silenced, reset & then snoozed till 8.15am.
We had a check out time of 9am, very early by Australian, Chinese, Nepalese & other Indian hotels.
We both showered & started to pack our bags, which included unwrapping our laundry that was delivered the night before.
I was devastated to discover one of my brand new Indian dresses has been destroyed! The hand painted block pattern has been stripped of the dress & multiple areas of seam have come undone & the straps are frayed. I was very upset considering the laundry charge was so expensive! We paid 1200 INR for our washing to be done, 25 INR per item & each item was supposedly, individually hand washed. That's nearly half the price I paid for the one of a kind dress that was destroyed.
He initially tried to dismiss me, stating he would talk to Tom about this & not me, which infuriated me. Then he told me my dress was a cheap fake, which I refused to believe because I brought it with Rachna, my Indian friend who helped pick it out & vouched for its design, quality, price & traditional meaning. He then told me that my Indian friend was a liar & then tried to tell me that my dress had been washed individually by hand in cold water. Complete bullshit, I told him it was bull shit & asked if he knew what I was referring to, it's all over the god damn street in India from the holy cows! Conveniently I could gesture outside the glass door where a cow was conveniently standing.
I also said I would be seeing Rachna again in 2 days & telling her what he said & what had happened to my beautiful dress, he seemed to loose a bit of steam at this point. But quickly regained momentum & then told me to get Rachna to phone him if there was a problem. At this point I grabbed my dress & pointed my finger in his face while stating there will be a problem & storming upstairs to my room.
At no point did he apologize or make efforts to fix the wrongs done by his hotel & the company he supposedly hired to wash the clothes.
Instead he blamed me, Tom, Rachna, the washing company, the person who made the dress & called the same people liars. I know that if I had washed this dress it would be perfect still. I bet $100 he threw it in a hot washing machine with all our other clothes & a heavy duty detergent.
Once we had checked out & stowed our luggage we went to a local cafe for spinach & cheese subs & masala chai tea for breakfast. My anger was significantly soothed by food & tea. Despite some residual anger, I couldn't deny it was a beautiful day & we both noticed the Indian people we passed seemed extra happy & friendly. Nearly every person waved, smiled & said hello or wished us a good day. Saturday fever, perhaps?
It was then off to explore the palaces of Udaipur! We walked 20 minutes to the Jetty side of the lake to visit the lake palace featured in the James Bond Octopussy film. We were disappointed to be told that we couldn't go see it unless we were staying on the island in the palace, damn!
While walking between the palaces we encountered multiple women & children who seen us coming & approached us to beg for money. None of these people looked homeless or poor. One of the women looked wealthy with bright shiny jewellery, make up, perfume (she smelt better than me) & a beautiful saree on! It was very unusual. We would later find out these girls were probably transgender girls.
The inside of the palace was beautiful & regal, though somewhat a bit tacky compared to other Indian architecture we have seen. There were a lot of rooms full of mirrors, bright paintings or wall paper that was peeling off and stained glass that gave us this impression, in comparison to the marble and mosaic art we have previously seen in India.
After the mornings exploration we made our way to the Natural view roof top restaurant, where we had dinner the previous night.
We ordered beer and veggie pizza for lunch!
It was delicious & combined with the midday heat we started to get sleepy ! Having checked out of our hotel room created a small problem as to where we could nap. In the restaurant they had a room with floor cushions where they must show the film octopussy, we have seen signs advertising it all around town. We asked the manager if we could sit in there & both took a nap for 2 hours. I'm not sure if I'm proud or embarrassed by this fact. The staff didn't seem to care.
We went into one particular textile & clothing store where I tried on multiple dresses & brought a beautiful light blue & silver, silk dressing gown. Not what I thought I would buy, but very happy!
After this we strayed into a silver shop where Tom brought 3 rings, including a square one of a Nepalese design & a chain necklace.
I would also buy a small finger ring, a toe ring & an anklet.
Following the silver shop we went into an art shop. One of many we have been into while exploring Udaipur which seems to be bursting with artistic talent.
I'm excited to get home & unwrap all of our packages, see all our worldly memories & give our friends & family the gifts we've brought them.
After organising the postage we went to a different roof top restaurant to have dinner, desert & some cocktails. We had an amazing alfredo pasta with a Greek salad & a sizzling walnut brownie with ice cream for dessert.
It was a beautiful evening & we were spoilt with the sunset & water palace views. A perfect last night in Udaipur.
At 9.30pm, we walked back through town & the festival that was getting busier. I would have loved to observe the festival & discover what it was about but as soon as we approached, swarms of children ran up & started hassling us for money & trying to put hands in our pockets. None of these kids looked homeless or starving & followed us down the road for 500 meters until I got mean & yelled at them to go away. On our walk back to get our bags we would be approached by lots of women, children & priests trying to bless us & beg for money.
I was relieved to see no beggars at the train station & we were able to sit in peace until the train arrived.
We were in an AC three tier sleeper carriage, with our booth of 8 beds empty except for us.
We were happy to receive linen & that the train left on time at 11.10pm hopefully sleep would come easy. It our first train ride in India, a 13 hour overnight trip that will take us from Udaipur to New Delhi before we continue on to Rishikesh.
- Alli
No comments:
Post a Comment