Amazon - Up The Ganges Without a Paddle

This day would turn out to be one our best days yet.   Amazon   and I had spent many evenings discussing the highlights of the trip to date.   They were divided in two main categories, sensory and spiritual/cultural.   Up to this point both played out in perfect competition with each other.   Today would bring a shift in that balance. The morning was spent driving past many monuments and buildings.   We visited a public laundry area where people make the best of a water supply that is rationed to only a few hours a day.   For many this is a living as they do laundry for many homes, commercial businesses and industrial customers. In order to capture the things we missed on Sunday due to closures, we were only afforded 45 minutes in the Prince of Wales Museum.   While I restricted myself to the ancient history of Hinduism and the natural history section featuring many stuffed animals native to western India,    Amazon got on her bik...

Our day started at 4:00 am in order to get to the airport for a 7:00 am flight.   When we got to the airport we had an emotional Amazon moment when she hugged Ajay, our faithful driver for the past 15 days.   Of all the drivers we had, he was the one we felt safest with and very willing to make changes on the fly when requested.   He even offered suggestions without coaching (found me some beer).   He was worth every Rupee of the tip we gave him with the full approval of the fiscally conservative Amazon. We got on the plane without incident and arrived in Mumbai on time.   As usual, we were met and delivered to our hotel without delay.   Following a short wait, we were escorted to our room. In the afternoon, we were met by our guide, Tombi, who immediately started reorganizing our itinerary.   This was necessary because it was a Sunday and certain sites were not open.   At any rate we had an eye opening exposure to some of the bazaars and s...

It was Republic day, a national holiday.   After a hearty breakfast, we motored into Udaipur to visit yet another palace, supposedly bigger and better than all we saw before.   It owes its remarkable state of preservation to the lack of plundering by foreign invaders. The palace was very ornate and beautiful and as in other places is now used as part hotel, part wedding venue, part museum and part residence for descendants of the last Maharaja.   Suffice it to say that I was becoming bored by now and if it weren’t for Amazon’s lust to “see it all”, I would have been back at the hotel sipping on some our secret stash of beer.   Actually, I don’t think we fooled anyone yesterday with clinking noises the bag made when we checked in. After stopping at a local restaurant for a lunch at which I couldn’t resist to order a beer only to be told that it was a dry day (Amazon just shook her head) we headed for our afternoon boat ride to the island where the Maharaja used...

OK, so we are safely home, but owe you closure on this adventure.  More twists and turns to come!  I will publish the remainindays as soon as I've made them up. We were afforded a relatively late start in the morning owing to our proximity to Udaipur and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the inside dining room (outside was still wet from the overnight rain).   This room has been beautifully restored in a blue motif.   The original marble having been cleaned to remove many layers of lime wash from the past.   The meal was a combination Indian/western fusion, put the hit of the meal was clearly the Poha dish of rice flakes, lightly spiced that made a big impression on Amazon.   During this, both the owner and his wife dropped by to wish us well and Amazon took advantage prying the Poha recipe out of Madame and complimenting the owner on his fine taste and obvious work of passion. Having provided her full approval of their labour of love, we took our l...

The next morning after a great breakfast in the open air, we joined one of the Canadian couples for a ride on a local narrow gauge railway for a scenic ride to a town called Phulad a whole 19 km and 3h away.   A local guide provided commentary about the scenery and provided crackers to feed the monkeys on route.   All in all, it was a pleasant diversion.   The couple from BC met their own driver for a trip onwards to Jodhpur while Ajay returned us to the hotel where we met a new Canadian couple from Burnaby, who had just arrived.   The eleven guests from the night before had all departed, leaving just the 4 of us in the whole 21 suite hotel. At 4:30, we got together for a guided tour of the old fort, learning about it’s history and the restoration work to revitalize and rebuild what is essentially a ruin.   The current owner is a direct descendent (14 generations) of the original royalty who constructed the fort.   The constructor was the chief militar...