OCEAN CITY WITHOUT THE OCEAN
(Rajasthani
Ramblings Part 5)
On February
4 the most wonderful thing occurred: the weather finally changed to warm/hot
and we were no longer cold at night. The
unseasonably cold weather was finally replaced by the expected hot, dry weather
(thank god - or Shiva!).
From
Barmer, we headed to Jodhpur and back to the tourist circuit - which meant
touts and overcharging on the negative side and nicer guesthouses and more food
options on the positive side. Towering over all of Jodhpur was Meherangarh fort, built on a hill in the
center of the old city. Its positioning was similar to that of the fort in
Jaisalmer except it was much higher up with a much steeper approach. They had an excellent audio tour that took us
through the whole fort and explained its history. This fort was built by the Rajputs
(Hindus) and not the Mughals (Muslims) so there were some notable differences
from other forts we had seen. There were no waterfalls, fountains, gardens
divided by waterways or mosques. Unlike
the Mughal's which only had floral and geometric patterns, there were many representations of people and
deities (Shiva, Krishna, Ganesh) in the artwork. Sandstone screens (jalis)
and the general architecture of the buildings was similar.
We took
a day trip to Mandore which was known for its public gardens. On arrival we went to the one guesthouse in
town for lunch. We were warmly greeted, led to a table within a lush green
garden and told lunch would be out in a few minutes. There was a large group of
English college students who were staying there and spending two weeks doing
volunteer work at a local school. Apparently, the guesthouse was involved in a
number of public service efforts and hosted volunteers from all over the world. We were served a lunch of chapatti (India version of a tortilla), rice, dhal (lentils),
potatoes, mixed veggies and banana - all for $1.50 each. After lunch, we looked
over the guesthouse and their garden which had a number of great sitting areas
with hammocks or benches for hanging out. Much as we would have liked to stay,
we had an aggressive agenda to follow - we had to go to the Mandore gardens and
walk through them!
The
gardens turned out to be one of the nicer public areas we explored in India. It had many flowering shrubs and trees, lots of
bougainvillea and a number of terraces on different levels. The whole park was
litter free and there were young, Indian couples sitting in various quiet
spots. What stood out most about the gardens, however, were the monkeys -
hundreds of them. The Indian culture considers monkeys sacred and believes that
if you give gifts of food to the monkeys, your prayers or current desires will
be answered. One man had a huge bag full of bananas and somebody with a stick
standing next to him to stop the monkeys from totally overrunning him. The
monkeys came up to him, reaching out for bananas. As he gave each one a banana,
it would run off to eat it and he would have five others with their paws out
trying to get a banana. It was quite a sight to see (and a little scary walking
down the paths with all these monkeys around you).
We
went on two other day trips while staying in Jodhpur. One was to Salawas, a small, dusty town that was
unremarkable except for the fact that they had a few world class artists making
cotton durries. We stopped at a couple
families’ backyard looms and saw the weaving process as well as some impressive
examples of the finished product. The
other trip was to Osiyan which contained a number of 8th – 11th
century Hindu and Jain temples. We
climbed a long, steep staircase to get to Sachiya Mata which was a complex of
about ten to twelve temples. Some were as old as 1000 AD and others were brand
new. However, after the fine state of
preservation of the Jaisalmer temples, we were a bit under whelmed by these.
The best part of the day trip to Osiyan was the ride back. We got the finest
bus in all of India – fast, good shocks and clean. Too bad it was only a one hour ride!
We
headed to Mt. Abu
on an "express" bus. I guess the definition of express varies,
because some express buses had only 1 or 2 stops an hour, but this bus stopped
twenty or thirty times in six hours. For
some reason, all the stopping made the trip seem longer. Plus, the bus went
from packed full with people almost sitting on your lap, back to relatively
empty with free seats and back to packed again. However, we made it safe and
sound. Mt. Abu
was a British "Hill Station" - a place in the mountains where the
British would go to escape the hot summer weather on the plains. Now it is a
popular honeymoon destination full of hotels, restaurants and shopping. Sort of
like Ocean City without the ocean. Lots of
Indian couples were walking hand in hand (gasp) - a very rare sight elsewhere
and many women were wearing jeans (double gasp) instead of saris.
Unfortunately,
Lois spent the next two days sick. Luckily, we had a very nice hotel with room
service and cable TV (plus, as always, my ever attentive care) which made it a
little more comfortable for Lois. There
was a very nice lake with paddle boats for rent that were out of a cartoon -
big blue swans and multicolored dragons as well as some more pedestrian
designs. When Lois had recovered sufficiently, we took a walk around the lake
which had a number of parks at its edges. The next day, Lois was fully
recovered and we signed up for a half day tour of the highlights of Mt. Abu - for $1 apiece!
The tour took us to places we wanted to go plus a few others that we
might have otherwise skipped but were happy to have visited.
Since
Mt. Abu
was an Indian tourist destination, our tour was almost exclusively in Hindi
with the guide just telling us the name of the place where the bus had
stopped. The first stop was Adhar Devi,
a Hindu temple formed out of natural caves in the rocks high above the road. So
we walked up 360 steps and then got to see 4 little cave temples with altars in
each one. The Indians went into each temple to say a prayer and leave an
offering. Not a stop we would have chosen, but good exercise going up the steps
and some great views from the top. Next was Kantinath Jain temple - nothing
special, but you have to stop and say a little prayer (if you are Hindu). They were constructing a new temple and a boy
about fifteen years old was doing a marvelous job carving marble. His tools
were a hammer and a number of six inch nails whose ends had been flattened like
a chisel (no eye protection). First he penciled in the design on the marble and
then he carefully chiseled it out. The new temple is sure to be spectacular
when finished.
Next
was Guru Shikhar, AKA Saint's Pinnacle. At 1772 meters (5650 feet) above sea
level, it was the highest point around.
Those gurus really understood the concept of location with a view! There
was a great 360 degree vista from which we could see the whole area. Very rocky,
but lots of greenery and trees, plus far below the Rajasthani plains. There was
a steep walk up to this spot and while we passed on it, we could have had 2
guys carry us up on palanquins for $1.25 each. (A palanquin is like a chair
hanging from the middle of a long wooden pole with one person at each end of
the pole carrying the person sitting in the chair).
What
we expected to be and what was the highlight of the afternoon was Dilwara, a
series of carved, marble, Jain temples. There was one room with 10 carved
elephants and riders, the elephants being about 1/2 scale. Another room had a very ornately carved interior,
the ceiling divided up into many 6' x 6' domes, each dome with a different
motif of raised marble carvings. Some lotus flowers, some gods, some dancing
apsara women. There were columns at the
corner of each 6' x 6' dome. In the center of the ceiling, the was a 25' x 25'
octagonal dome with carved statues along each of the lines of the octagon. In
the entire temple, there were no surfaces that were not carved. It took 2700
workers something like 15 years to build.
This was by far the best Jain temple we had visited to date.
The
final stop on our tour was Sunset Point. On the westward facing side of the mountain,
the road led to a spot where there was an octopus of trails all leading to
viewing platforms. We saw the plains below and the sun setting over all of it.
There were some clouds on the horizon so the sunlight filtered through,
lighting up various spots on the plains and mountains. There must have been at
least 500 people there to watch the day end. For us, it signified the end of
our time in Mt. Abu
and the for you, the end of this travelogue...
All content is copyright © Paul Schneider, 2005.
