Travelling tales...

Ranakhpur and Udaipur

Udaipur Pictures

On the way to Udaipur, we stopped at Ranakhpur to get some lunch and take a look around. Frankly, I think Ranakhpur deserved a lot more than the 3 hours I was there. Ranakhpur is in the heart of the mountains and in this garden paradise is the most beautiful Jain temple you will ever see!

Around the temple are scattered some hotels and encompassing all is a huge nature reserve. No tigers here but I did spot a large cat (Jaguar?) climbing a tree. Monkeys are all over the place, on the roads around the lakes and near the temple.

The drive through (over!) the mountains was breathtaking. I just wish I had my MX5 over here rather than being a passenger in a 1.5L diesel with the aircon on full!!!!!

Checked into the stunning Hotel Rampatrap. It is situated on the banks of the Fateh Sargar lake and has a wonderful rooftop restaurant/chill out area. Khan took me to meet Raju, the best salesman in Rajasthan who over the next few days took a heap of money off me but put a smile on my face at the same time. I have come away from Raju with:-

• A Maharaja outfit
• All the accessories for above!
• Hand painted set of Karma Sutra playing cards (nice!)

Khan then invited me to meet his friends on the rooftop restaurant. This noble clan consisted of

• Deepak, the hotel owner
• "The Doctor", a taxi driver like Khan and most certainly no doctor!
• "Real Barcelona", one half of a Spanish couple. This guy smiled a lot but generally said nothing and was a bit of a FSOP (Geoff! ;-) )
• Real Madrid, the other half of the couple. This girl was very happy and jokey

For the next 4/5 hours we eat, drank and talked about Indian experiences, why Real Barcelona never talked and why on earth "The Doctor" was called "The Doctor"!!! A great night!