Pushkar (15 - 16 January 2008)
This little semi-dessert town disappointed a bit. We were expecting something to the likes of Lawrence of Arabia and instead we found a small town overflowing with weird tourists and a tout, scammer, commission seeker around every corner.
To start with, Pushkar lived up to its name when Eon had to push our car out of some loose sand 
On arrival, we checked in to our hotel and headed to Om Shiva Buffet restaurant where we paid only Rs50 each for a lovely eat-us-much-as-you-like buffet. As we were leaving the restaurant, a young girl with her baby on the hip and her auntie following her, approach us and just asked where we were from and other seemingly innocent talk. The next thing I new, she had my hand in hers and she started applying henna. In the confusion, I tried to pull away, ask how much she will charge, try to make up excuses-all in vain. I gave in when she said I “can pay to what my heart feels” for the henna hand painting. This phrase later turned to “other lady gave me Rs300…” and “you’re my friend… no worry, for you good price…” I also had to listen to her story about her living in a plastic tent and her hammering on how poor she was (even though she was the best dressed Indian woman in town with very excessive jewellery). But I stood my ground and paid her the normal henna painting fees - I wanted to get it done in any way so I had done some prior research on prices.
Then we went on the usual sightseeing expedition, but it turned out to be a total let down. The only thing worth looking at was the Hindu temple which we (as non-Hindu people) were not even allowed to enter. We had to remove our shoes just to cross the footbridge, which was covered in dirt and cow dung - how strange? We strolled around the lake, bought some sweets and headed back to the hotel where we had a lovely quiet evening.
We had an early rise the next morning to watch the sunrise from the Savitri Temple on a hilltop just outside of town. The sunrise was mediocre, but there were really entertaining monkeys and we got some precious photos of them.
And that’s that for Pushkar.
Udaipur (16 - 18 January 2008)
Udaipur feels a bit surreal with its James Bond fascination and Indian flair. It is a beautiful city built around the Pichola Lake and in the middle of the lake is the town icon - the floating palace. Scenes from Octopussy, the Roger Moore 007, were filmed in the floating palace and around town. Now, just about every hotel shows the movie night after night on a big screen TV over boisterous speakers.
On arrival we found that the hotel that Werner & Chanel recommended was full, so we scouted for a hotel and found Hotel Gangaur Palace - a gem in the middle of the old town near the Lal ghat. That evening we had dinner, and did what was expected of us - we watched Octopussy under the stars. It was strange looking at a movie from so long ago to find that very little has changed in the streets of India since then. Even the auto rickshaws still look the same.
We went looking for the Spice Box cooking school, but found it closed for the day. The man from the shop next door, Krishna Musical Instruments, helped us by phoning his neighbour who explained that someone in his family had ‘expired’ and his school will be open the next day. So we booked the course in advance. The music guy’s little son was sitting on the floor in the shop, drumming away on two small drums. His drumming was very good and his English was almost perfect. I started talking to him… how old are you… how long have you been playing the drums… what other instruments do you play… And when I asked him if he wanted to be a musician when he grew up, he replied: “no, I want to be Prime Minister one day”. How ambitious is that?! I was expecting something like ‘engineer’ or ‘doctor’. This child inspired me to dream big, what do we stand to lose?
The next morning, we put on our chefs hats and headed to ‘the Spice Box’ for a cooking course in Indian cuisine. It was a little pricy, but in the end worth every Rupee. This was not the usual cooking course where you just do as you are told and play puppet for the instructor. Mr. Spice Box is really on top of his game and has been doing this for years. We learnt about all the different spices - powders and whole spices - and how to use each of them. Eon at last got a perfect recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala, his favourite Indian dish.
We spent the rest of the day rushing through a couple of sights including the imposing city palace with its endless towers and halls and balconies. We also spent some time at the detail-carved Jagdish Temple.
Ranakpur (18 - 19 January 2008)
We decided to rather sleep over in Ranakpur than to drive all the way through to Jodhpur. On the way to Ranakpur, we stopped over in Kumbalgarh to stroll through its enormous fort. This fort is surrounded by a 36km wall and has 360 temples and over 700 cannon bunkers. We walked around for two hours, but could not cover the whole area.
Ranakpur is a very small town, almost a village, but the majesty of the Chaumukha Mandir Jain Temple makes it worth the visit. This very impressive temple has 29 halls carved from white marble with endless detail. It also has 1444 pillars, no two alike.
Unfortunately, our astonishment turned into worry because we could not find accommodation and we nearly had to sleep in a ‘cell’ with no beds, windows or toilet facilities (at least it was for free). We insisted that the driver keep on driving us from one hotel to the next and at last we found a room. It was in a ‘roadhouse’ type of set up and they had only one room for visitors. So we were the only people spending the night there and this instantly gave us celebrity status. We were escorted around the village to watch sunset and about 20 children were following us shouting “tatta!” and waving and jumping up and down. Buckets of hot water were carried to our room for us to wash with. The hospitality was unbelievable.
Click on image to view gallery for Pushkar, Udaipur, Kumbalgarh and Ranakpur: