Alex in motion

Known as “Venice of the East”, Udaipur was my favourite city to date. A large and peaceful man-made lake craddled several hotels, one of which was Leela Palace. This 5 star palace was lavishly decadent, and compares to a 6 or 7 star hotel in North America. I’ve never seen such incredible and personalized service, such ultra high amenities and superb luxury, all with traditional Indian design mixed with modern elegance.

It started with a night boat ride from the main road to the hotel, with kind staff wishing us Namaste and helping with the luggage. We were guided to a spectacular room with breathtaking views of the hotel garden and lake. The general manager briefly discussed the features of the room and mentioned each floor has a concierge to handle any of our needs.

The food was outstanding, from sprawling buffets to continental cuisines. The spa was divine, and the facial and massage was much needed and appreciated. It was simply the most amazing hotel I’ve ever stayed at. Once again I need to thank my friend Am for highly recommending this experience.

Selma and I were supposed to only spend one night here, but were able to find a cancellation to spend a second. Since we really wanted to take full advantage of the hotel, we limited the tourist attractions and only visited the City Palace and a wonderful fountain park.

Here they are in pictures.

My friend Am had previously warned I could not adequately prepare for India. He was right and I’ll explain in a moment. To keep me grounded, my good friend and previous neighbour, Selma, joined me for two weeks. The plan was to spend a week travelling 4 major cities, and then a week at a yoga and mediation ashram in Rishikesh.

I landed in Delhi and was immediately plunged into streets of chaos. Here’s my best to explain the roads here, as it was a unique experience. Visualize the following:

• Roads have painted lanes, so you’d expect there to be two lanes. Of course, you’d be wrong; there are actually as many lanes as needed, depending on the traffic. That means anywhere between 1 and 8 lanes, with cars, buses, scooters (with up to 4 people), motorcycles, tuk-tuks and rickshaws grinding along down the street, sometimes with just inches between them
• Occasionally some travel in the wrong direction, to accelerate their journey, I presume
• Although the police are absent, there are police road blocks placed randomly, as if to simply slow down and annoy drivers
• Potholes are common, accompanied with poorly marked construction signs
• There’s an incessant noise of honking. Unlike North America, honking isn’t only for warning someone, it’s for virtually everything. Honk to say hello, honk to tell someone you’re approaching, honk when you are 50 meters away, honk when you’ve passed someone, honk when you’re happy, honk, honk, honk. It’s a honking orchestra without a conductor
• The roads are lined with small and adjoined street shops, with beautiful colours of fruit and vegetables. There are cafes, street food vendors, peanut vendors, scooter repair shops, clothing and textile shops, mobile phone carriers, etc.

Imagine all the above, and now add street dogs, cows eating piles of garbage, people pushing carts in all directions and pedestrians shouting at each other, and you’ll have a fairly accurate picture. (Note: I didn’t even mention the persistent smog and the putrid smells).

Despite all this, it’s a harmonious chaos. I was quite content to have a private driver and guide to avoid the stress 🙂 Before arriving to India, I contemplated renting a motorcycle, just for the experience. After seeing the road and traffic conditions, I decided that would be a BAD IDEA.

Over 18 million people live in Delhi (that’s half the population in Canada all in one city!) with dozens of amazing tourist attractions. As part of our guided tour, Selma and I had the pleasure of:

• visiting the largest mosque in India, known as Jama Masjid
• being passengers on a rickshaw through the narrow lanes of Old Delhi
• seeing the Red Fort, built in the 17th century and a world heritage site
• seeing Gandhi’s monument
• admiring the Lotus Temple
• visiting Akshardham, a spiritual-cultural campus

The people in Delhi are friendly, and unlike South Africa, I never felt threatened by them. Perhaps it’s because I’m 6 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than most, but I believe they are actually kind and helpful.

Along the way to the next city in our golden triangle tour, we stopped at the waterwells of Chand Baori. This step well was designed to keep the natural water cool and was also used as a gathering place. Although symetrically beautiful, looking at it for too long inspired vertigo.

Once in Jaipur, Selma and I visited to the Amber Fort, with an awkward elephant ride up the gentle slope to the entrance. From there, views were breathtaking on the warm, sunny day. Inside the fort, we had a detailed explanation of life for one king living there. Apparently he had 12 wives, each living with a house and a courtyard that connected to the next wife. Pictures didn’t do the place justice, so you’ll just have to visit it for yourself 😛

The second attraction was Jantar Mantar, an astronomical observatory built in 1738. It has one of the largest sundials in the world, which measures daytime with an accuracy of 2 seconds. There were other sun instruments that measure astrological signs, an important aspect of arranged marriages in India.

I was told that 95% of marriages in India are arranged, and nearly all of them don’t divorce. The process is as follows:

1. When the son or daughter is of age, the parents spread the news of their eligible bachelour.
2. Parents research candidates based on their family, their caste and their education.
3. The parents meet potentials’ parents and discuss details.
4. A detailed study is performed, to ensure their astrological signs match. Couples need to have at least 18 out of 36 points in order to be married. If the points are less, they cannot get married.
5. If everything is aligned, the bachelour finally meets the candidate for less than an hour before confirming their parent’s choice.

If you’re curious, out of the remaining 5% that don’t have arranged marriages, whom marry for love instead, 50% get divorced.

In other news, I caught a light Delhi belly, which force me to be consistently aware of the nearest toilet. Luckily the condition was manageable, and didn’t ruin any activities. Poop.