Sorry for the delay in posting this–recent life in Spain has been a teeny bit chaotic (not too surprising after all that travel!) so I’ve been trying to focus on “real” life. Now, though, here’s a look back at a day’s excursions during my March trip to India!
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Sunday, March 25, 2012
The past couple days have been pretty spectacular—and not just for the photo ops.
Yesterday I woke up late and started off with a midday walk around the neighborhood. The area around this guesthouse in Udaipur has a quiet, suburban feel—none of the chaos of downtown Mumbai. Some people stared, others introduced themselves, and others wordlessly requested that I take photos of them (as usual, I ever so kindly obliged).
Then, after a quick stop at the guesthouse, I caught a ride with S over to the youth center for an afternoon of wonderful photo time with the kids. They’re always so excited to be in front of the camera! The posed antics were hilarious, but I think the photos became a bit more interesting once they stopped doing headstands and breakdancing for the camera (not even kidding—see below) and started just being themselves.
After the center we stopped for some chai at the restaurant by the lake. S had to go pick up another guest pretty soon after that, but somehow he still made time to take a pit stop right next to some other gorgeous views (solely so that I could hop out of the car and take pictures). So, these are the views from a road that cuts through Fateh Sagar lake… Ridiculous(ly amazing), right?
That night I joined S and the new guest, J, for a meal at another beautiful Udaipur restaurant. We had some interesting conversations—the new guest is a bit older than me and has fit in work in Dubai and travel in Thailand during the past few years.
We all spent a bit more time together today. S dropped J and I off at some local gardens, and we spent the morning wandering around there. The gardens were beautiful, but the men creepy as ever. When a couple guys started (very obviously!) taking video of us on their phones as we relaxed on a shady bench, we got up and moved on to another monument site.
While the next monument was simply a not-too-photogenic statue with minimal English explanation available, this was the amazing view from the surrounding terrace.
When S picked us up, we headed over to do some pharmacy shopping, which went smoothly until a random Indian guy tried to edge in front of us in the register queue. Fortunately, neither of us were going to put up with that—and after we closed ranks and glared at him intermittently for a few minutes, he gave up and went to try to cut into another queue.
We finished off the day with a trip to Tiger Lake, a beautiful spot well outside the city center. Despite a bit of local color (some men who were very determined to take pictures with us—as in, who really wanted to stand close enough to a white woman that they’d be able to cop a feel) the outing really was a success. It’s also just an amazing privilege to be able to access sites like that one which you can only really reach by car!
Here are some photos from the outing:
Now I’m actually writing from a new hostel, which I switched to solely because I was getting concerned that I wouldn’t end up making the time to explore this city’s touristy monuments and old city. The “real life” accessible from the guesthouse was incredible, but Udaipur originally hit the top of my list of India destinations because Monsoon Palace and the nearby Old City are so beautiful—I would hate to miss those because I got caught up in other things.
Regardless, I’ll still be heading back to the youth education center tomorrow afternoon to play with/photograph the kids one more time…and of course, since I am me, I’m already contemplating how I can come back here in the next couple years to embark on a large scale photo project in cooperation with the education center.
In the morning tomorrow, though….the City Palace! (Thus, going to sleep now! Really, I am!)
Wry Travels 