Udaipur by Night
Saturday 1/5
We arrived in Udaipur in the early evening and went out walking to see the town and get our bearings, Google Maps has been great for that. I have been in the habit of saving the place where we are staying then we can venture out from there and navigate back later. GMaps was necessary with Himraj as he did not have a GPS and before I bought a data plan he would have to stop constantly and ask directions to our ultimate destination. We noticed that stopping in the middle of a busy street to ask directions is fine to do and that everyone seemed willing to help. We even used GMaps in the Tuk Tuks to make sure we were headed to our intended destination.
I had a great dinner of all you can eat Thali. Stuffed! I have to say I have really been enjoying the food in India. A number of the folks that we had spoken to back home said they did not like Indian food here but did like in America. I am an inter-continental Indian food fanatic. We seem to eat more vegetarian here as it is cheaper and the preparation does not take as long as something with meat, you also don't have to deal with random bone piercing through the roof of your mouth. Speaking of prep time, the Masala always seems to come with a notification, a warning, a prohibition from our waiter (we have had only one waitress so far) that it takes to long, choose something else. On Sunday night I did not get that warning, so order masala I did. About an hour later it finally came to the table, Aloo Masala (Potato Masala) it was really very good! Here is my Thali platter.
As I rolled out of the restaurant and down the street Patti had us head to a Hivali to check out a local dance and puppet show. It was minutes away from starting and we thought we would just drop by to see how long the line was. When we got there the line was huge but for some reason we were ushered right to the front, cutting everyone off, and taken right into the venue without purchasing tickets, it was crazy. Then we were sat in the best seats in house, they were actually the only seats, everyone else was on the ground or on tiny bleachers. The section said reserved and we protested a little bit as nothing is ever reserved for us, but they kept urging us in. After taking a seat I was thinking this was going to cost a lot. As the show went I settled on whatever the cost it was going to be worth it. About 20 minutes into the show the toll came due, it was face value on the tickets, nice! The man who owns the home stay said that he could not belive that we got in and thinks it must have been due to the girls. Their uniqueness here is finally paying off for mom and dad ;-)
The show was really good! Probably the best marionette show I have ever seen and I have traveled the world in search of the finest puppets. This one was able to pop its head off and bounce it around off hands, feet, and butt. There was a musical number that the dancers put on where they twirled cymbols from the fingers on one hand and struck a ring on the other hand as well as striking more cymbols on their pant leg to create a great melody. Talk about dancing to the oldies, that was impressive. We saw a 71 year old woman who could barely make it up and down the stairs balance 11 jars on her head while dancing around. We paid for Tara's camera so she has all the shots, here is my only shot, dancers with firepots on their head giving new meaning to 'hot brunette'.
Images in 2019 Udaipur
Images: You might have to access the images in a different way depending on the size of your screen. For full size monitors the links should appear on the left, for phones and tablets you will need to select the menu drop-down icon on the upper left corner.
We arrived in Udaipur in the early evening and went out walking to see the town and get our bearings, Google Maps has been great for that. I have been in the habit of saving the place where we are staying then we can venture out from there and navigate back later. GMaps was necessary with Himraj as he did not have a GPS and before I bought a data plan he would have to stop constantly and ask directions to our ultimate destination. We noticed that stopping in the middle of a busy street to ask directions is fine to do and that everyone seemed willing to help. We even used GMaps in the Tuk Tuks to make sure we were headed to our intended destination.
I had a great dinner of all you can eat Thali. Stuffed! I have to say I have really been enjoying the food in India. A number of the folks that we had spoken to back home said they did not like Indian food here but did like in America. I am an inter-continental Indian food fanatic. We seem to eat more vegetarian here as it is cheaper and the preparation does not take as long as something with meat, you also don't have to deal with random bone piercing through the roof of your mouth. Speaking of prep time, the Masala always seems to come with a notification, a warning, a prohibition from our waiter (we have had only one waitress so far) that it takes to long, choose something else. On Sunday night I did not get that warning, so order masala I did. About an hour later it finally came to the table, Aloo Masala (Potato Masala) it was really very good! Here is my Thali platter.
As I rolled out of the restaurant and down the street Patti had us head to a Hivali to check out a local dance and puppet show. It was minutes away from starting and we thought we would just drop by to see how long the line was. When we got there the line was huge but for some reason we were ushered right to the front, cutting everyone off, and taken right into the venue without purchasing tickets, it was crazy. Then we were sat in the best seats in house, they were actually the only seats, everyone else was on the ground or on tiny bleachers. The section said reserved and we protested a little bit as nothing is ever reserved for us, but they kept urging us in. After taking a seat I was thinking this was going to cost a lot. As the show went I settled on whatever the cost it was going to be worth it. About 20 minutes into the show the toll came due, it was face value on the tickets, nice! The man who owns the home stay said that he could not belive that we got in and thinks it must have been due to the girls. Their uniqueness here is finally paying off for mom and dad ;-)
The show was really good! Probably the best marionette show I have ever seen and I have traveled the world in search of the finest puppets. This one was able to pop its head off and bounce it around off hands, feet, and butt. There was a musical number that the dancers put on where they twirled cymbols from the fingers on one hand and struck a ring on the other hand as well as striking more cymbols on their pant leg to create a great melody. Talk about dancing to the oldies, that was impressive. We saw a 71 year old woman who could barely make it up and down the stairs balance 11 jars on her head while dancing around. We paid for Tara's camera so she has all the shots, here is my only shot, dancers with firepots on their head giving new meaning to 'hot brunette'.
Images in 2019 Udaipur
Images: You might have to access the images in a different way depending on the size of your screen. For full size monitors the links should appear on the left, for phones and tablets you will need to select the menu drop-down icon on the upper left corner.
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