Bidjipur and Udaipur

Bidjipur

Night one in Bidjipur was quiet, we were meant to check out the surrounding villages but we were all exhausted from a rather long, hot trek to the heritage hotel we were staying in out in the country. I had a really crappy massage and then started drinking "Kingfisher" beer and eating good food.  This place also had a fairly decent swimming pool so after a few...or several Kingfishers I may have cannonballed into the pool while everyone was sitting around eating...may have...

Day 2 in Bidjipur was pretty quiet most of the day, pool and lounging but then we headed into the villages, learned some very interesting history of a few different places but probably the most fascinating for me was the story of this one small village of only 200 people and children on the outskirts of main Bidjipur.  This village was set aside by the king for this group of people known as theives and cheats.  They needed somewhere to live but because they were outlaws he banished them from the main town and gave them their own plot of land about 15 min drive away.  To this day it consists of thieves apparently whenever something goes missing in town the police just drive to this village and it's always in one of their houses!  The trade of stealing is passed down at a young age and the children are taught to steal too!  Weird no?

In the evening we went out to this magestic lake where we sat and had chai while starring out at the water, it was the first time since the tour started that I needed to be alone with something that took my breath so I took my chai and found a quiet tree to lean against.  I knew lakes had good memories for me but I didn't realize their impact until I was at one again...BC really lacks in the lake department!

Back on the road, we headed to an old farm house in the middle of NO WHERE and had a roof top picnic dinner by candle light, it just perfectly topped off a magical night.

I went to bed that night very uneasy and sick to my stomach, I tossed and turned in the room until 6am, got up, broke into the reception's internet connection and checked my email..my baby boy, Cooper, died that morning while in the loving care of my wonderful friend.  I am grateful he passed while in the arms of someone that loved him as much as she does but I of course was destroyed.  I ran back to the room and broke down on Sarah.  After a few hours we had to pack up and leave, I tried to tell everyone I was just tired from a restless night but when the "mom" of our group came in and asked me what was wrong I broke down in front of everyone (ug, add humiliation to pain)..everyone was wonderful to me and took good care of me.  Once we arrived in Udaipur that morning, I went straight to bed and didn't come out until that night when everyone insisted I at least come to the cutural dance show and dinner.


Udiapur


The dance was amazing, I have photos and videos I'll post once home in a few days.  It was colorful and intense.  As we were leaving, a bull attacked our group and actually charged one of our group members from behind.  By some miracle he wasn't too badly injured but immediately after the bull charged myself and the one girl in the group is who absolutely terrified of bulls! :-(  I tried to pull her up a flight of stairs with me to safety but she froze and we were split up.  I made it away safely but she was stuck hiding behind an empty tuktuk while the bull tried to manuver around to her.  Thank God our tour guide came running back and managed to scare it off long enough for me to come down the stairs, grab my friend and run for it.

We SAFELY made it to a beautiful dinner on a lake front in Udaipur, the most romantic city in India where I ate a bowl of plain speghetti (I needed some comfort)..then off to bed.

The next day was spent shopping in the amazing markets, taking an indian cooking class (I bailed part way as it was too hot to be stuck in a kitchen) and I went out shopping again.  I met the most famous artist in Udaipur, he was featured on the TV show "Lonely Planet".  I bought a bunch of his small works..beautiful stuff!

I met up with a bunch of the girls from our tour later that afternoon and had a much needed binge drinking night.  We sat on a roof top patio and asked that the beers just keep coming..we ended up just eating dinner up there and then continued our drinking back on the roof of our hotel.  Unfortunately, only gin was available back at the hotel, warm gin at that..so needless to say, I woke up VERY ill the next morning and had trouble getting out of the hotel room, let alone the 6 hour train ride I was about to endure.  I actually had to run for the washroom (or hole in the floor that goes straight down to the tracks below) and  ummm clean out my system?  It was an ugly 6 hours.

To go backward a bit and speak to Sarah's much more interesting evening in Udaipur...she had been dying to get on a motorcycle and just go around the city for a few hours but finding a safe dude who also has a motorcycle would be a task on your own as a traveller.  The great news is our amazing guide is friends with another Intrepid guide who happened to be in Udaipur at the time and who also just happened to have a motorcycle!!  He took Sarah out for hours and miles!  She came back for dinner before heading out again and the smile on her face was massive!  It was awesome!  Ask and you shall receive!

Next up..Pushkar..but right now I need to go spend the last few hours I have with my Canadian friends from the tour before they head to the airport.