It was a long 7 hr. drive from Jodhpur to Udaipur. This included a 2 hour stop over at an amazing temple of the Jain sect of Hinduism. The temple is chiseled out of solid marble. It is in the mountains along a narrow winding road which passes through numerous small towns with amazing city life viewing.

Now in Udaipur, we toured the city. The palace has a well presented museum of its history. Udaipur is a great boutique and clean city by India standards. We are staying at a wonderful new 2 yr. old hotel spread out over multiple acres. Quite beautiful. Each free standing bldg. has 4 units and each bldg. has 4 solar panels on its roof for hot water and the water is very hot. Only 500,000 people live in the town which  is built around 5 man made lakes. This town is quite a contrast to the arid desert cities we had become accustomed to. Tomorrow we fly back to Delhi for the night. Then onto Bangkok for 4 nights. We will miss our driver Vinod Kashi. He has been with us 12 days and has become like family. Calls us mom and dad. After all he is only 40.

Lookin

After another 5 hour drive we arrived at Jodhpur, second largest city in Rajasthan. Our driver is quite skilled at maneuvering all obstacles whether they be motorbikes, huge trucks, farm tractors, broken down vehicles in lane, cows, sheep, goats, dogs, to name a few. The roads, in general, are two lanes wide with constant passing of slower vehicles. He has one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the horn. A constant ballet of zig, zags, ins and outs. What started out in Delhi to be hair razing is now nothing. I always ride shotgun. Have the total spacing and passing thing down. A herd of 10 cows, no problem, wiz through them at 80 kph.

We spent the afternoon touring the impressive Mehrangarh Fort. Almost always on the highest hill, this is a stupendous fort/museum. Home to one of the 59 kingdoms in Rajasthan. Over 400 years it grew to multiple stories in height. The current king came to power 3 months after Queen Elizabeth in 1952. He is the second longest reigning monarch on earth after Queen Elizabeth. He is 67 years old and ascended to his throne at the age of 4 after his 29 year old king father crashed his private plane. On exhibit were many carriages which were hand carried on men’s shoulders or some on elephants backs. The king has spent a lot of his wealth restoring his properties.

One point of interest was the large center courtyard. One of the attached photos shows the windows all covered with cut out screens looking like lace. These screens were hand carved out of solid sandstone or marble depending on the palace within the various forts. Inside these rooms looking out were the king’s wives. They could see what was going on in public areas but could not be seen behind the screens. Remember, the king’s were Muslims.

The real India emerges as we travel further into Rajhastan. Pushkar is a tiny town of only 15,000 residents. Its main industry is Indian tourism. Pushkar is also where all the international hippies come to gather. Many Anglos looking and dressing Indian. Pushkar is ashram central. Pushkar has one unique thing going for it, it has the one and only temple dedicated to the god Brahma in all of India. Every Hindu is expected to make a full pilgrimage before they die.  One of the stops is Pushkar for this temple. There are tiny narrow arcade streets lined with shops. Amazing people watching and cow watching too. The cows (mostly wild) roam the streets along with the people (mostly tamed) as they do throughout India.They are both use to each other and non plussed. The dairy of the cow is religiously interpreted as providing nutrition to the people.

In the center of the town is a large lake surrounded by ghats which are steps down to the water. We sat on the steps and received a blessing from  Brahman priest. Ten minute long ceremony where we meditated for all relatives living and dead for good health and long lives. Also included Dawn😁 The good health and long life excluded those already dead. Oh, so many religions and so little time. Was an experience.

After a long day touring Jaipur our driver Vinod and the guide for the day Amit said Rajasthan Tours had a surprise for us. We only knew it was high tea. They drove and drove then made a right turn into a driveway where the two Sikh gatemen in uniform opend the wrought iron gates and as we drove in the sign said Taj Rambagh Palace Hotel. Were talking 5+ stars here. We were greeted at the front door by four people, two staff members, one who anointed our foreheads with the red dot meaning welcome and the second staff member put flower garlands around our necks. The other two guys were managers of Rajasthan Tours whose headquarters are in the hotel. We had high tea out on the lawn. Indian bone china, silverware and the tiered trays were sterling. At the edge of the lawn area was a retaining wall and beyond that was more lawn over acres of land, manicured with gardens, fountains and a herd of peacocks. Got a slight look at how the 1%ers live. Kuldeep Rathore, Rajasthan Tours asst. mgr. said rooms for New Years Eve started at $1,300 USD.

Crazy and wonderful evening. With the exception of our room and one other room, the whole hotel was booked by the same extended family who meet  every year for a New Years Eve reunion. They were from USA, Canada, Australia and India. As the outsiders, we were warmly embraced by all members who wondered who we were. Guess they thought we were new in-laws since a few members were Anglo. A group of really beautiful women. Amazing how many have lived in California. One girl attended the Athenian School in Danville. Had a great time, gratis on the hotel, including a hosted bar and heavy appetizers (dinner). Danced till midnight to India techno beat. Like a rave.

That morning we met the guy in the other room which was not a family member. Arun Singh lives in Raleigh Durham NC and is the CEO of an information technology co. He immigrated to US in 1983. In chatting this morning he mentioned that his father had been governor of Rajasthan. Later this evening he came  up to us and introduced us to his 2 college aged sons. The three of them had had lunch at the royal palace with the king of Rajasthan.  How cool!

All in all, had to go down as the most memorable New Years Eve ever. We left after midnight but the party continues under our room. Indian techno until 5 AM. Think we will sleep through it.

Our very good friends, Rick and Karen Fenchel, invited us to join them for a one week stay at the Ritz. We accepted but could only swing 4 nights away from the biz. They had a beautiful 3 bedroom 3 1/2 bath apartment with full kitchen for a week. The apartment had its own concierge who did everything for you. We were honored. Many hours were spent on the terrace looking at the snowless ski runs. Dinner and lunch were always in town. Amazing restaurants. One night we dined next to Elle MacPherson and party. Still beautiful at 51. The week coincided with The Aspen Film Festival. Took in a few flicks and did our voting. The Ritz had a wonderful shuttle service into town. If you missed the shuttle, then take a taxi from town and the Ritz paid the fare. The weather was in the 70s with cool nights. The Fall colors were beautiful. The real estate prices were stratospheric (e.g. 1,500 sq. ft 2bdr., 2.5 ba. condo for $3M).

Ancient ruins near Hoi An. UNESCO Heritage sight. Checked out of resort at noon today. Stowed luggage.  Did a day trip here to absorb time. Our flight to Hanoi is at 8pm, connecting to a midnight flight to Osaka. Sleeping day tomorrow in Osaka then catch Hawaiian flt. to Honolulu at 9 pm, connecting on to OAK.

My Son ruins were from 4th to 11 th century. Over 2/3 were destroyed during a week of heavy aerial carpet bombing of this valley during our war. A foundation of Damlier Benz in Germany is funding the very slow restoration of these ruins in My Son.

This will be the last post of this trip.