Udaipur & Mt Abu

We left Pushkar for Udaipur having had one last all you can eat breakfast - very good! This however was the start of a bad few days for Georgie thanks to a food bug she'd picked up....what goes in must come out! You get the general picture. Our 7 hour journey didn't seem to help her condition and we arrived in Udaipur with her feeling worse than ever. Luckily we found a cheap room for the night for her to get her head down, not the best start for Rajastan's most romantic city!
The next day with her feeling no better, we moved rooms to somewhere with cable TV so at least she had something to watch whilst lying in her sick bed. This is pretty much how the next three days panned out, with Chris disappearing to do some exploring to avoid cabin fever, he never found much to excite him apart from the religious festival that was taking place for the few days we were there. It consisted of battered trucks carrying their so called Gods around the streets, and lots of men following dancing wildly and making a dreadful racket thanks to the makeshift bands and kids tossing bangers everywhere. Welcome to the 21st century!!! So when Georgie eventually felt better we moved on to Mt Abu hoping that the mountain air would get her 100%.

The crowd goes crazy!

Even the Camels enjoying it.

Leader of the pack!

Mt Abu at 1200m is perched on a plateau surrounded by flat grassy plains, with a man-made Lake its main focal point, this is one of the few places the Indians have actually made a good job of. Treated to glorious weather during the day and a comfortable climate at night this was perfect medicine for Georgie. Popular with the local Honeymooner's and weekend retreater's it created a pleasant relaxed atmosphere, if a little bit tacky and touristy. We filled our days going for walks around the lake and surrounding hills, visiting local Temples - one of which was the famous Delwara Jain Temple, a bland building from the outside but inside was home to magnificent intricate carved marble which dates back tothe 12th century - and a wee bit of shopping. The 'piece du resistance' (sorry bad french spelling) though was the Gurati Thali, similar to a Punjabi Thali but a couple of different dishes and more to the point as much as you can eat of this stuff - a greedy bastard's (Chris) heaven! We felt we'd over styed our welcome after three days and booked oursleves onto our first train journey in India as we take the cheapest possible sleeper down to Mumbai, 12 hours for 3.60 pounds...it should be interesting!

Enjoying the sun.

Absolutely beautiful!

Messing about on the lake - Kitsch!

Time for Tea!

As you can see from the picture Chris is enjoying a lovely cup of Chai, this is as far as our drinking goes these days, as for one month exactly we have been T-Total, on the Wagon, Off the piss - I know its hard to beleive but its true! This healthy detox has also included a strict diet of vegetarian food....not a morsel of meat passes our lips! We could in fact pass for being strict Hindus - but just in case you're getting worried this isn't by choice, THE MEAT IS CRAP AND THERE ARE NO F***ING BARS HERE!!! ColdTurkey!