Fortunately we did not have to drive ourselves. We hired a car with driver; what a luxury! Seated comfortably, with air-conditioning and a nice and safe driver; what more can you ask for?
It took us a bit longer, since we decided to make a detour via Pushkar. (More about that in tomorrow’s post.)
Frits was able to work on his laptop and phone for hours, I just looked out of the window and took pictures, 8 hours long. Ofcourse taking pictures in a speeding car through the closed window does not result in the best possible images. But they still give a good impression, I think.
The road led us through a beautiful scenery.
Greens, fields, meadows, mountains and lakes. Lots of farming and agriculture. Shepherds everywhere, cattle everywhere(especially a lot on the road;-)). People working the land, returning home with huge bundles of grass, crop or harvest on their heads.
The landscape suggests a hard, harsh life for both the people and the animals. It is no surprise that many seem to be on the skinny side, as the pictures later on will show.
The landscape is either very green like velvet, or rugged and bare. The only colors that stand out, are the sarees of the women.
And it is mainly women that you see, either herding or carrying grasses. Their sarees blew me away, again and again. Such vivid, intense colors!!! Being a sucker for color I enjoyed that so immensely; wow!
Every now and then we passed by a small settlement or village, where it are still and again the women and their sarees and jewelry that stand out:
In general their posture is very good and proud, and their faces often have strong features. They look gorgeous. Yet the average fate and life of women and girls in Rajasthan is very bad. (More about that in another post next week.)
There is a lot of merchandise along the road and streets:
What you see everywhere in India is, that things are pushed to the limit and well beyond. People, animals, bikes, trucks, cars and whatever….it is all loaded up to the max. If you or it can carry or stow more, then bring it on, stash it on top, hang it over, squeeze it in, etc.
Here are some small examples:
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| Do you see the guy on the roof of this small car? |
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| If the bus is full, climb on the roof, as this whole bunch of people did. |
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| Or stand on the rear bumper and hang on. |
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| Normally Frits and I sit in an auto rickshaw like this one with the two of us and feel that it is full this way. Here there are 4 in the front and 4 in the back, hanging half out of the rickshaw. |
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| About 20 people in the back of a truck; could easily fit in 10 or 20 more;-) |
We overhoal other types of vehicles, pass by tent like ‘homes’, see monkeys and encounter literally endless numbers of cattle wandering over the roads and highways. Not in a neat herd, no, just straying around, crossing whenever wherever, standing in the middle of the road and so on.
I am always concerned that our driver will fall asleep while driving, since the distances are so huge, but in this case I did not have to worry about that, since he had to deal with a constant stream of animals on the road for hours! Keeps you busy and awake for sure!
The last half hour, we drove through marble area, apparently. There was marble industry for miles and miles and then some more. There were marble slates and there was marble carving etc. The air was hazy from all the marble dust. A very unhealthy place to live and/or work for sure.
Our drive ends with this beautiful sunset. Tomorrow we will have a look at Pushkar, our stop-over during this day of driving. Have a nice day!
hi
so is it worth the driving there. And take a flight back to Jaipur?
thank you.
Iris Low
Singapore
email: [email protected]
Hi Iris,
worth it…that’s tough to answer. Depends on your interests. For me it was interesting, giving options for stops and sightseeing along the way. At the same time the trip is long and tiresome. So if you’re in a hurry, it might be worth checking for flights instead of driving.
what driver company did you take from Jaipur to Udaipur thru Pushkar ? Thanks ; want to do the exact same trip, in one day.
Hi Catherine, we hired a taxi with this company:[email protected]
The type car was a Toyota Innova.
We were picked up in Jaipur at 10 am and we spent only a couple of hours in Pushkar. In hindsight I would have loved to have spent more time in Pushkar.
Due to traffic, cows, sheep, unlit roads, etc. we arrived in Udaipur late in the evening.
Hence, my recommendation would be to leave Jaipur earlier. More like at 8 am.
I hope you have a wonderful (road-)trip!
Anja,
Thank you for your blog — your observations and photos are great!
And thank you for ‘stopping by’!