Background - Indian Hot season resort town|
- so not like the desert fort towns I am visiting.
- It's at 1200-1700m, but it's different from Darjeeling and other hill stations as it's not such a big contrast it looks quite like the desert below; no rainy forests etc
- all the foreigners stay at the Ganesh. Indian tourists stay at more expensive places.
| Tue - arrive
- 5 hour bus Mount Abu bus was a bit late, cos at the base of the Mount they waited 90 minutes for more passengers. - Cos it was high season the cheapest room I could get was 200Rp for a wood shed at Ganeshes
- Tue - planned to walk around the tourist centre lake and from there over a 2Km trail to the popular sunset point - "oh those paths are too dangerous without a guide, one Swedish tourist had his face ripped off by a bear" ... He as talking crap of course, perhaps he makes money from guides ... I went past the 30 or so candyfloss stands and stalls and after 10 minutes came to a 1m wide gravel path which you could almost do on a motorbike .. Hardly jungle trekking ... I waited and when 2 Indian groups went past I could see it's hardly deserted enough to surprise a bear on ... In fact in the first 10 minutes you can see the crowds below at the lake then you turn a corner and can see 3000 Indians waaiting at the sunset view on the other side.
- big sunset watching scam - actually it seems like a not only was the sunset crap on that day on the internet there are no good photos either. But what is amazing is the Indian tourist phenomenon the loud crouds dropping litter and the hordes of taxi drivers and trolley pushers waiting to taking then away. The sun doesn't actually set it drops to the horizontal as a small yellow disc and theen is completely obscured by dust in the sky .. It doesn't actually get dark until 45 minutes later. Again no food to buy, eventually found fried fish.
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- Wed - Day tour with Indian tourists
- The only place I wanted to visit was the 1700m high viewpoint, but the hotel owner said I could see it on the 100Rp day tour
. It was only $2, but they should have paid me to be on it - For $2 I knew it would be crap
- 1. supposed to start at 9am but it's 10am before you reach the Shiva temple 1Km away,
- 2. then another 0.5Km and you at the Om Peace University hall for a yoga cult, straight away I spot it as another scam it's basically a shop with a temple in front
- 3. another 1Km and it's another temple with a view. Picture tedious minutes of crowds squeezing up steps.
- then the 2Km back to the town for lunch .. What's the point in having a bus ? They could have just given everyone a walking map and they would have done the tour quicker !
- 5. t's 5Km to the 1500 year old Jain temple Dilwara with it 1000 pillars and walls carved out of marble ... I should have Been impressed but wasn't "look if you have 100 monks with years of time of course there will be a lot of carving"
- 6. You drive up the mountain and stop at a viewpoint ... You see exactly the same view at the top of the mountain 5 minutes drive further
- 7. The 1700m Peak and inevitable temples - you can see the desert plains below, but strangely it's got the same vegetation as the town 500m below so it was hardly worth it.
- 8. Sunset view was the last stop so I got down and did a 3Km walk to Honeymoon Rock, which actually has a better view ... The sunset was crap again.
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Mr Bean Again
- The tour guide gave 5 minutes in Hindi then 1 minute in English each place. at 10am I cleaned my glasses and the bride just fell in 2 so I had to ties I with pink string.
| Thu- Not Relaxing
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- Thu - what should have been a day of work and an overnight bus, turned into a rush and 22 hours. Since Mount Abu was twice as expensive I decided to take the night bus to Jaiselmer, thus I'd have the whole day to catch up with internet work. But strangely the bus doesn't go at night so I had to aim for a 1pm bus to Balmer which me nt taking a 11am bus down the hill. - Bus drove away without me 12.50pm the icecream seller passed my window and didn't stop during the 1 minute I was off the bus chasing him, the bus suddenly disappeared ... with my bag .. 10 buses there none of them mine .. No ..one understanding what I was saying ... Looked next door through a gateway it was there .. Another bus had just hit it's bumper so they'd driven it there for bashing. - 8 hour drive through desert villages ... Good roads by the border army. ... Heat, dust Lots of camel carts and round farm houses I would like to have visited also many wild peacocks strolling in the desert... It seems the Indian government has done a good job with desert irrigation It was never barren, but usually bushes and wheat fields.
- Untouristy so bus driver very friendly . A school teacher invited me to stay at his village.. had English been better I would have as it was it's too difficult dealing with the normal stereotypes the average Indian has about westerners.
| Balmer - didn't work out as all hotels full.
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- I declined a homestay cos a cheap hottel would have been easy to find I strolled around sometimes followed by 20 children as all 20 hotels were full. I'd missed one right as I got of the bus as they don't expect foreigners all the signs were in Hindi... So put the hammock up at the station. So I never got to explore Balmer properly and it's for 1Km above...
- Train crash next to me.. Midnight they gently shunted a loco onto the front of the train. 4.30am They were doing the same thing, except this time the incredibly power and noisy loco was waiting as the carriaged approached it ... But the train didn't brake, but smashed into the loco sending it at least 3 carriage lengths down the track ... It was surprising that nothing derailed. what a way to treat millions of $ worth of equipment !
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| Fri
| 5
| Sat
| Sun
| 7
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