R & R in Udaipur

You know you are on holiday mode when you slowly wander to the hotel's restaurant for breakfast at 10am. I remarked how much warmer it felt today, but I think this is more as a result of us catching the sun at a later time than a different temperature. Dave is chowing down on his chocoloate banana pancake. Washing it down with a strawberry lassi. I have just been served two pots of chai. Now, it won't be as delicious as the chai we learned to make in our cooking class yesterday. But then restaurant food is rarely as good as homecooked treats. Yesterday we were shown how to make ginger chai. Yum. You could feel a slight spice come through the chai. We have played it safe with eating in India, hoping to avoid stomach problems. I unfortunately picked up a bug and on our 3rd or 4rth night in spent hugging the toilet seat. The next day we travelled to Jeisalmer. We were meant to take a bus but I was in no condition to manage that. So we rented a car. Dave enjoyed the view from the front seat and I lay in the fetal position in the back, and slept most of the way. It has taken awhile for me to bounce back. Several banana lassis later I have a more regular appetite and I am beginning to enjoy the Indian cuisine again. Most of the hotels we have stayed at have had really good restaurants. The food is far more than what you would find on the street, however it is a small price to pay to avoid getting sick. We hope to do a walking tour through the markets in Delhi before we go. This isn't to say we haven't enjoyed 'local' cuisine. While in Jeisalmer, Dave was invited twice to a home for dinner. I bowed out of the invitations because of my stomach. And in Jaipur we came across a sweet shop where we ended up with 1kilo of Indian sweets. The sweet shop is called LMB Hotel. It was obviously a popular place because there were lots of people inside. Two long glass cases sat at 90 degree angles. There were some tables set up as well where people seemed to be enjoying their purchased sweets and chai. We must have stood there for a few minutes just trying to understand how the system worked. Customers were shouting orders to the uniformed staff behind the glass counters. There were short women in blue blazers who were taking orders as well. Behind the glass counter sat a very large man, on a bench, perched high enough so he could see the entire shop. All the money went through him. The uniformed boys brought each packaged box of sweets to him to check, and he was the one who issued change. Dave's first attempt at ordering sweets didn't go so well. The uniformed boys did not speak English, and they were quickly distracted by the Hindi orders being shouted at them. Eventually we were aided by one of the women in the blue blazers, who probably sold us enough sweets for a family of 10. They were packed in a brightly coloured box and shrink wrapped to go. We brought the sweets back to our hotel. And yes we were good. We had dinner first. And then....then we tasted our first sweets in India. If you haven't tried an Indian sweet I encourage you to do so, because my description cannot do it justice. And then I encourage you to hop on a plane and get yourself to Jaipur to try the sweets from LMB. As my teeth took a bite, liquid sugar or honey oozed from every nook and crevise. Though the piece was as small as ping pong ball, it felt as heavy croquette ball. As pistachio crumbs fell on to my lap I had to wonder how on earth so much sweetness can be packed into such a tiny piece of heaven. One small taste was more than enough, and yet in front of us sat a 1 kilo box. Probably 8 different varieties purchased from the store. And two of each of course. Sadly we never managed to finish the box. We tried. We passed our sweets to the driver and his friend while traveling to Jodhpur. (We were meant to take the train but it was 6 hours late. Not wanting to hang around to find out it would be delayed even longer we asked the driver we'd had for the last day and a half to drive us to Jodhpur. But that is a whole other blog post.) And then it was in Jodhpur where I got sick. I lost my stamina for eating due to my stomach and we had to leave the remainder of the sweets at the hotel. Oh how I wish we were heading back through Jaipur just to taste those sweets one more time. Today is our last night in Udaipur. Final night of 2011. This time last year we were walked down from our hike on Louis Tops, we bought ourselves some fish and chips for dinner and were in bed before 10. My legs were so sore, I don't think I could walk the next day. And then we were on our way to Stewart Island with Towny and Laura. What a crazy year it has been. Tomorrow afternoon we fly out of Udaipur and back to Delhi. We spend one night in Delhi and then we are on the train first thing in the morning to head to Amritsar. There we will watch the closing of the Indian/Pakistan border and watch people putting a book to sleep at the Golden Temple. Happy New Year to you all. Lots of love from Udaipur!