Having discovered that our services were not required at school on Tuesday we collapsed into bed without setting an alarm - such luxury - and slept the morning away. In the afternoon we decided to exert ourselves a little, but not too much, by walking through the local villages. During our wanderings one of the older boys from the school drove past us on his motorbike (yes he is 13 and in charge of a full sized motorbike) and invited to his house for chai. When we arrived at his house we realised the enormity of his family, many of whom were our students. The older kids then explained to us that there were 7 brothers who all lived together with their wives and children and this was their home. There were a total of 20 children; 12 girls and 8 boys - one of which was an adorable 4 month old - the 7 wives, the 7 fathers (who were all at work), the grandmother and her sister and then some of the men had other wives and their children who also lived there! It was a very extended and complicated family but I was amazed by the simplicity that they live in and the fact that it is completely normal to live with such a big family. I was also relieved to hear that none of the younger girls were married yet, although one of the wives was only 18 and had at least one child already. I was also very happy to hear that the father of the oldest girl, who is extremely intelligent and a star pupil, has said she can go to university, however, from what I understood her uncle wasn't so keen!
The rest of the week felt very short as we only had 3 days of school and on the Thursday evening the 2 guys who we met in the flat on Delhi came pit to Tikli Bottom and we shared more of our adventures with each other over their stay here. That evening there was a thunder and lightening (but no rain) storm so when we got back to school we recklessly lay on the roof - very unsafe - and watched the forks of lightening light up and split the sky, it was incredible. On Friday the boys came down to the school for the day and Sheela, the head teacher, organised a day of rounders for them to coordinate and us to assist in our free periods (of which I have many). So I spent the majority of Friday playing rounders (more like a combo of rounders, cricket and baseball), which I had forgotten how much I love, with the kids and getting far to competitive about it, in the scorching sun. For the last period, the head sent all the kids home and we had a staff rounders match that was very entertaining as it got pretty competitive and the teachers argued about the rules more than the kids had! After school, Laura and Kat headed off to Jaipur for the weekend whilst Fenella and I played cards on the roof with Jack and Dan until we had to leave for our train to Udaipur.
We found ourselves a large plate of edibles (savoury pancake things called puri) on the platform whilst waiting for our train and then settled down for the 12 hour over night journey. It ended up being a 14 hour journey and I had slept too much in the previous days to be tired enough to sleep well on the train so I drifted in and out waking up to the rattlings of the train, the whistling wind and the loud snores of our fellow passengers.
We eventually arrived in beautiful Udaipur at 10am and made our way to our hotel for a rooftop breakfast (of delicious muesli) overlooking the vast lake that Udaipur is situated around. Our budget, lonely planet recommended hotel was perfectly located, a close distance from most of the sights and right on the edge of the water so with incredible views. Once we had renewed our energy, Fenella and I ventured into the streets where we visited 3 different temples, one for the Hindu elephant god which was magnificent and had carvings of different elephant scenes all over the external walls of the temple. Another temple also had different depictions of the God carved into the marble walls and had more great views over the lake. The final temple was a Jain temple (another religion) which wasnt very well kept but the whole of the inside was made of coloured glass so glistened spectacularly in the sunlight.
Our next stop was the vast City Palace which was the former home of various Maharanas (royals) of the area hence its enormity and grandness, I definitely wouldn't complain about living there especially with the amazing views over the lake, the hills and the rest of the city. It took us a good couple of hours to make our way around its expanse and we were completely pooped afterwards due to the heat (35°c) and lack of sleep the night before, so we returned to our hotel for a couple of hours and had a siesta. We had learned from our trusty guidebook that there was a guy who ran a mini bus up to the monsoon palace (where a lot of the James Bond film Octopussy is filmed) every evening for sunset so we went to the meeting spot and convened with a number of other tourists - which udaipur is notably full of. We were jolted and jerked up the hairpin bends leading up the hill that the monsoon palace is situated on as our driver was not particularly good at changing gear and the roads were not ideal, but we did make it to the top alive - although I did doubt it a couple of times. The palace itself was a bit dilapidated and home to some very cute monkeys so we took up position on one of the outside walls and watched the sun go down over the hills. The man sat next to us was a photographer who was shooting a time lapse video so he showed us how to fiddle around with our cameras to get the best shot of the glowing sunset. When we got back down into the town we found another nice rooftop restaurant (they seem to be a recurring thing) for a delicious curry dinner. I like to think I am becoming more tolerant of the spicy dishes now; either that or I am getting better at choosing the less spicy ones!
The next day we took a boat ride around the lake and got dropped off at the lovely Jagmandish island which was a beautiful spa hotel where we sat and hid from the midday heat, writing our journals and eating extortionately expensive ice cream. Whilst we were there, I bumped into a family who had been staying in Tikli Bottom 3 weeks previously which was a very odd coincidence but it was great to see them again and they seemed to have enjoyed their travels so far :)
For the remainder of the afternoon we found a restaurant to mooch in, playing cards and filling our stomachs before our train departed. Apart from a heated debate between some of the passengers in our compartment about where one of the couples enormous bag should go because it wouldn't find under the the seat, the train journey went with little to report and I actually slept reasonably well. The only trouble was that the train arrived at Gurgaon station at 4.20am making it hard to have a proper nights sleep! The others had returned from Jaipur the night before so we quietly let ourselves into the room and fell asleep instantly. Funnily enough getting up 3 hours later for school wasn't quite so easy. Jack and Dan were still in Tikli so they organised an afternoon of football/cricket after accompanying us in our lessons in the morning. Now that the weather is so much hotter it is harder to spend long periods of time outside in the heat, especially if it also involves running around. I am also currently writing the end of year exams for the classes that I teach which is a challenge seeing as I've only taught them for 3 weeks! We then showed the boys around the villages in the evening and were of course invited in for chai by one of the students, before heading up to the house and bidding farewell to Jack and Dan, wishing them luck on their next 6 months of travelling around Asia.
I cannot believe that I have now been in India for 6 weeks and it is only 5 weeks until my family arrive in Tikli B to whisk me away on a much more luxurious tour of India than I have been doing so far. Personally, I quite like the backpacking life but it is nice to have a base to come back to and not always be carrying all our belongings. Onwards to the next weekend of activity....
Love to all xxxx
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