Shilpgram Village

We’re slowly slipping into vacation mode. Our starts in the morning are getting progressively later, and the motivation it takes to tackle something big becoming harder and harder to find. There are a handful of day tours from Udaipur to other forts, temples, and the like, but in general, they involve a 2-3 hour drive each way, and these days, 6 hours in a car just doesn’t sound that compelling. We may live to regret it (I do wish we had summoned the effort to make the day drip to Petra from Egypt), but fore the foreseeable future, we’ll be sticking pretty close to home base.

We also have some travel reservations to come up with as there are a few days between our time in Udaipur and Jaipur that are wide open. Originally, we had contemplated using them for a camel safari in the desert northeast of here, but there aren’t many great transportation options that would suck up most of the time, so that idea gets abandoned fairly early. Ultimately we settle on Pushkar, which is on the way to Jaipur, and at this time of year is gearing up for what is apparently one of the biggest camel fairs in the world. It’s far enough away that train is the most logical means of getting there which has my better half giddy with excitement.

Not far from the hotel is a craft village set up by the government to showcase rural life in some of the regions around India. It’s a little cheesy in some respects, but interesting nonetheless, and highlights the vast difference between poverty in the cities and in the country. Where life on a few dollars a day in Delhi means a hovel with open sewers, no running water, limited education, and little hope, in a rural village, it provides for an extended family living in a small compound, raising crops and livestock to provide many of their own necessities, but in reasonably clean conditions, and with good access to education and healthcare.

Fortunately for us, life in the village also provides ample time to create knick-knacks, so even here, Ang finds it possible to plow through our stockpile of rupees. Fully encumbered with treasures, our plan to head into the city for dinner is forgotten and we head back to the hotel to drop off our bags. There, inertia quickly sets in, and with a little time reading by the pool and some happy hour drinks and snacks, it’s pretty clear we’ve seen all we’re going to see for today.