Continuing with the India trip of last November, we flew from Mumbai to Udaipur, founded in 1568 and on the shores of Lake Pichola. We stayed at the Ober0i Udaivilas, a magnificent property on the shore of the lake. We spent one morning touring the City Palace which towers over the lake and is covered with balconies, towers and cupolas and terraces which offer some superb views of the lake and old palace in the center of the lake. Bring good walking shoes, water, a wide brim hat and sun screen. Lots of walking and climbing of stairs at this place!

In the evening, we did a cocktail cruise on the lake on a traditional Gangaur boat for wonderful views of the City Palace lit at night. Very lovely evening here, where we got to know some of our fellow tour members, several of whom were from Brazil and were very good travel companions.

We traveled to the Jag Mandir Palace, an unforgettable palace in the middle of the lake, built by a Maharana in 1622 AF as a pleasure palace for royal parties and functions. There is a special approach of a row of marble elephants that seem to be guarding the island.

The next day we were on the road to Jodhpur with the major stop en route at the Jain pilgrimage center nestled in the Aravali Hills. These temples date back to the 15th century. The Jains are only one of several ancient religions in India. The majority of the 18 billion people are Hindus, and the biggest minority are Muslim. The Hindus are vegetarians, and do not eat most meat, and beef is essentially unavailable for consumption except for westernized hotels in the major cities. For example, in the Oberoi chain of hotels, you can eat traditional Indian dishes or they have a Continental menu from which you can order all the foods eaten in Europe and the West. But in Delhi Airport at the McDonalds, you can get a fishburger, chicken burger, or veggie burger; no beef on the menu. The cultural contrasts are stark. There are the old palaces of the ancient rulers, and then the stark poverty of much of modern India. While we were there, India launched a rocket to the moon, but the country has not elimanated polio, and you see beggers with grotesquely misformed legs beggin on streets. Numerous times on the bus as we traveled the countryside we saw women harvesting grain in their beautiful saris, and carrying the hand cut grain stalks out of the fields bundled in their heads. And, in the middle of the field, a cell phone tower. Incredible contrasts.

By the way, the Oberoi hotels are fabulous; I would rate them six-star. Magnificent properties with beautiful grounds and beautiful accommodations with all the amenities. A word of caution here regarding the water. There was information in the hotel to the effect that the hotel had its own water purification system and was safe to drink. A member of our group asked the guide about this and he emphatically said that you never drink water out of a tap anywhere in India! Of course the inquiring guest had to try the tap water and got a bad case of "Delhi Belly". Moral of story; always drink bottled or boiled water. Bottled water is readily available and we never had a problem.

By the way, the guide was excellent, an Indian native, himself a Hindu, and very knowledgeable about his country. He explained to us that because of the caste system which still is adhered to (although officially outlawed) in the rural areas, the people accepted their lot and lived in poverty and some pretty bad sanitation conditions. Cows are sacred and roam the streets. You see garbage in the streets, sometimes burning, and the cow dung is abundant and used to fuel after it is dried in the sun. Because the Hindus believe in reincarnation, they are kind and very helpful and they do this in the hope that as a result of their good deeds, they will come back in a higher caste in the next life.

Unfortunately, there is a great deal of extreme poverty in India, and the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" gives you some idea of the conditions of the poor in the major cities.

I'll continue to relate some of the incredible experiences we had on this trip in the next blog