Welcome to Part Four!

We are halfway there, keep going!

Tordi Garh

 Having flown through Arga in a haze of awesomeness, the next stage of our trip was the far flung town of Tordi Garh. We had a 4 hour bus trip, with a further 3 hours in a Jeep and I was not too excited about it. I was even less excited when I saw the bus - which D told us was the best quality you could hope for.

If I could draw your attention to the rust hole in the drivers door, the hood that wouldn't close, and the resigned look Alex is wearing....

The bus offered a view into the increasingly picturesque countryside, but only if you sat up super straight or slouched down low, as some genius put a metal bar right at eye level. I was eager to get off the bus and get into the jeeps, which I was sure would be relative luxury. Wow, was I wrong...

The jeeps sat 2 in the front - passenger and driver, 3 in the middle, facing forward and up to 6 sideways in the back. If you got the back seat, you couldn't sit up straight or you would hit your head on the roof, and all you could do was clench every muscle and hold on for dear life. Within the first few minutes, I found myself lying on top of poor Stephen and then in Monique's lap. I finished the trip with a bruise on the top of my head, aching muscles and a cramping hand from holding onto the door handle. Despite the fithyness and shakiness of the bus, I would take that over the jeep, but when I saw the town, I didn't particularly care anymore, as jeeps were the only way to get to the town, and it was truly something very special.

The sister of the Prince, who cooked all our food. Girl knew what she was doing! She is welcoming us with a marigold lei and a red dot.

The Palace of Tordi Garh

Our room

Tordi Garh is a very old village that sits at the foothills of the Aravali ranges, with a small series of pristine sand dunes and a fertile valley with natural irrigation from a spidering river. It is the site of quite a few battles and the reigning Feudal Lord and his family were our hosts at the 18th Century palace that they have converted into a hotel. The side of the palace still has a defensive wall, and forts could be seen in the hills. The rooms in the palace were beautiful and we were quickly whisked away on a caravan of camels (I googled that collective noun hehe) into the sand dunes.

Sand dunes are just not fun to walk up. Down, yes. But NOT up.

That night we had a bit of a party on the roof and then dinner in the beautiful roof top dining room. 

Unfortunately there was only just enough room in there for one group at a time, and there was a parallel tour group who had to wait outside until we were finished and then have their turn. We still don't know if they weren't told this, or they were just rude and uncouth, but so began The Great Gecko Group Feud at the Feudal Palace. We almost needed the battlements, when the other group squeezed in behind our chairs and got food, and then proceeded to sit on the floor and eat, pointedly showing how uncomfortable they were, and when we tried to go back out onto the roof to have coffee and another drink, we told in no uncertain terms, to either go back inside or go to bed, because it was THEIR roof. 

We were a bit baffled, and there was a bit of back and forth during which most of us just shrunk down into our seats to avoid it and we then ignored each other and any hallway pleasantries seems to cease. We did get to watch them do some synchronised dancing where they all spun around holding sweatshirts like scarves and we exchanged a few raised eyebrows, really rather happy with our lot. Thereafter we just tried to stay clear of each other, and though our group watched the couple of really unusual ones be eccentric and overt from afar, making the odd discreet yet scathing comment, there was one lady from the other group who couldn't hold back and was pretty confrontational, loudly making snide comments to Alex in the palace in Jaipur and on other occasions to the rest of us, but she won no favours with the majority of her tour group either. 

It was essentially a nice little diversion for us, as we didn't let it effect us, and we had no drama in our own wee group at all. And I don't know how you can judge this, but whatever the competition was, I am pretty sure we won.

The next morning was the village walk (which the tour leaders intelligently decided to space out so we wouldn't run into each other). The village sees virtually no outsiders, let alone tourists, and is therefore a real gem. You have no beggars or vendors and no-one has an ulterior motive. Everything is authentic and there for the villagers, and the whole place was just incredibly beautiful in the early morning fog. I had a go at pottery and must admit, I think I have an untapped talent there! Most photos don't even need an explanation, and are beautiful in their own right.

The hand spun spinny thing lasted for ages, and he is not helping me there, he is just putting on some more water.

My awesome pot, that did not get fired. According to D this was cause the sun didn't come out for long  enough to let it dry before he fired it, but I have a sneaky suspicion the potter didn't want to wasted the good clay. We will never know.

D having a go, after a serious amount of peer pressure. The poor dear got clay splatter on his boots :) You can see my awesome wee pot in the bottom right, closest to the potter. Quality workmanship.

Rooftop of a temple

This one is for the Southlanders - the Indian version of a Taranaki Gate. Now you better email me and mention this, as it is blatantly a test to see if you read my blog mwhahahaha

The school, which I had great satisfaction from when I showed my overly privileged kids at school.

This monkey tried to kill me. No lie.

One of my favourite photo's from the whole trip. Taken by the illustrious Alex Nicholls, and framed on my wall (had to sign your name for you, love, but better than me taking all the credit. Everyone comments on it)

After the trip into town we had a quiet afternoon, where Lex, Christina, D and I played some casual cricket (kinda had to - it was India) with some local kids, and I got D out twice (ha).

We then go back on the dreaded jeeps for Jaipur, with the threat from D that he does not encourage us to compare the hotels, but did not want us to "expect too much" from the next hotel. Oh-o.

It's been a short one, but it is very hard to put into words the experience of Tordi, as it was very sensory. But it was an incredible and unique highlight.

Heading out of town,

A wedding procession. Apparently there was an elephant, but I missed it :( we still hadn't seen one yet!

A very cool truck - they were quite literally, ALL painted beautifully, though you got the odd one like this that was extra special.