Hello Everyone,

This morning we left Jodphur at around 930 to head to Udaipur. we stopped about 3 hours away in Ranakpur. Ranakpur is home to the Jain Temples. Jainism is a religion that grew out of Hinduism, and they believe in not harming anything. They are all vegetarians and will not even eat things grown in the ground, such as carrots or onions. The strictest of Jains will even where a cloth over their mouths to ensure that they don't accidentally swallow any insects. And the strictest of all, won't even where any clothes - ever.

The temples we saw were absolutely unbelievable. Easily rivalling the beauty of the Taj Mahal. What I liked best was that in the main temple, there was plenty of sunlight and open air. Once they had built it, a tree started growing within it, but because the Jains don't believe in harming anything, they left it and allowed it to grow and expand - incredible to see a full grown tree in the middle of this magnificent marble structure.

After the Jain Temples we had another 3 hour drive through the mountains to get to Udaipur. For the first hour the roads were very windy and very up and down. The turns were quick and most were blind around the corner. The kicker though was that it was only 1 lane! That's 1 lane for 2 ways of traffic. Therefore we had to honk our horn everytime we approached a corner.

At around 630 we arrived at the Oberoi in Udaipur. Unebelievable. I have informed Richard and Lisa that I will not be able to participate in any activities that require me to leave the hotel premises for the next 3 days.