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November 12, 2010
Today we left Bijiapur at 8:30 am and arrived in Cittor a few hours later. We visted the Chittaurgarh fort whcih sits high on a hill. Built in the 8th century, it has 7 massive gates postioned on the road winding up the hill; houses and shops line the street. The fort was sacked in 1303, 1535 & 1568. Surrounding farms supplied the fort with food, when enemies surrounded the fort they cut off the food supply and thus successfully capturing the fort months later. Knowing defeat was eniment, tens of thousands of the men headed to battle to thier death; tens of thousands of women died declaring Jauhar by jumpijng into a firey pit. The grounds include a nine story victory tower, and indo - aryan style temple carved with Elephants for luck, devil heads to protect against enemies & royal activities.
We continued to Udaipur. Surprisingly its OKAY to drive down the wrong side of the highway. Our driver even took a stab at it when he needed to make a left, he hung a right and detoured down the up ramp of the highway, lucky for us, its common and traffic was at a minimum.
We saw our first accident. Our guide guessed an elderly women got her sari caught in the wheel of the motorcycle she was on. When we arrived she was not moving, not a good sign, one of the men picked her up and put her in the back of a jeep. We saw a second accident further down the road, now I am getting nervous. To top that, we came across a funeral percession in Udaipur complete with body on a plank wrapped in fabric being carried down the street by the men as the women stayed at the temple to weep. The women were dressed in bright pink or yellow saris as the men dawned pink scarfs.
In Udaipur we toured the Monsoon Palace - a 19th century Palace high on the mountain top. The Palace it self is not spectacular and is in need of some TLC but the vistas are, well would have been better with out the looming black clouds. The other highlight is the road up. A extra wide single lane paved road winds its way up the mountain, small stone wall is the barrier to the quick & not recommended route to the bottom of the mountain; buses are not allowed, you will soon find out why. Our driver opened his window in order to hear on coming traffic, at each turn he honked his horn. The higher we traveled the winddier the road. Lucky for me I choose the back seat so when the hairpin turns started I had the roller coaster effect as the back of the bus seemed to swing around the bends just to keep up with the front. Once we reached the top we all clapped and cheered for getting us to the top in one piece.
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fay ?