The Adventures of Brian & Julia

Driving back from the camel safari, I was covered in more mosquito bites than I’ve ever had and Brian was anxiously trying to get the last of the sand out of his lenses. While we enjoyed the desert, both of us were struck by what an intensely harsh landscape it is. Some kids we spoke to there told us they hadn’t seen rain in 3 years, although they had been old enough at the time to remember what it looked like.
We had a long drive (about 7 hours) to Udaipur, and as we wound our way south, the sagebrush and dry ground began to turn softer, greener. Flowers began to appear again, and then we started to climb. By lunchtime we were high in the hills, and the scenery was downright lush. Our driver pointed out that the area, called Ranakpur, is basically a collection of small hotels surrounding an important Jain temple, all nestled inside of a nature preserve, which is, as far as I can tell, the only reason it’s not more populated.

Anyway, it was such a lovely place that we decided to check with the tour office and see if we could arrange to spend a night in Ranakpur before driving on. In order to reach him, we had to drive a short ways up the road to a tiny shack with a land line phone and five or six people standing around.

The beautiful little girl in this photo set was one of them, and as Brian was taking her picture, a couple of monkeys stopped by to see what all the fuss was about. The weather here is great- humid but not oppressive, and so cool we actually decided to go for a walk!

Secretly, I’m typing this from Bangkok, so I can say that Ranakpur was our favorite place in India. A good look at the pictures below should help you guys see why. Extravagant natural beauty and a gorgeous temple build around a holy tree, troops of monkeys and friendly stray dogs made this a major highlight of our time there.