Travel Day

The next day was originally planned to be mostly a travel day on a bus. Instead Monty arranged two cars to drive us so that we could enjoy the country side and make a few stops.

So of course just as we were about to leave it started raining. Now Monsoon doesn't mean rain all day everyday in India. It is different depending on where you are as well. But for us unfortunately it rained on and off all day. We were probably following the clouds.

First stop
The Ranakpur temple is one of the most famous Jain temple and dedicated to the first Jain Tirthankar of our time cycle, Adinath (aka Lord Rishabha).

When we arrived we sat in what looked like a cafeteria.

Plates and bowls were already out and you sit and turn them over and men came around to feed you. Jains follow a strict form of vegetarianism, known as Jain vegetarianism, which in addition to being completely vegetarian, also excludes potatoes and other root vegetables because when the root is pulled up, organisms that live around the root also die.

Afterwards we went to the temple which was one of my favorite places so far.

It is a very big temple, made up of white marble, offers sculptures of same quality but different type than Dilwara, but is beautiful from the outside, too. It has more than a thousand columns none of which are alike.

The detail is fascinating!

I loved walking around barefoot and the smell of inscence.

The drive onward was very interesting. We would be fine for miles and then have cows or goats in the way.

Sections of the road were also flooded but we drove through them ok. The scenery got really lush and green despite the rain.
You also got great views of the mountains but it was hard to take pictures because of the rain.

The next stop was another Fort that I will have to have Thom tell you more about. It also has the second Greatest Wall ever built I think.
It was raining kind of hard when we first got there and the wind had also picked up. I opted to sit and have chai at the snack area with most of our group since I had forgotten my rain pancho but Thom went and got some great photos.

Another 3 hours in the car and we finally made it to Udiapur which is known as the City of Lakes. They also filmed the James Bond movie Octapussy here as well...