Ranakpur is actually a small town which surrounded by the rocky hills. From the coarse view, it is much cleaner and it is not a crowded place. Ranakpur is also located nearby to the Kumbalgarh National Park. According to Mr. Gyan, this place is beautiful outside summer and the green lushes everywhere within this area.
We stayed at Hotel Roopam and the cost was within our budget. It was something different compared to our stay in the other hotels, in the sense that more trees, more greens and much more tranquil. We had lunch at the hotel restaurant. At least they have more variety of food here. And it seemed that my buddy has already tired eating paneer in every meal. Hihihi...
While having lunch, we discovered two big trees with massive beehives on each of them. And that explained where the bees come, disturbing our peace of mind while having lunch. And guess what, I got stung TWICE and that was totally not awesome. Ironically, I have never got stung be the bees in Malaysia, not even when I visited any bee farms anywhere. My forehead and my knee were the 2 spots stung. Thank god I don't have allergies to most of the allergens known.
Then, around 2.30 we went for a visit a Ranakpur Jain Temple. To be honest, I don't even know the difference between Hinduism and Jainism until I read something from the internet (wikipedia of course). While entering the temple compound, I saw several women with white sarees and they put on a a piece of paper tied with rope or something, to cover their mouth. Didn't mean to tease them or being funny, i thought they covered their mouth to prevent small insect like flies or mosquitoes. And asked Mr. Gyan, it is true they do not want any living thing to enter their mouth. The fundamental of Jainism is the practice of non-violence towards all, I mean ALL, living things and promote equality and spiritual independence in all forms of life.
There was one Jain temple in Jaisalmer fort and the design was more or less the same with what we have seen in Ranakpur. The entire Ranakpur Jain temple is made of marble and when we entered the temple complex, it was pretty cooling inside. By the way, any form of photography is strictly prohibited and we left our camera in the locker. We were worried about keeping our belongings in the locker but we were assured that we could count on people of Rajasthan.
The temple was very close to our hotel and since there is not much to see around Ranakpur, we returned to the hotel and spent time around the hotel area. It was too warm to stay in the room so we took the chance to breath the free fresh air and enjoy the nature.
I was a little bored so I tried to find any subject for my camera. And what a lovely moment to see many colourful birds nibbling on the ground. Not sure if these are parrots, or lorikeets. They were sharing food with other birds and chipmunks too. So cute.
It was really a relaxing day and less exposure to sunlight so there was nothing much to tell here. There is no internet and no TV, which means we were totally disconnected with the outside world. But we could live with that.
The next day, we left the hotel around 8.30, heading to Udaipur. We passed through the Kumbalgarh national park, consists of winding road, uphills and downhills. Not many vehicles on the road and yet Mr. Gyan drove cautiously. If he sped, then most probably we would throw up and ended up having headache for the rest of the day.
While passing through road, monkeys were everywhere. There were 2 -3 types of monkeys but the black-faced monkeys seemed to dominate the road. I guess there were expecting food from the passers-by. Would be great if we have a pack of peanuts and feed these creatures
Around 4-5 hours later, we reached Udaipur, the so-called 'Romantic City'. Sheahhhh right!!
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