Mount Abu

We took a bus from Ahmedabad to Mount Abu; pretty uneventful apart from the last section which was scary due to the combination of high altitude hairpin bends  and a crazy driver. The majority of people visit Mount Abu (Hillstation) from nearby Gujarat to cool down during the summer. It’s not quite summer yet, but we were glad to get away from the crazy heat in Ahmedabad. Not just a place to cool down, Mount Abu is known for its historic Jain temples, and also for great trekking. 

We arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon. After checking in, we immediately set out to watch the sunset from one the famous viewing points on the outskirts of Abu town. 

On the walk back to town we met an old man who claimed to be the President of Mount Abu. He followed us around a bit and guided me to the nearest beer shop. After purchasing a Kingfisher from the shop, the President demanded commission for the sale from the owner. The owner said f-off, then the old chap followed me out of the shop shouting ‘I’m the President of mount Abu’ repeatedly! Lovely scene – must avoid old trampy men claiming to be presidents in future.  

On our second day we managed to get tickets for a bus tour of the local area. Being that the sites are quite spread out, we thought this would make better sense than hiring a tuktuk. The downside was that the guide only spoke Hindi, which Shejal doesn’t fully understand. We managed to get by with the help of other passengers on the bus (who were all Indian apart from me). We visited the Dilwara Temples (Jain temples, so no photography allowed) and also stopped off at various viewpoints. 

Shejal made friends with a Guajarati news anchor and his wife who were also on the tour. Here’s me posing with minor celebrity news anchor man and his wife. 

After the tour we went back to the hotel to watch the England vs. West Indies cricket match. Initially after seeing our batting score I thought we were doomed, but a crazy finish with a run-out meant that we got through to the quarter finals. I’ve never really liked cricket, but all the games I’ve watched during the world cup have been brilliant. Everyone here is World Cup crazy, and I finally now feel like I can hold my own during cricket based conversations.

For our last day, we booked a trek with a local guide called Charles. We walked for three hours through a nearby nature reserve. The trek was relatively light, but there were a few difficult bits that felt more like rock climbing. After being told that we’re likely to see some sloth bears, we were disappointed to only come across mongoose and mosquitoes. The views made up for it. 

Charles was an interesting chap. He told us that he was a Frenchman in a former life and believes that he has more in common with Europeans than Indians because of this. He also told us a few horror stories of murdered tourists trekking alone without a guide. This included a beheaded Australian girl and an Israeli guy who was hacked to death with an axe. Apparently local tribes can be very dangerous!

After the trek we made our way back to the hotel, stopping briefly to admire some of the rip-off hotel names. It seems like sticking an ‘e’ on the end of the hotel name makes it OK. 

The colonial era hotel we stayed at (Connaught House) turned out to be one of the better ones so far. Before leaving for Udaipur we spent time in the gardens playing badminton and chatting with some Indian rich kids who were also staying at the hotel.