I've become a vegetarian. Well, almost, as we have had the odd plate of mutton curry (they call goat mutton here, not sure why) but it's so easy to be vegetarian in India. Rice is eaten at every meal, even breakfast, and it's amazing how quickly you forget all about cornflakes. Dal is also a staple. Dal is made from black or yellow beans and we've had it served in a spicy sauce with the white rice (basmati, of course!) Together with nan bread it makes a great meal.
Today we arrived at our hilltop retreat, just outside Udaipur. We are the only guests in this beautiful stone guest house built literally on a hilltop by a British man named Piers. I was very much looking forward to meeting Piers, as the emails we exchanged regarding our reservation details indicated a person who loved language and expressed himself with a flourish! Unfortunately, Piers is presently in Nepal (more about that later), but his 3 adopted Nepalese sons are doing a great job of looking after us. From our balcony we look down onto scrub land where about 10 cows are brought each day to graze on whatever they can find. Their neck bells gently ring as they move from bush to bush. We watched as 2 young children arrived from a village behind the hill to bring them home for the night. The cows didn't need much coxing, but gently followed each other along the sandy path - the sound of their bells slowly becoming more faint. We look out to many high hills, and on top of each is a shrine, which we saw lit up last night, a shining beacon in the night's darkness. It must be quite a climb to get up to them to pray!
We are 20 mins. out of the town of Udaipur, and since I booked this as 3 days of relaxation before the next leg of our Indian journey, we decided to eat all our meals here too. The fellows cooked us a vegetarian meal this evening consisting of 6 dishes - each of them totally delicious! There was plain rice, dal, egg curry (despite it's name was wonderful) a curry dish with what they call cheese but I think of as tofu, a dish of lightly cooked mixed vegetables in a curry sauce, and a cold mixed salad of tomatoes and cucumbers. (The latter was supposed to be a 'starter' but the boys forgot it in the fridge until half way through the meal, and brought it to the table very apologetically!)
I wonder if I can keep this up when we get home? To me, being vegetarian always seemed like a lot more work than simply slapping a piece of meat on the old BBQ. But, maybe we'll give it a try ... I might be surprised.
To be continued ...
Today we arrived at our hilltop retreat, just outside Udaipur. We are the only guests in this beautiful stone guest house built literally on a hilltop by a British man named Piers. I was very much looking forward to meeting Piers, as the emails we exchanged regarding our reservation details indicated a person who loved language and expressed himself with a flourish! Unfortunately, Piers is presently in Nepal (more about that later), but his 3 adopted Nepalese sons are doing a great job of looking after us. From our balcony we look down onto scrub land where about 10 cows are brought each day to graze on whatever they can find. Their neck bells gently ring as they move from bush to bush. We watched as 2 young children arrived from a village behind the hill to bring them home for the night. The cows didn't need much coxing, but gently followed each other along the sandy path - the sound of their bells slowly becoming more faint. We look out to many high hills, and on top of each is a shrine, which we saw lit up last night, a shining beacon in the night's darkness. It must be quite a climb to get up to them to pray!
We are 20 mins. out of the town of Udaipur, and since I booked this as 3 days of relaxation before the next leg of our Indian journey, we decided to eat all our meals here too. The fellows cooked us a vegetarian meal this evening consisting of 6 dishes - each of them totally delicious! There was plain rice, dal, egg curry (despite it's name was wonderful) a curry dish with what they call cheese but I think of as tofu, a dish of lightly cooked mixed vegetables in a curry sauce, and a cold mixed salad of tomatoes and cucumbers. (The latter was supposed to be a 'starter' but the boys forgot it in the fridge until half way through the meal, and brought it to the table very apologetically!)
I wonder if I can keep this up when we get home? To me, being vegetarian always seemed like a lot more work than simply slapping a piece of meat on the old BBQ. But, maybe we'll give it a try ... I might be surprised.
To be continued ...
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