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Mt Abu
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8-9th November 2004.
Mt Abu is a Hill Station above the plains of Rajasthan, where many of the Raj built their summer palaces to escape the heat of summer. We came here to see the faded glory of the Raj and the Jain temples of Dilwara. The only thing that saved us in this place was the excellent hotel.
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First stop is the Nakki Lake (their big attraction), which doesn't look to good. This duck has a sick sounding quack, which isn't surprising considering it looks like there is an inch thick layer of slime on the lake.
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Next stop was the romantic sounding Honeymoon Point where we confronted with this HinGlish sign. We weren't sure if we shoud be worried about being robbed or witnessing a teenage pregnancy. Either way the chances of any of these things happening or any romance, was quickly squashed by the one hundred or so domestic tourists riding (and beating) horses, yelling, screaming and throwing rubbish everywhere... welcome to where the Gujurati's (local tourists) holiday. It transpires that Gujurat is a dry state so the nearest drinking town / holiday resort is here.... nice.
We are not sure if this sign was for us, we had a jeep driver try and run us off the road about 30 seconds after we left our hotel, we were not impressed with Gujurats.
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The charm of the old glory of the Raj is pretty cool though. All over the plateau are old crumbling summer palaces most of which have been turned into guesthouses.
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On our walk to the Jain temples, we discovered this genius piece of engineering. No your eyes do not deceive you, the road has been made around this broken down old jeep... why not move the friggin' jeep Einstein?... another "only in India" moment.
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The Jain Temples are amazing. Some of the carving is big like the pillars of the temples.
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... and some of it is so intricate is hard to imagine how it was ever finished.
Apologies for the crap photos but you can't take a camera in, so these little jems are from postcards!!!
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Around the back of the temple Jason found a marble scrap yard. The place where Millenia old carvings come to die. It takes 3 full-time carvers just to maintain the temples.
This piece looks like it has either been vandalised or damaged by acid rain.
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The next big attraction in town are the white clothed Brahma Kumaris cult. We visited their spiritual musem, and Jason was still left at the end for the similuated meditation laser light show (spooky or maybe even creepy).
The religions basic premise is to embrace and merge all religions into one big happy tree-hugging family.
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The local elections were held and the well fed lass in the middle on the phone is celebrating wildly.
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This bit of HinGlish really kicks arse unlike Mount Abu.
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