Narlai

 Our three hour drive took us into the countryside to the former hunting lodge of the Maharajas.  The Rawlai Narlai sits at the base of a mountain topped with an elephant statute.  We checked in and had lunch before taking a tour of the village.

We boarded Jeeps to take a tour of the town.  This sleepy village was a refreshing change from the bustle of the larger cities.  That's not to say that there wasn't activity.  The villagers were out and about doing their choirs and appearing to enjoy life.  Cows roamed everywhere as well as the village dogs.  





This is a farming community and the white turbaned men the farmers.  The pink/red turbaned men were the herders so there was a healthy mix of both.  We dismounted our jeeps to take a look around on foot.  In general the people were happy to have their photos taken by the American tourists.  

Tonight we had a very special dinner.  The jeeps took us to a stepwell where hundreds of candles had been lit for our feast.  We were escorted to our tables where we were entertained by a musician playing some type of local instrument with a backdrop of lights.  We were served a multicourse Indian dinner under the stars.  It really was quite magical.


Early the next morning, four of us set out in a jeep to see if we could find the leopards that had been spotted in the area.  The terrain around hill consisted of large rock formations which seemed like a perfect place for the big cars.  While searching the area we came upon a large stone quarry where slabs of either marble or granite had been sheered from the side of the mountain.  A pool of water reflected the rocks and was very photographic.



Try as we might, the guide was the only one that saw a brief glimpse of the cats.  We returned to our lodge for breakfast before starting our journey to Udaipur.

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