Udaipur

We left Pushkar on a midnight bus that was forty minutes late. Walking to the bus station through the dark alleys, we heard a raucus approaching quickly in the dark, and it was this donkey being chased by a growling dog. They disappeared ahead of us in the night. Then a motorcycle ran by and this man said "a donkey's kick is worse than a man's!" The whole thing was surreal. As for the bus, it was pretty nice, but still a difficult experience, mainly because nobody would open the trunk to put our big bags in, so we had to keep them in this tiny, clausterphobic sleeper compartment with us, making it very, very cramped. We were at the very back of the bus, meaning that the bumpiness was unbelievable. Not fifteen minutes into the ride, I'm sorry to report that Pan-Pan started to cry, because she was so unhappy--this is the first time she has cried from transportation on this trip. She gets really bad motionsickness, if you recall, and it didn't get much worse than that. She threw up out the window, and then took two gravals, and was fine after that. I woke up in the middle of the night having to pee more than I ever had to before in my life, so I had to extricate myself from the compartment (no small feat) and ask the driver to pull over. He said we'd stop in five minutes, so I sat near the front and took my mind off my bladder with some of the most terrifying driving I've ever seen in my life. A giant bus barelling down a narrow road at 3 AM, veering out of the way of oncoming "Tata" trucks that for some reason always put their highbeams when they see us. Like China, India has yet to cultivate high-beam etiquette, and I felt sorry for the driver, but more than that I felt fear for our lives.

Anyways, we arrived in Udaipur safely, and it's a beautiful city. Like Pushkar, it's on a lake, but the lake is much, much bigger and the city doesn't encircle it. Udaipur's main claim to fame is its floating palace in the middle of the lake. Well, it isn't actually floating--it's built on an island. Of interest to Dad will be that this is Octopussy's palace in the James Bond movie of the same name. The locals really play up the connection, too, with a jewellry store bearing the same name, and local restaurants offering nightly showings of the movie. In fact, Pan-Pan and I had a delicious roof-top dinner last night, overlooking the lake and watching the movie--we could see the real palace, with its lanterns sparkling in the water, while also seeing it on TV! That was really neat. And it was a beautiful scene, Octopussy notwithstanding--the sun had just set over the city. We had some crazy monkey experiences when a troupe randomly decended from a higher part of the roof and made their way on the rail beside us to an adjecent roof. All the tourists were thrilled. Also, the sky became absolutely full of giant bats (I'm talking at least three feet wide, including wing span). I don't know where they came from--maybe nearby mountains--but there were just thousands of them.

Today took a paddle boat out on the water; this despite the fact that after Beijing I vowed never to go in a paddle boat again. We made our way towards the palace and as we got near I kept trying to ask whether we could dock there and explore it (it's not a fancy hotel, I think) but they kept shaking their arms "no". I yelled "can we come?" and some man yelled back, "no, no, no allowed". So we went around it and then went back (working up a massive sweat in the process!).

Udaipur is nice because it's so beautiful, and from what I can tell, relatively clean. Whereas Pushkar was a bit of a one-horse town, consisting mainly of one main drag along the water, Udaipur is much bigger and home to a lot of interesting artchitecture, temples and hotels. Tomorrow we are going in a private car with two French people to Ranakpur, two hours away, to see a famous Jain temple. At night we begin our journey to Mumbai, which we are not looking forward to at all. At 10 PM, we catch another sleeper bus to Ahmedebad, some shit-show near the Pakistani border where, ifI recall, there is occasionally violence. We get there at 4 AM, and need to be at the train station at 5 AM to catch a train to Mumbai, arriving at noon. Hopefully everything goes smoothly. Aside from the annoying stop over, which will be hectic and crazy, I have generally gotten completely used to very long train/bus rides.

No pictures because this computer has no USB connection, but don't worry Dad, I will show you the pictures of Octopussy's palace soon enough!