Udaipur

Hey Everyone,

We're here in Udaipur, leaving tonight on our first of 4 train journeys through to Darjeeling. After this, I may never train again. :) We'll see. We've managed to get most overnight trains with airconditioning (which is important considering it's about 36 degrees in Udaipur now) but have heard mixed reviews from those who have done this route in different stages so I'll reserve my judgement for later. :)

Udaipur is a gorgeous city. I enjoyed being in Mumbai for many different reasons and found it to be a facinating city but then we arrived in Udaipur and it took us by surprise. It's sort of magical...there's palaces all over the place and it's so beautiful here! Deb keeps singing Alladin songs...(I have songs from our visit to the village school outside Pune stuck in my head..."my momma gave me some rupees to buy some bananas...I went to the store to buy but they didn't have any so what did I get? Tubera! Na na na na tubera...etc" This song then substitutes samosa and papaya in place of banana also. :) very cute.) We found a hostel to stay which is amazing. It has balconies on every floor, looks very mediterranean and is the best place to chill with a view (in my opinion). Although we haven't seen other places and there are amazing views all over this city still...it's a find. The owner is a sweet older man who told us to beware of those "cheater boys" who would try to sell us package tours that are overinflated price. :) Once we got there, it was hot so we decided to laze around on these big loungers upstairs on the roof, just admiring the view of the city. We went out shopping last night and got oriented (ie got lost) but on our way back..having asked for directions..oh...more than 7 or 8 times in all (they all gave us different instructions!), we ran into this man selling these tapestries on the street, right near our hostel. We started to chat with him and ended up in his house, while he pulled out probably 50+ for us to see. Amazing artwork...he said each one can take up to 15 days to make by the women because there's so much handstitching involved. Needless to say, Deb and I both loved more than one so...we've now got baggage to cart with us in our journey through Rajasthan. :) Then...comes the funny story. So after dinner, we were in our room and Deb was washing some clothes in the bathroom. All of a sudden - I heard this low "mel...you need to come here". I go to the door and she tells me in a slightly stressed our voice "there is a lizard in here the size of a small mouse and i can't open the door or I'll squish it!" There may have been some shrieking in this also. My response wasn't very compassionate "just open the door...he'll move!". to which she replied..."I can't!! auugghhh!". So after this goes back and forth a bit and she can see I don't have any bright ideas, I zipped up our bags in the room so he coudln't get into anything and then climbed on the bed to wait for her to open the door! ha ha. she kept trying to get me to open the door but I was waiting for her to do it from inside the bathroom because I didn't want him to jump on me! (Oh - also important to the story...she's describing this ugly creature as being translucent with a rodent face and big...uugh). So she finally creaks the door open, painfully slowly....and all of a sudden this wet dress comes flying out of the bathroom, almost hits me, and lands on the floor right in front of where I was! it then was followed by another dress, then her bandana. each one just being chucked out the door with no clue to where she was throwing them. It was unbelievably comical. There was still shrieking with this too..every time the lizard moved slightly. She then comes flying out the door and slams it shut. How nice...we can never use this bathroom again apparently. lol. After she calmed down slightly...we cracked the door open a bit and then she pulls out her mirror to try to see where the lizard has gone to. I'm not scared of gecko's but this one sounded particularly ugly so i wasn't really looking forward to sharing a bathroom with him. Eventually, I gave up, went inside to check out this ugly lizard (who was truly ugly) and we managed to get along ok. We did shut the door overnight to let him find his way out. :) Then today, we're chilling on the roof top, taking in the view of Udaipur and Deb leans over and looks at something on my pantleg. I leaned forward to see what she was looking at and there was this gross cream coloured spider with a huge body. I freaked out (I'm making the story even..she freaks out over a gecko, I did over a spider) :) and tried to frantically brush it off. The pesky little thing managed to get somewhere else on my huge baloon pants so I had to do this flailing dance several times before he was off me. My heart was racing once I was done and at that point we decided we were done chilling on the roof. And Deb? She sat back, calmly watching the whole thing. :) Ahh friends...they're so great. :)

Few more things....the head nod thing..and the staring. arg the staring.
I had a big "RRAAAGGGHHH" to Deb the other day getting back from Elephantus island because of the staring. It's different I find than other countries and is so unbelievably rude. I've been finding it a difficult balance to handle as it detracts from the beauty and enjoyment of India slightly. To discourage it, the best thing to do is to avoid eye contact. But then that means you are on guard about soaking in the atmosphere and always aware of where you're looking and for how long etc. The women do it as well as the men too. You look around and inevitably you make eye contact all around you. And they don't look away. So then I resort to my 'stink eye' look which usually gets the point across (generally) but that's no fun...So I'm still finding a balance. You can try to ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist but that's really difficult to do. The men here seriously need to learn manners. lol. On another note - getting henna done has been a connecting thing for me with a few people here which wasn't expected. It's been really neat. The kids at the school loved it (the nursery kids would come and lean up against me and pet my hands) and I think it helped to bridge that I looked very different from them. I've gotten comments from shop keepers, yes trying to get my attention, but commenting in a positive way as we pass as well... Also, on the boat ride the other day, as we were getting off, this woman grabbed my hand and was showing her daughter my arms. She also had mendi on her arms and it was just a great thing to share some smiles with some locals. :)

The head wag. I love it..and I am trying to get the art of it down. :) It means so many things but is so universal here that you begin to understand what they're saying even when you don't understand the words. My favourite was again at the village school..when asked a question..there's 40 little kids all wagging their heads side to side in acknowledgement and agreement. So unbelievably cute. So yes - I'm working on this as something to bring back with me just cause. :)

Oh - and our wearing Kurtas and more traditional clothing has been good. We noticed a few reactions today and yesterday, here in Udaipur, which have affirmed our decision to dress in these. One palace guard noticed our clothes and smiled and his greeting was a little more friendly so in these small ways I'm glad that we're showing our respect for their culture. :)

Still loving India...so unique. :) I can't describe the city like Deb can but have some amazing photos from here...looking forward to sharing them with you when we're back. :)

Hope you're all well.

Mel