So it was time for my next journey! Yes, again. After not had traveled at all during my first two months here, I did a lot in a short period of time. But it has mostly to do with all the holidays that has been this month. This time it was Diwali, the Hindu version of Christmas I guess. I also traded the Monday at school for a Saturday in the future.
Oh well, the Friday of the journey, (this time to Rajasthan) started badly. As I stepped out of the taxi when going to work, the strap of my backpack broke. Darn crappy 500-rupee street bought backpack! Then soon later I discovered that someone had stolen 600-700 rupees from my pocket. Oh well, I had more money, and at least I was able to borrow a bag from work that could use for the trip. It helped a lot.
In the morning I went along with Swati to my favorite slum community, and visited some of the kids that I like so much. The afternoon was calmer.. and I prepared myself mentally for the journey.
Then it was finally time to go and I took a taxi towards the airport. The traffic was sooo bad, and I became worried that I would miss the plane. I started to hope that the taxi had a built in rocket launcher, so that it could clear the traffic ahead (it's not the first time I've had those thoughts). When I was about to arrive I realized that the two airports have the same name and that I was headed to the wrong one! What type of a complete idiot decided to give them the same name? Seriously. Luckily, they weren't too far apart.. and I did make it. Yeee-haaa!
And as a happy ending of a otherwise pretty crappy day, I was upgraded to business class since it was full. He he he... tadi tada.
When I sat down at business class, my first thought was that this is the place where they should put the really fat people (I did not have a politically correct mindset at that point). I had planned to sleep the entire trip, but now I was too excited to do so. I wanted to enjoy the entire experience. Gourmet dinner and all. I thought this upgrade to business class was an urban legend, or something that just happened in the movies. Now I was expecting that the love of my life should sit down next to me. I mean, the whole thing had to have a purpose to it? But instead a middle aged, partly bald Indian business man sat down next to me. The hope came back when he realized that he had sat down on the wrong seat ...but instead he was replaced by an even older and balder Indian business guy.
He slept most of the trip, so I couldn't find out if he had a single daughter that was looking for a Swedish man.
The planbe arrived to Jaipur in Rajasthan, but I was going to spend my first two days in Udaipur, further south, so I took an auto rickshaw directly to the train station where I was going to take the night train. It was a bumpy and interesting ride. I was confused in the beginning to what the high pitch bird sound was, until I realized that it was the sound that the rickshaw had instead of the regular annoying honking sound.
Well on the train I discovered that my seat bunk number didn't exist, so I chose the one closest to it, and by that way I got to know a man and a woman from South Africa. Garth and Charlene. They weren't a couple, but were traveling together. I had a nice chat with them before going to sleep.
This train trip was the bumpiest in my life. I felt like a wasp being shaken inside a matchbox by some child. So I was pretty tired when arriving to Udaipur ...two hours late. I told my rickshaw driver to take me to an area of town that had lots of places to sleep according to Lonely Planet. I didn't feel like looking around, so I picked the first one... and it was a lucky shot. I really liked the place. I got a cheap room with a window view over the lake, and on the roof top they had a restaurant with an even more beautiful view. Lake Pichola is a lake with two Palaces in the middle of it. One of them was used in the James Bond movie Octopussy. Udaipur was truly a spectacular city. Couldn't wait to discover it. It was truly like a fairy tail city. Even though it had tons of Western tourists, it still kept its charm.
I was tired, but didn't want to sleep away my time, so I just dug right in to it. I spent my first day walking around and discovering the city on my own. I shopped a lot, and I bargained a lot. I got sick of bargaining from time to time, and just kept it short and told the maximum price. I made some really good deals... but probably also some less good ones too. I did get some really interesting things. But ironically, the last shop that I ended up visiting for the day ended up being the one I should have started at from the beginning. He had some really good deals on his stuff. The shop owner was a man from Kashmir that was selling things from that area. Oh well. Life is ironic.
I had a really good nights sleep on a king size bed that was all mine ...aaaall mine! The next morning I went and got an Ayurvedic massage. I needed a massage bad. But it was not the relaxing kind that I was hoping for, but instead it was this partially painful torture ..and I kept thinking that it is supposed to feel good afterwards. He pushed at some really sensitive spots, and it hurt so I probably wouldn't be able to say anything even if I wanted to. The weirdest part was when he "massaged" my scalp... well, it felt more like he was trying to scrape of my hair, and that I would see patches of my hair fall down in front of me. Hmmm... that was actually not the weirdest part, I think the weirdest part was when the massage dude asked me if I had a business card or had a cell phone number. I'm glad that I still haven't memorized it ..not that I would have given it to him anyway.
I did at least better after afterward .. physically, for a little while.
I spent the rest of the day having a auto rickshaw tour with Bellu, the driver that drove me from the train station the day before. He took me to various places in the outskirts and outside town. It was really interesting. I visited lots of interesting places, and he patiently waited for me each time, whether I visited a palace, a museum, a park, took a short ferry to an island in the Fateh Sagar Lake. There were many nice sights, and one of the more interesting ones was Ahar. Ahar is like a city filled with dome like monuments built for the maharajas of Mewar. I had it almost all for myself and it was an interesting to walk around among these monuments. A truly oriental fairy tale feeling. I even run in to a smaller puppy colony there. One of them approached me and licked my feet. It was so fragile and so cute, so I wanted to keep it and bring it with me. But I couldn't. :(
The most spectacular experience though, was the visit to the Monsoon Palace on top of a mountain a bit from Udaipur, at sunset. It had such a wonderful and beautiful view. ..and just the feeling to be there ..the peace, the serenity, the enjoyment of life ...and yet I felt grains of loneliness. Because this was such a romantic place, and I had no one there to share it with. Still, I have to say that being up there was one of my most joyful moments and experiences in a very long time. It's right on my top-10 individual travel moments of my life probably. It's just hard to explain why, it just was.
Before taking me back, Bille, my rickshaw guide took me to an art shop, where I ended up spending even more money. But I did buy some nice pieces of art. I'll show you in the future if any of you pay me a visit.
I paid 500 rupees for the sightseeing. A pretty darn good price for a tour like that, even if you still have to pay the entrance fees to all the places visited.
I took it easy and chilled with a nice dinner at the roof top restaurant at my hotel before heading to the train station. Now it was time to back to Jaipur and spend some time there...
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