Nov 20-21 UDAIPUR - Rajasthan

We had a very enjoyable trip to Rajathan - home to kings and queens. We had a later than expected start on Sunday due to our hired driver over sleeping and coming about 2 hours late! After getting up at 5am for a 6am start, I was a bit tired by the time we finally reached Udaipur, but the city's life brightened me up a bit. We got checked into a hotel and immediately went to the City Palace to learn about the Maharana's home. Yes, rana - not raja. It was a beautiful white building with fantastic views of the city. From there we went up to a hilltop monument with spectacular views of the lake called Fatehsagar. Next up we went to a garden for girlfriends called Saheliyon Ki Badi. I went to take a picture by this elephant fountain and it turned on suddenly and I lost my step and landed in a pool of water up to my ankles... OOPS! After the garden we had a camel ride around a park. Kim and Manjit were on Hasmikh (happy) and Gurjit and I were on Jitendra. We had a nice ride and I had the giggles the whole way. As it was getting dark, we couldnt do much more sightseeing, so we went to the musical fountains overlooking
the city palace and had a great view - while simultaneously being eaten by mosquitoes. Yum. We stayed only for about three songs of dancing fountains and decided to hit the street fair for some shopping. I didnt buy anything but I tried a couple mouth fresheners - the first tasted as I would expect my deoderant to taste and the second just like a perfume I have! (Both not good!) Kim managed to get a $5 watch and then got hit by a motorcycle crossing the street! She's ok. A bit bruised, but fine. I ran over to help with Manjit's bro and picked up all the articles of her purse that had flown out on impact (money, passport, wallet, receipts). I just know people sat there and laughed at the silly blonde tourist who didnt look before crossing ... she was extremely fortunate! (Today's update...She's fine - only a couple marks to show.) After that excitement, we went to dinner and had a great meal and then called it a night.

I unfortunately did not make it all the way through the night as something got a hold of my tummy and did not let go until around 7am so it was another tiring day of being up early. We did a bit of sightseeing before leaving Udaipur. We went to a rose garden where Kim and I had pics made of us in traditional Rajasthani clothing. We followed that with a traditional puppet show - it was very cute. We wanted to see some traditional dances, but they didnt put on that show until the evenings, so we were out of luck. We did a bit more driving around before the driver decided he needed to have a wheel checked before heading back, so Kim, Manjit and I did some shoe shopping in the store across from the mechanic and then just sat there for an hour waiting on the car. A wheel was bent and it was repaired and we got on our way. We stopped for lunch at a hotel on the highway and I could barely eat anything. Nothing looked good (and I tried... it tasted horrible to me) so I really just ate tomatoes and onions on pompadom. Such is my tummy. It sadly got worse on the drive and rather than needing to urgently use the toilet, I just felt green the entire ride. Not fun for me on the bumps and swerves.

We made it back to Manjit's and I took a nap after downing some meds. I'm about to try some cereal. Her parents told me to eat rice and curd, but curd rhymes with turd and I couldnt do it. Something about it just sounded suspect. Actually, I'm just not sure I want something like that... so instead I'm off to have some cornflakes because my body will hopefully recognize it as non-foreign!

We are local for a couple days before heading off to Delhi. I'll update in a couple days.