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Published: February 16th 2006
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Udaipur
This is the view from my hotel balcony. I arrived in Udaipur at 6:00 am after taking a night bus. I was exhausted and my rickshaw driver ended up taking me to a different hotel than I had booked. I was so tired that I just ended up staying at the one he took me to. It turned out to be great. I had a balcony with an amazing view of the city.
Udaipur has some beautiful views, but like most of the places I've been in India, it looks and smells like shit on the street. I went to see the City Palace and museum, which was alright. Then I took a boat ride in the lake to see all of the fancy hotels that are actually their own islands in the lake. It's funny, all of the big sight seeing stuff in Udaipur is just of hotels that I can't afford to stay at. I tried to eat at the Lake Palace Hotel, cause it's supposed to be incredible, but they were booked for the next 3 days. It's probably best, because that meal would have cost at least 5 times what I'm paid for my hotel room.
Almost all of the restaurants in Udaipur
Udaipur 2
This is a picture of a bunch of women washing clothes in the lake in Udaipur. This seemed to be going on all day. show the James Bond movie, Octopussy, at 7 pm every night of the week. It was filmed in Udaipur, but I think that was like 30 years ago. Which means the people who work in these restaurants have had to watch this below average James Bond flick every single night for the last 30 years. That sucks.
All of the restaurants I went to were dynamite. Most of them are on the rooftops of buildings, so you get a great view of the city. Also, there were fireworks every night that I was there. It's very romantic, but I was just sitting there by myself watching Octopussy. Which is rather depressing.
Anyhow, my last day in Udaipur I went into a music shop and asked the guy there if he would give me a Tabla lesson. Tablas are these Indian drums that look sort of like bongos, but sound different and are played differently. I spent the next 2 hours learning to play the Tablas for roughly 5 dollars. It was really fun. I was getting pretty good, but I need stronger fingers I think. My teacher, Krishna, was amazing at them. He wasn't a great teacher though. While
Fancy Hotel
This is one of the fancy lake island hotels. I forget the name. It was in Octopussy though. I would be practicing the rhythms that he was teaching me, he would keep asking me questions about American women. And everytime a girl walked by his store he would interrupt the lesson and try to convince them to come in. I think he also had OCD because he was constantly cleaning his spotless shop and making sure all of the instruments were in the perfect position. Nice guy though. I came back later that night for another lesson.
Tuesday morning I got on a bus to Ahmedabad where I spent about 8 hours before I had to catch a night train to Bombay. Ahmedabad is a really busy city and is ridiculously crowded. I walked down Mahatma Gandhi Road for about an hour and it just seemed like an endless street market. You could buy anything from samosa to women's underwear. It has to be kind of embarrassing to buy a pair of underwear with a print of lips on the crotch in the middle of a crowded street market.
The poverty in Ahmedabad is devestating. It's devestating everywhere I've been in India, but it was especially difficult to see in Ahmedabad, as well as Bombay. Walking
Krishna
This is my Tablas teacher, Krishna. down the street I was constantly stepping over people lying face down on the ground or kids rolling around naked on the dirty street. And this isn't just on one street, this is on pretty much every street that I walked down. Sorry for that down note, but the poverty in India is a huge part of the experience of visiting here. You are forced to confront a huge problem everyday that you most likely rarely think about at home, and it's very sad.
My night train to Bombay was great. I sat next to a crazy old Indian man who lived in Orlando for 10 years because his kids immigrated to the U.S. He was constantly laughing and slapping my knee after everything he or I said. For a while he was a having a long conversation in Hindi with a group of people on the train. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I could tell that they all thought he was a funny, crazy old man too.
Bombay is similar to any western city. It's much different than anywhere else I was in India. There are no rickshaws, and no cows, which makes the
Gateway of India
That's me at the Gateway of India in Bombay. You can only see part of the monument because the guy who took my picture doesn't know how to take a picture. streets a lot cleaner and a lot less hectic. I didn't really feel like sightseeing and I saw a movie theater so I went to see the movie, Fun With Dick and Jane, which wasn't very good. Before the movie started though, everybody stood up and they played the Indian National Anthem, which I thought was funny. Everytime I hear another country's national anthem, I'm amazed at how much better America's is. I don't mean to sound like an arrogant American, but it's true.
After the movie I decided to go for a walk down Marine Drive, which is like the "Lake Shore Drive" of Bombay, except with a view of the Arabian Sea instead of Lake Michigan. It was very pretty. I ended up meeting this Finnish guy, Marcus, because we were both sort of lost. He is just starting a 5 month trip through India and has actually been here twice before so I guess he really likes it. We had a few beers at this sea side restaurant. It turns out we're both huge nerds and we talked about modern physics for most of the time. I happened to be reading a book about it, which
I think is how the conversation started. Anyhow, Marcus had a train to catch and I was ready for bed, so we parted ways.
Today is my last day in India. It's sort of bitter sweet. But more sweet I would say. I think I'm ready to move on. I have a flight to Nairobi at 3:00 am tonight, and then I will meet up with Jill at the Nairobi Airport! For now I think I will check out the modern art gallery here and maybe walk around some other neighborhoods. Next time you hear from me I will be cracking jokes with lions. Lions love jokes.
-Jonathan
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benjamin
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being a lion isn't as easy as you think
your posting wall looked empty so I thought I'd spice it up a little. Unfortunately, I dont really have much to say. I'm at work, so I'm obviously miserable. Anyway, have fun in Kenya. Don't get eaten or anything, cause I'm told people who go to Kenya tend to have that happen to them. Tell Jill I said hello.