The City Blue and the Poor Monsoon

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December 5th 2007

Published: December 9th 2007

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Hulkshaw

Blue city sunrise

I took like 10 photos of that sunrise, it was amazing.

JODHPUR

We arrived in Jodhpur after my first - believe it or not - encounter with India's train system after an entire month of India-ing. All things considered it was a hell of a lot smoother than the buses and a tad more comfy. (My second encounter would change that slightly...)

At around 5am in the morning, there isn't much to do in Jodhpur other than find a base of operations and take numerous photos of a beautiful sunrise ascending over the blue city - which is exactly what we did.

The five of us: Alicia, Constance, Matt, Chris and I proceeded to visit the fort where the locals absolutely assaulted Constance (more commonly known by her professional name, Aisha). No thanks to Matt, who made them all aware of her superstardom by running up to her requesting an autograph in the middle of a rather ordinary "take a photo of the white girl" session. Poor Constance was left signing everything from paper to rupees for the next while...

Jodhpur fort was actually rather impressive, and allowed for a wicked view of the city and all its brahmanical houses (brahmin's houses were originally painted blue, but then

Fort from our rooftop

Every guesthouse comes with a rooftop. Wicked idea these Rajasthanis have come up with...

everyone sort of got onto it).

Other than eating extremely tasty masala omlettes (which I dont even know how to spell anymore thanks to Indian English) and drinking fruit beer (see photo), Jodhpur had little to offer us. Except, of course, for extremely cheap spices on account of Constance kicking some spice retailer ass! Booyah, Mr. First Flash!

UDAIPUR

Ms. Moneypenny, could you please fetch my exotic weapons, my snake charmer, and that bed of nails for me to kill these hired assassins? Much obliged, dear.

Watch Octopussy, and you'll get the gist (gyst?) of life in Udaipur - which, unbeknownst to most tourists, is approximately one boat ride away from the Taj Mahal and Varansi!!

Whats that? You can't find Octopussy on TBS or in your local video store? That's okay, any of Udaipur's guesthouses will gladly play it for you. Well, the second half anyway...

Less than stellar, on account of poor monsoons, we spent maybe 4 days in Udaipur eating, shopping, shilpgramming, and just hangin out. It was Constance's final days in India after 3+ months, so it was nice to just hang out and talk with the locals. Our

Atop the fort

Kingfisher cannon and the city blue

favourite was this kickass kid, Gangaram, who spoke little English but laughed histarically* every time you spoke it.

*(the spelling doesn't look right on that...hhhmmm, all these Meeresian menus and ads around India have forever corrupted my spelling....)

And that was the end of what i like to call Phase II. Constance took off to Mumbai and I, to Bundi...alone...except for the more than abundant wildlife of course........

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