Udaipur

  Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
Thursday, July 24, 2008

7/21: I took the night bus to Udaipur, an 8 hour trip. I bought a sleeper ticket, but sleep was not to be had. There are normal seats just like on any other bus, but on top of these are compartments for sleepers. I had the last compartment at the back of the bus and it was a very bumpy ride to say the least. It was comfortable, just my size, but if I was any taller it would have been tight. I would have been able to sleep if the driver hadn't been training for NASCAR. He was weaving in and out of traffic and with every bump I got some serious air. Once I actually hit my forehead on the ceiling! I'm taking another sleeper night bus to my next destination so I haven't been turned off completely. Once again, I'll try and remember to take a pic of the bus so you can see.

7/22: Happy Birthday Dad! I called my Dad to wish him a Happy Birthday and it was very nice to hear his voice. My brother and I bought him two tickets to the last White Sox vs. Yankees game at Yankee Stadium before they tear the stadium down. He was extremely excited and soon can check that off his bucket list.

After a long needed nap when I got the hotel, which is the nicest I've had so far (very clean, nicely painted, no AC but a ceiling fan, and 300 rupees a night, about $7.50), I walked to the city palace and walked through the bazaar. The city is on a lake which has two islands. One island only has a palace turned into a very nice hotel and the other island can be visited when there is enough water in the lake for boats to travel, which isn't the case right now.

City Palace

Luxury Hotel on Island

View of Udaipur from palace rooftop

7/23: I decided to get a henna tatoo today. Most people get them done on their hands but I decided to do it on my leg. Since we use and wash our hands so much it wouldn't last very long. I found a local artist and musician and really liked the pics of henna that he's done in the past. I told him I wanted a daisy and then he could be creative with it.

Day One:

Henna 1

Henna 2

Henna 3

Day Two (after the paint peels off):

Henna 4

Henna 5

Henna 6

My henna artist and musician

I went to a traditional Indian dance concert this evening inside one of the palaces. Here are some pics:

Dancer with pot of fire

Dancer

Dancers

Oh my!!!

7/24: I started the day with an Indian cooking class with Shashi, an amazing woman that lost her husband in 2001 and was left penniless with two sons. She's in the Brahmin caste, which is the highest, but had to wash clothes and clean hotel rooms in secret to make money to support her family. She learned English and now has been teaching cooking classes for three years and both her sons are in college :) We started the four hour class with masala chai with onion and potato pakoras and corriander chutney and mango chutney. We then made a vegetable curry dish, vegetable palau, plain naan and tomato and cheese naan, chapati, parantha, sweet parantha, and chickpea curry. Oh my god, it was soooooo f-ing good. She gives a photocopy of the recipes so I will try my best to make these upon my return. I only hope they turn out half as good as they tasted today.

Shashi making chai

Shashi's sister

Making pakoras

Shashi, her sister, and I

I then went back to my henna artist so he can check that everything turned out well and we ended up talking for 4+ hours! Very interesting and talented guy. He has created his own musical instrument that is a combination of the hawaiian (sp?) guitar and the sitar. He has played in London and all over India. Yes, I bought one of his CD's.

Tonight I'm off to Jaisalmer. Hope all is well...

Namaste,
Jen
ps...sorry I'm getting lazy with rotating the pics and I still haven't figured out how to weave them into the blog very well.