I could watch monkeys all day. The ones I've seen here in Udaipur are a light gray with dark black faces. It's hard to say how big their bodies are or what their height is because they are always in different positions. When they are squatting down and sitting upright, though, it's about 2.5 feet from the ground to the top of their heads. There are babies, too, of course. I watched them as I ate my breakfast from a place across from Jagdish temple, where there is a huge tree full of monkeys. They leap from branch to branch and run around on the surrounding rooftops, too.

I am loving the animals here. There aren't enough animals walking around New York. This morning when I walked out the door I was face to face with a huge elephant. Here in India they paint the elephants' heads and trunks with beautiful multicolored designs.

Breakfast was spinach and paneer with rice at at Sunrise Restaurant, 18 Gangaur Ghat Rd. Go there if you come here. It's a sweet middle-aged couple that runs the place and I love it. You go up this tiny little stairwell that winds up past the kitchen, just a hole in the wall with a grilling surface, and up to the roof, where they have a few tables. They were talking about Lonely Planet and how they never got any business before they were mentioned in Lonely Planet's 2005 edition of *India*. Lonely Planet is a minor god in India. For traveller's, it's absolutely essential. You'd be dead coming here without it. Every foreigner you see at a train, restaurant, or on the street, has a copy and uses it constantly. Businesses will include "LONELY PLANET RECOMMENDED" on their hand-painted signs. Lonely Planet is something analogous to Alan Greenspan here. I took a risk here and stayed in a hotel not mentioned in Lonely Planet and it turned out great, but in general I think the book basically makes or breaks a business here.

Roy, the guy from Scotland I was hanging out with, has been all over and it was his opinion that no place could top India when it comes to the pure randomness. I will give this week's award for randomness to the fabulous LOVE NEST RESTAURANT, which sports several flashy signs to catch your attention as you pass by on the dusty road between Udaipur and Ranakpur. This place would have turned heads in Brooklyn, irony capital of the the world, but it was out here in the middle of... you'd just have to see it.

I enjoyed uninterrupted sleep last night. That is good.

My bus leaves at 7 p.m. this evening and will arrive in Indore at 6 a.m. The only bed option I had was to share a bed with some other totally random passenger, which I decided might make for the wrong kind of interesting night. I got a plain old chair seat instead, so I might be tired tomorrow. I'm looking forward to moving on, though, and very anxious to finally get to Bhopal tomorrow afternoon. I am going to Indore only to find a way to get to Bhopal, which is anywhere from 3 to 6 hours from there, depending on who you're asking.