more on Udaipur
Every time I write from here there are a bunch of things I forget.
Apparently a lot of the James Bond movie *Octopussy* was filmed here. I've never seen it, but the locals are mildly obsessed with it. Roughly half the hotels and guest houses here offer nightly screenings of it on their rooftops. It just makes this strange place even stranger.
Indian addresses hilarious and reveal a lot about the way things work here. This is something I actually ran into back in NY, mailing stuff to Mumbai, but today Mohan gave me his postal address and it is a real classic:
MOHAN K
OUTSIDE CHAND POLE
NEAR RAJAWAT GUEST HOUSE
UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN
INDIA 313001
Finding good water here has been a problem. I got one bottle this morning that was good, at a place that caters almost exclusively to foreigners. The second one looked great at first, when I bought it just to get change for a Rs. 50 bill (because of course the autorickshaw guy "didn't have change"). I stuck it away in my bag and looked at it more closely later. Seal intact. Some sand abrasion up and down the sides but nothing unusual for a typical bottle here. A few more dents than I felt comfortable with... but then there was a strange spot on the bottom (another place I'd been told to look), where it like a hole might have been poked with an awl and used to empty and refill the water and then glued back or something. I don't know, it just didn't look good. The third bottle I got was definitely no good. Filled to within 2 millimeters of the top. Over-eager re-marketeers. When you open a bottle of water it shouldn't come splashing out as soon as you take the cap off. The seal was kind of broken, too. So for now I'm left with the dwindling supply in my gallon canteen of self-treated bath water from Jaipur, which tastes awful both from the crap it already had in it and the huge amounts of nasty chemicals I had to put it in before the test strips came back looking good. I'll treat some more tap water tonight. I bet Udaipur's public supply tastes better than Jaipur's.
Rupees are roughly 44 to the USD, so Rs 100 is about $2.33, Rs. 500 is $11.77, Rs. 1000 $23.33, etc.
I took my first, very short bike ride in India after being begged and tugged by a bunch of kids who had started talking to me way up in this hilltop section of town and for some reason thought it would just be the funniest thing ever to see a foreigner ride this bike down their street.
The Hindi word for 'tomorrow' also means 'yesterday.' "Kal." Hey, what's the difference, anyway.
Tomorrow I plan on going to Ranakpur to see the Jain temple complex. Bye for now.
Michael
Apparently a lot of the James Bond movie *Octopussy* was filmed here. I've never seen it, but the locals are mildly obsessed with it. Roughly half the hotels and guest houses here offer nightly screenings of it on their rooftops. It just makes this strange place even stranger.
Indian addresses hilarious and reveal a lot about the way things work here. This is something I actually ran into back in NY, mailing stuff to Mumbai, but today Mohan gave me his postal address and it is a real classic:
MOHAN K
OUTSIDE CHAND POLE
NEAR RAJAWAT GUEST HOUSE
UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN
INDIA 313001
Finding good water here has been a problem. I got one bottle this morning that was good, at a place that caters almost exclusively to foreigners. The second one looked great at first, when I bought it just to get change for a Rs. 50 bill (because of course the autorickshaw guy "didn't have change"). I stuck it away in my bag and looked at it more closely later. Seal intact. Some sand abrasion up and down the sides but nothing unusual for a typical bottle here. A few more dents than I felt comfortable with... but then there was a strange spot on the bottom (another place I'd been told to look), where it like a hole might have been poked with an awl and used to empty and refill the water and then glued back or something. I don't know, it just didn't look good. The third bottle I got was definitely no good. Filled to within 2 millimeters of the top. Over-eager re-marketeers. When you open a bottle of water it shouldn't come splashing out as soon as you take the cap off. The seal was kind of broken, too. So for now I'm left with the dwindling supply in my gallon canteen of self-treated bath water from Jaipur, which tastes awful both from the crap it already had in it and the huge amounts of nasty chemicals I had to put it in before the test strips came back looking good. I'll treat some more tap water tonight. I bet Udaipur's public supply tastes better than Jaipur's.
Rupees are roughly 44 to the USD, so Rs 100 is about $2.33, Rs. 500 is $11.77, Rs. 1000 $23.33, etc.
I took my first, very short bike ride in India after being begged and tugged by a bunch of kids who had started talking to me way up in this hilltop section of town and for some reason thought it would just be the funniest thing ever to see a foreigner ride this bike down their street.
The Hindi word for 'tomorrow' also means 'yesterday.' "Kal." Hey, what's the difference, anyway.
Tomorrow I plan on going to Ranakpur to see the Jain temple complex. Bye for now.
Michael
posted by Michael M. at 5:25 AM
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