Udaipur
Now writing from Udaipur, Rajasthan, pop. ~250,000.
The train here was nasty. Couldn't go hang out and relax because of some menacing guys who were way too fascinated with me -- kept coming over and staring and then running away. Grown men. It was really weird. Being here completely alone is really weird. And the staff on these trains is very strange, too. They hand out blankets and pillows for people to use to keep warm but then they are absolutely obsessed with tracking the location of every piece of it, to the point where they will be groping around in people's beds and turning the lights on while they're sleeping to try to find out if they are hiding an extra pillow or sheet. On my first ride, from Mumbai to Jaipur, I opted not to use their sheets and took out my sleeping bag. A woman from the UK was on the shelf below me and she had told me about being cold on these trains so I told her to use my sheets and blanket. About an hour after the lights had gone out and we were in bed, the staff guy came around and realized that if I wasn't using the blankets, someone else must be because there were no extras. He went wild, asking who had them in Hindi, which the British girl couldn't understand, of course. I pretended to be asleep. He was reaching under people's comforters and feeling around and finally he busted her, yanking away half her bedding and taking it away somewhere.
The train stations here are madness, like a lot of other things. The weight checker stations continue to appear everywhere, like on my platform at the Jaipur train station last night. This is just in case, as you haul your stuff down the dusty walkway between the sleeping families and stray dogs, you just have a burning desire to know your weight at that very moment. There are little rainbow-colored light displays that respond in some way, rewarding your leanness with a little Las Vegas -style flourish. It's bizarre how popular these things are here, especially since almost no one is the slightest bit overweight.
I arrived in Udaipur at sunrise. There were only two other Westerners getting off the train with me and we were besieged by a bunch of autorickshaw drivers, but nothing like in Jaipur. I left Jaipur for Udaipur without knowing where I would stay, figuring that I would have all day to find a place. When I got to the train station, the sun was still rising, I was tired, and I didn't want to deal with the autorickshaw game, so I decided to just walk a hundred feet, set my bag down and just sit there for a while. When I did finally get to the center of town, I took the first room I looked at because it was so clean and interestingly decorated -- painted designs on the ceiling, all stained glass windows, cool bedding, marble floors, and windows that open up over the intricately carved and pointed top of Jagdish Temple. It's high up -- have to climb a bunch of narrow little stairwells. The room is costing the equivalent of only a few bucks a night. Electricity was out this morning so I had to take an ice cold shower (the weather is very cool here right now) but it was the first shower in a few days, so it felt good. The toilet is funny, too. When you flush it, half the water in the tank goes into the bowl, and the other half ejects out the back of the toilet onto the floor. Like most Indian bathrooms I've seen, this one has at least one drain in the floor, so it works out okay. There's also no toilet paper, but I got a couple of rolls from Atithi House in Jaipur as a going away present. Towel = my old t-shirt. Should I continue? It's a lot like camping, but camping in a beautiful old palace on a lake.
Udaipur is exactly what I needed right now. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been, right up there next to Sevilla. In the very center of town there are a lot of people trying to sell stuff to foreigners -- always annoying -- but a short walk out of there and there is peace. Tiny streets (only a few feet wide), friendly people. It took some coaxing for me to drop my Jaipur armor, but I'm glad I did because I ended up spending the morning with this super nice man named Mohan who I just ran into on a back street. He took me to his studio where he paints little pictures of animals. In Jaipur it would have been a bad idea, but it turned out that this guy really just did want to hang out and tell me about Udaipur and hear about New York and the rest of the United States. After he finished his work we went on a walk through some wheat fields and met some beautiful children. I wish I could upload some photos here. I love Udaipur. I find myself walking slowly (impossible!), slow as a fat cow. After our walk Mohan had to go and pointed me towards this park I wanted to go to. This other man nearby overheard and told me to hop on his motorcycle because he was on his way there. I surprised myself by agreeing and was rewarded with a long cruise all over and a valuable Hindi lesson on wheels. Udaipur is very hilly. All tiny little streets wrapped around steep hills surrounding a network of small lakes. The buildings come right up to the lakes' edges, where people swim and wash clothes. Udaipur's official color for women's saris is a bright, glowing sun-yellow, so you can see that all over, too. I wish I could stay here indefinitely.
I have to do laundry today and I'm not sure exactly how it works. I think you take it to someone who dunks your clothes in water and then whacks them against rocks a bunch of times until they are clean. I will find out soon. I hope my H&M underwear can withstand the beating. : )
Today is mefloquine day (once per week anti-malarial prophylaxis) so I'm feeling a little strange right now. Not bad, but not conducive to writing much more. More later.
The train here was nasty. Couldn't go hang out and relax because of some menacing guys who were way too fascinated with me -- kept coming over and staring and then running away. Grown men. It was really weird. Being here completely alone is really weird. And the staff on these trains is very strange, too. They hand out blankets and pillows for people to use to keep warm but then they are absolutely obsessed with tracking the location of every piece of it, to the point where they will be groping around in people's beds and turning the lights on while they're sleeping to try to find out if they are hiding an extra pillow or sheet. On my first ride, from Mumbai to Jaipur, I opted not to use their sheets and took out my sleeping bag. A woman from the UK was on the shelf below me and she had told me about being cold on these trains so I told her to use my sheets and blanket. About an hour after the lights had gone out and we were in bed, the staff guy came around and realized that if I wasn't using the blankets, someone else must be because there were no extras. He went wild, asking who had them in Hindi, which the British girl couldn't understand, of course. I pretended to be asleep. He was reaching under people's comforters and feeling around and finally he busted her, yanking away half her bedding and taking it away somewhere.
The train stations here are madness, like a lot of other things. The weight checker stations continue to appear everywhere, like on my platform at the Jaipur train station last night. This is just in case, as you haul your stuff down the dusty walkway between the sleeping families and stray dogs, you just have a burning desire to know your weight at that very moment. There are little rainbow-colored light displays that respond in some way, rewarding your leanness with a little Las Vegas -style flourish. It's bizarre how popular these things are here, especially since almost no one is the slightest bit overweight.
I arrived in Udaipur at sunrise. There were only two other Westerners getting off the train with me and we were besieged by a bunch of autorickshaw drivers, but nothing like in Jaipur. I left Jaipur for Udaipur without knowing where I would stay, figuring that I would have all day to find a place. When I got to the train station, the sun was still rising, I was tired, and I didn't want to deal with the autorickshaw game, so I decided to just walk a hundred feet, set my bag down and just sit there for a while. When I did finally get to the center of town, I took the first room I looked at because it was so clean and interestingly decorated -- painted designs on the ceiling, all stained glass windows, cool bedding, marble floors, and windows that open up over the intricately carved and pointed top of Jagdish Temple. It's high up -- have to climb a bunch of narrow little stairwells. The room is costing the equivalent of only a few bucks a night. Electricity was out this morning so I had to take an ice cold shower (the weather is very cool here right now) but it was the first shower in a few days, so it felt good. The toilet is funny, too. When you flush it, half the water in the tank goes into the bowl, and the other half ejects out the back of the toilet onto the floor. Like most Indian bathrooms I've seen, this one has at least one drain in the floor, so it works out okay. There's also no toilet paper, but I got a couple of rolls from Atithi House in Jaipur as a going away present. Towel = my old t-shirt. Should I continue? It's a lot like camping, but camping in a beautiful old palace on a lake.
Udaipur is exactly what I needed right now. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been, right up there next to Sevilla. In the very center of town there are a lot of people trying to sell stuff to foreigners -- always annoying -- but a short walk out of there and there is peace. Tiny streets (only a few feet wide), friendly people. It took some coaxing for me to drop my Jaipur armor, but I'm glad I did because I ended up spending the morning with this super nice man named Mohan who I just ran into on a back street. He took me to his studio where he paints little pictures of animals. In Jaipur it would have been a bad idea, but it turned out that this guy really just did want to hang out and tell me about Udaipur and hear about New York and the rest of the United States. After he finished his work we went on a walk through some wheat fields and met some beautiful children. I wish I could upload some photos here. I love Udaipur. I find myself walking slowly (impossible!), slow as a fat cow. After our walk Mohan had to go and pointed me towards this park I wanted to go to. This other man nearby overheard and told me to hop on his motorcycle because he was on his way there. I surprised myself by agreeing and was rewarded with a long cruise all over and a valuable Hindi lesson on wheels. Udaipur is very hilly. All tiny little streets wrapped around steep hills surrounding a network of small lakes. The buildings come right up to the lakes' edges, where people swim and wash clothes. Udaipur's official color for women's saris is a bright, glowing sun-yellow, so you can see that all over, too. I wish I could stay here indefinitely.
I have to do laundry today and I'm not sure exactly how it works. I think you take it to someone who dunks your clothes in water and then whacks them against rocks a bunch of times until they are clean. I will find out soon. I hope my H&M underwear can withstand the beating. : )
Today is mefloquine day (once per week anti-malarial prophylaxis) so I'm feeling a little strange right now. Not bad, but not conducive to writing much more. More later.
posted by Michael M. at 1:41 AM
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