Bitch over da liver cry. June 28, 2008

15.June.08

We went back to the Bangkok Chatuchak Weekend market (third time) which seemed much less hectic this time. We just wandered around, had some good street food and bought simple stuff like a watch, patches for our bags, etc. The rest of the day was just wandering around a bit, sewed on patches, and read. Nothing too special.

16.June.08

We hopped on the minibus for a painless journey to Kanchanaburi and got checked in to Charlie Frogs Guest House in a sweet bungalow floating on the River Kwai in the middle of a field of lotus’. We quickly rented out some Kayaks to spend an awesome three hours along the river. We went under the famous “Bridge over the River Kwai” and through fields of lotus’ and water lilies while constantly surrounded by the splended sound and sight of the jungle.

We then headed to a night market and dinner, then back at the hotel the sunset was gorgeous over the pink lotus’ and the bridge, and the romantic moment was only diluted by a group of five incredibly childish, gross, hairy, old (probably Russian) men, wearing only speedos and their five young Thai “girlfriends” outside their rooms (men; drinking, laughing, dancing, and making fools of themselves, and girls; sitting looking miserable). This is a really obnoxious part of Thailand and seems to be more prevalent here in Kanchanaburi for some reason. I won’t bother mentioning it in the rest of the blog, but many times during a meal or wandering the streets or hotel we were surrounded by immature white guys and their Thai “girlfriends.” They were from everywhere; Sweden, Germany, America, England and no matter where they came from they were always super awkward and condescending to their “girls” (like making fun of their accents, but who am I to talk, have you got the title of the blog yet?!). It was painfull to even be around such pitiful men who probably have wife and kids at home, which is surprising they could EVER get a girl as they were all complete dickheads. There’s a good reason we realized that these kind of guys had to buy “love;” pathetic. Anyway, enough of that, the rest of the blog is only the fun stuff, which is aplenty!

17.June.08

We hopped on an early public bus to Erawan National Park where we hiked a gorgeous trail through the dumping Erawan Falls. The falls were seven tiered and at many of the tiers I had the opportunity to swim in the flawless blue waters (only I, because Jess forgot her bathing suit; and flawless is without including the hundred of fish that constantly nipped at my body). The whole hike was terrific if a bit humid (tends to be a trend the last seven months) we met some cool folks along the way and bumped into some crazy caterpillars which didn’t even seem real!

We got back to the hostel, booked a tour for tomorrow (ugh, sometimes a neccessary evil), had a few drinks and dinner with a nice German couple and conversed into the night.

18.June.08

Our tour wasn’t all bad as we got to see a bunch of neat stuff in a short while. We had a trip to a quaint waterfall then to the Hellfire Pass memorial including museum where we learned about Asia’s part in WWII (long story short about the railroad; Japan was overall nearly as bad as the nazis, enslaved 200,000 asians, and 60,000 allies to build a railroad through Thailand to Burma to supply the battle front near India. The working conditions were aweful with rampant malaria, food shortage, torture, etc. They were all treated worse than slaves and more than half died, BUT the railroad got finished! Way to go Japan!). Next we went to a natural hot spring, where we took a dip in piping hot waters, then to a cave then the railroad where we rode the train through a scenic little area then got off and drove to the famous bridge that was built over the river and walked along it. Overall a good experience, we got to see what we wanted, but it also affirmed that we don’t like tours very much (especially with obnoxious crying babies along).

We just hung out around the hostel afterwards, had another terrific sunset, and booked a van back to bangkok for tomorrow.

19.June.08

We took the trip to Bangkok, got our passports back with the gorgeous new Laos visa pasted inside. Then we booked train tickets for the night of the 19th. We decided to get quite drunk off some tequila we bought duty free and inteded to go out, but it started pouring rain so we simply entertained ourselves in our hotel room and surprised ourselves with an awesome time just chatting and laughing about the last many months. We eventually went out to see “Juno” at a nearby cafe. Juno is an incredible film, and even funnier with some tequila.

20.June.08

We did a mini city tour today with a cool rickshaw driver who took us to two shops who paid him so we didn’t have too (always fun). After all the time we’ve spent in Bangkok we still saw some awesome new things. The Golden Mountain Wat with a massive golden spire on top (after taking lots of stairs) had a perfect view of the city. Then we saw a 5 ton solid gold Buddha that had been hidden in stucco by the Thais to protect from maurauding Burmese 700 years ago. It wasn’t uncovered again until the 1950’s, when instead of melting it down, decided to charge tourists 20Bhat to glipse it, a goldmine industry in itself. Next we had an awesome Dim Sum lunch in Chinatown, and wandered the back alley markets where we dumped plenty of Bhat on really silly quintisentially asian trinkets. (We’re talking cutsy hello kitty type stuff, and cartoon poop keychains which we bought plenty of and laughed for hours). Then we got back and got on the night train to start our journey onward and upward!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157605746548864/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157605746424930/

The roads turned to rivers… June 24, 2008

WARNING: The following blog is probably THE MOST BORING blog we have written.  Some excellent ones to follow however, as we’ve been up to some wild hijinks since our stints of laziness described in the following blog.

4.June.2008

We basically collapsed when we arrived in Mumbai. The train ride was easy enough from Aurangabad to Mumbai…an early morning ride in A/C chair…except the guy checking tickets couldn’t seem to find our names on the roster. Until Dave took a look and found them right on top…he was nice enough but a total chocolate tea pot. We did see one amazing character on the train…a disgruntled British man because the A/C car didn’t pull up where it was supposed to and he had to lug his luggage through the train…despite the 30 minutes the train sat stationary at the station, this wasn’t long enough for him to plan accordingly…anyways he looked just like an aged version of Johnny Depps character in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas…absolutely disgusting teeth and over all hard to look at.

Other then that the ride was uneventful and we arrived in Dadar, had a quick snack at a good veg restaurant and then took the local train to Bandra and met Purvi, a spunky slim Indian girl, who let us into Blakes apartment (our CS host who is still in Darjeeling). The area we are staying is extremely nice, apparently the Beverly Hills of Mumbai. There is a crazy kitty in the apartment (has no name other then kitty or el gato) who used to be a street kitty two months ago and still adjusting to a civilized lifestyle…meaning he likes to surprise attack with claws in our legs, but otherwise very sweet.

Dave was feeling ill with stomach pains so we spent the afternoon being lazy bums watching t.v. and ordering in Subway (Subway delivery?! Why would one ever leave the house?)

5.June.2008

Again Dave was feeling quite ill and lethargic so we spent the day just sort of hanging around the neighborhood, walking over the hill to the ocean which is crazy stormy right now and eating western style food at trendy cafes…yum…we even indulged in going to a great bookstore called Crossword and browsing the books and getting coffee at the upstairs cafe…this may not sound like anything special or unusual but it is a major treat for us and very exciting!

After that we headed back to the apartment because that was all the excitement Dave could handle in his “weak and frail” condition. We ordered in Subway sandwiches for dinner and just watched random movies on t.v. It started pouring rain in the evening and doesn’t seem like it will be stopping any time soon!

6.June.2008

Yet another day of doing nothing…Dave was still feeling ill, so we just sort of hung out around the neighborhood. Went out to an American style cafe called “Just Around the Corner” where we witnessed a very big man (looked like an Indian Penn Gillette from Penn and Teller) and his small frail old father also consumed a huge amount of food…it just kept coming and coming and coming and ended with a plate piled high with bananas, a strange sight indeed. Most of the day was spent watching t.v. and playing with el gato….but in the evening we went out to the cinema to see the Sex and the City movie, which was very exciting (for me. Dave edit: hey I liked it too…it brought out my feminine side!)…we got some of the last seats available! The audience were mostly women and all dressed very western style, wearing jeans and tank tops, which is still quite unusual in India, a good majority of the women wear sarees…a very hip and trendy crowd. This was the first time in a long while we have seen a movie in the theater so it was a lot of fun.

7.June.2008

Today it is still raining though I was hoping to go to explore the city, but Dave wasn’t up for it so we walked to breakfast over the hill (near the ocean)… and mid-way through the meal Dave started feeling even worse so we decided maybe it is time to see a doctor. We called Purvi and recommended we go to Holy Family Hospital, so we took a rickshaw over there and then went to the emergency room where they asked a whole bunch of questions and diagnosed him with Gastroenteritis, which is basically swollen intestines from a mild infection, which the doctor said is common when the monsoon starts, because of the extreme change in temperature and weather as well as all the gross stuff flushed out by the waters. The hospital was very clean and professional aside from all of the “we love jesus” stickers everywhere (If Christian missionaries did anything right in India, I guess it was set up nice hospitals!) The whole thing (admittance, diagnosis and medication) cost 500 rupees, about 12 USD! Amazing, you cant’ stick your toe in a hospital in the U.S. without paying hundreds!

The rest of the afternoon was spent resting and waiting to see if the medicine would work. The rain became unbelievable and soon the roads became rivers about two feet high! It was completely insane. Dave started feeling better by the end of the day as the medicine certainly did it’s job.

8.June.2008

While Dave wasn’t feeling 100 percent things were looking up and he was even starting to crave eating food again…which is very exciting! We spent the day relaxing, but by the afternoon Dave was feeling hungry and wanting KFC, so we took a rickshaw there and conveniently across the street is a MacDonald’s and I have been curious about MacDonald’s in India because of the whole “holy cow” thing…so I got food at MacDonalds, I got something that was like a Big Mac but made with chicken patties and a spicier sauce…it was a little disappointing…but anyways there is no beef on the menu in India only veg patties, chicken and fish…so after our guilty indulgence we went back to the apartment and did more nothing…

9.June.2008

Dave is feeling lot better today and as it is our last full day in Mumbai we decide to go out and explore Colaba, which is about a 30 minute train ride away from Bandra…too bad it has been pouring rain on and off. We get out of the train and attempt to take a taxi to the India gate and everyone is refusing to use the meter and we mouth off really harshly to them (racist bahinchuds, all of them!). Taking out our aggression on the jerk taxi drivers feels great, but it felt better to finally get a taxi who used the meter. The moment we arrive at the India gate it starts pouring rain so we have to hide out under the overhang and it never really stops raining but once it slows to a drizzle we walk around…not the most impressive sight but it was in the process of being renovated….from there we started walking around, but it started pouring rain again so we decided to go get a drink and food and went to the famous Leopold’s (from the book Shantaram, read it if you haven’t yet) and tried to wait out the rain but it didn’t subside…so we walked around the corner to one of the best restaurants in Mumbai called Indigo…Italian/French style cuisine. I got a steak, which was absolutely amazing…the first beef I have had in 2 months and beyond that it was just really tasty…Dave got Foi Grais and wow it was one of the best meals we have had in a long time! Our waiter informed us that Indigo has a delicatessen with real meats and cheeses so got directions to find it. When we left the restaurant it was still drizzly so we went to the delicatessen and bought some salami, blue cheese, baguettes, and Gouda for dinner and then walked around a bit before taking the train back.

When we got back to the apartment our couch surfing host was there, back from his trek in the Himalayas, which was exciting because we weren’t sure weather we would get to meet him or not, which would be strange after having spent 5 days at his apartment watching his cat! So he was stoked about his trek and talked about that and we had a nice picnic of sandwiches for dinner, which felt so exotic and delicious! We then headed out to a hookah bar around the corner, where all the university students hangout… we smoked a delicious apple flavored tobacco and chatted about life, this that and the other…long day

10.June.2008

We slept in this morning and then went with Blake to a place called the Bagel Shop and we had pretty high hopes for a real bagel and those hopes were dashed. Although it was a tasty meal it certainly wasn’t what I would call a bagel…we then walked along the ocean back to Blake’s home, which was nice, haven’t walked along the ocean in a long time, didn’t realize how much we have missed it! When we got back we packed up and got ready for our flight…said goodbye to the kitty and Blake and then took a rickshaw to the airport.

When we arrived at the airport we were both stunned at how beautiful and modern it is, having only been in the Kolkata airport we weren’t sure if all the airports in India were in need of some improvements, but clearly not! Check in and boarding was all perfectly on time and easy but then we sat in the airplane for over 3 hours, first we were waiting for some people to board and then they found some technical difficulties and thought they might be able to fix it but turns out they couldn’t. By the time we unloaded our first plane we should have already arrived in Kolkata. Not only that but we had to do the whole thing again…get tickets, check our luggage, go through security…really a fun time! We didn’t arrive into Mumbai till well after midnight, we were not happy campers. We took a prepaid taxi to Biplob’s, which was easy and quick, at least when arriving late there is no traffic! We chatted for a bit with Biplob and his other couch surfer Laura and then drifted off to sleepy land…

11.June.2008

At this point both Dave and I are feeling pretty exhausted and have no aspirations to do any sight seeing in Kolkata…so we sleep in till 10 ish and then cook some soup for breakfast for everyone and then hangout around the house doing laundry and using the internet…in the afternoon Biplob has some errands to do and decide to tag along so as not to completely waste away the day. We go the university area and there are hundreds of book stalls lining the streets in all directions and little shops selling school supplies. Biplob takes us to the oldest coffee house in Kolkata, which has a lot of history including revolutionaries meeting there to plot and so on. It had a cool feel to it and we ordered ice coffee (very hot day) and onion pakora and soak up the scene…when Biplob gets back from his errands we walked around some more just checking things out and then we hop in a cab to meet Laura and then head back to the house. We watch a really popular Bollywood film called “Jab We Met”, which was beyond silly but fun to watch just the once and Biplob wips us up a big feast of curries and rice…didn’t know he had it in him! Delicous meal followed by even more delicous slumber

12.June.2008

Another day doing next to nothing.  It rained a bit.  We ate TONS of beyond delicious Lychees and used the internet.  We ate some good Indian food, which means Dave is definitely feeling better.  We kind of just wandered around the city a bit more and hung out with Biplop.  The only exciting thing was sending a package from the post office, followed by a dance and goat sacrifice to Vishnu the preserver that our package actually gets to the US.

13.June.2008

Today was our big flight back to sanity (Thailand).  The Kolkata airport was again disappointing, especially compared to the Mumbai one.  The flight was a great purgatory between India and Thailand.  Somehow the Indian people flooding the plane made it feel overcrowded even though everyone had a seat.  It was a real party for them standing in the aisles, taking pictures, and laughing loudly at the movies on our personal little screens.  We landed without a problem and were soon checked into a hostel near the main touristy area of Bangkok!  It was AWESOME.  A bit of increase in price, but exponentially cleaner and more comfy than ANYTHING we had in India, with a great view from the window to boot.

It was awesome being in “civilization.”  Uncrowded silent streets, blue sky could actually be seen, the food was fresh and beer is cheap and delicious again!  We went out for a stroll along Khao San, had some beers at a club, and felt overall at ease and stress free.

14.June.2008

We had a great full day of Thai food, a clean and orderly museum of Thai history, and getting interviewed by Thai schoolgirls for their English class with their adorable shyness at speaking English.  Shopped a little, wandered a lot and planned extensively for what to do next which we decided to go to Kanchanaburi just to the west!  We booked our tickets for tomorrow, and turned our Passports into a tourist agency to get our Laos visas for later.  After all was settled we watched American history X at a Hostel nearby and slept.

To the Batcave robin! June 14, 2008

30.May.08

We spent the entire day on the train…woke up to the usual “Chai….Coffee….chai….coffee”, we are both quite skilled at blocking this out and sleeping a little longer in the luxury of an a/c car with the blankets pulled over our heads. The first half of the day was easy enough, just waiting for the train to arrive in Mumbai and then came crunch time. We arrived at Bandra station and then had to figure out how to take the local train to Dadar and figure out where our next train came in and get lunch in a hour and a half time span. It was incredibly hot and humid when we got off in Mumbai and we were drenched in sweat and flies lugging our bags around but we figured it out and got our connecting train with out too much stress. Along the way we saw a sign almost parallel in hilarity as the hotdog one from Singapore. I guess Indians give privilege to people in a higher astrological caste now…

(If you don’t get it…the Astrological sign for Cancer is a crab).

The next train seating was a bit complicated, too many people on the train but after some talking we got our seats even though they weren’t next to each other and the rest of the ride was a waiting game. We got into Aurangabad around midnight and had already contacted a hotel before we arrived, so walked straight there, a 5 minute walk from the station…on the way we saw the most amusing, quentessentially Indian thing…in a small alley a group of guys (no girls around) having a full on dance party with music blasting, holding up plastic chairs over their heads and singing loudly. Very strange, not something you would see anywhere else in the world. Little moments like this make all the stress of traveling in India worth it!

31.May.08

Lazy day….we woke up late and felthungry, but unfortunatley our hotel doesn’t have the usual facilities so we had to forge for food in the city. We were told by one of the guys who runs the hotel of a good place to go about a 10 minute walk from our hotel but we had no luck and were frankly a bit impatient due to hunger so we ended up at another place listed in our book called Food Walla’s Tandoor and it was love at first bite for Dave. I ordered a chicken burger with grilled onions on the side and I thought it was decent enough but Dave fell in love and that is why we came back again and again during our stay in Aurangabad. 5 times in 4 days we went to this place and they also had quite scrumptious Kulfis which are really creamy ice cream with pistachio, saffron, possibly cardamom, etc.

We were both feeling incredibly unmotivated, a bit sick and the heat didn’t help any of this so we did little to nothing. We searched out good internet but that doesn’t seem to exist in this city. So we booked ourselves spots on a guided tour of the Ajanta Caves for tomorrow, a bit begrudgingly, but being 100km away (doesn’t sound like much, but on Indian roads and buses it is a journey) going the public bus route would be an ordeal! For dinner we went back to Dave’s favorite new restaurant and he ordered a chicken burger…so spontaneous and new! We chat with some other tourists who are working in India with Google on a top secret project, we probed them with questions but they held fast…they said they will be releasing it at the end of the year…mysterious these tech nerds be (best Yoda impersonation).  We also drank Indian Shiraz at the restaurant, which was surprisingly delicious!

01.June.08

We got on our bus and were just hanging out ready for the journey when our friend Rebecca randomly popped on in a couple stops. Rebecca is someone we met WAY back in Amritsar at the Pak border charade. Since then she has gone nowhere near the same path we have gone, which makes it completely random we met here, and more random that all three of us hate tours, but somehow felt compelled to do this one. Could it be fate we thought? And we all promptly laughed at the absurdity. Rebecca entertained us with her southern drawl (from Atlanta, Georgia), sharp wit and silly stories. We shared tales of adventure, sorrow, danger, love, hate, war, famine, rainbows, discovery, death, fatigue, snails, and most importantly of all; the tales of the plethora of people one encounters in India who are as useful as teapots made of chocolate. Laughter quickened the journey, and before we knew it we were there hopping from one astounding cave to the next as our guide gave us a little background into the top ten of all forty caves. It was crazy hot outside, but shaded and cooler in the caves. The tour was okay, but the guide was a bit nuts, we would have had just as fun running around and exploring on our own, but oh well. Some obese/lazy Indian tourists paid money to be carried by four men with bamboo poles attached to a chair. When they saw us white people they saw opportunity for a little Baksheesh (tip) so they offered again and again to put Jessica on the seat when empty so I could take pictures. We told them we would NOT give baksheesh if we did it and they assured us it was no problem, “no backsheesh, just for fun” they said. We both had a turn, got some funny pictures, and in typical Indian fashion, they still asked for money after, to which we guiltlessly refused. There’s no point describing any more of the caves as the pictures speak FAR better than words.

Soon we were back on the bus and laughing our way back home. We took Rebecca to Tandoor, where I actually DIDN’T order the chicken burger for the first time and we all ate a different scrumptious curry with naan breads, all just as delicious as the chicken burger.

02.June.08

We met early with Rebecca and headed to the second set and somehow even more beautiful Ellora caves. They were much closer so we all shared a rickshaw. On the way we stopped by an old fort with a structure like out of an Indian Jones movie. Man eating crocodile filled moat, a labyrinth of terrifying bat-filled tunnels that long ago included mechanisms to fill the chambers with poisons against an enemy invasion. We were able to go through this awesome tunnel system with a creepy guide speaking in Hindi carrying a torch and a group of Indian tourists. Bats flew ever overhead and the guide filled the chamber with screams from Saree clad Indian women as he put out the torch to leave us in complete blackness for terror effect. Good thing the poison didn’t start streaming in too! Almost near the top we bumped into a huge group of really cool looking Muslim kids who were ecstatic when I offered to take their picture. They were truly stunning people and all had the most penetrating eyes. The insanely difficult climb to the top of the fort was only moderately worth it for the decent view. We were drenched in sweat and very thirsty for the climb down where we met our angry rickshaw driver who said we took way to long. “Hey we’re paying you to take us around all day buddy, we’ll take however long we want.”

We got to the Ellora caves which were absolutely astounding. Once again, there are a few mentionable moments, but the pictures will speak better than words. For some reason people HOUNDED us all around the place today, we think because there were so many Indian tourists from non-touristy towns, and so few white tourists so we were a rare novelty to them. The three of us are now in like 4 family portraits and tons more random pics with groups of single guys, or with kids, etc. as “The white people we met on our trip to Ellora,” or Jessica and Becca as “My new girlfriend, she puts out (because she’s white),” or me as “My best rich white friend.” The families were always fun, but the groups of really creepy single white men that would follow around and try to take pictures with cell phones (as if we wouldn’t notice) were getting very annoying. We met an Irish girl traveling alone and quickly took her under our wing for she was having similar issues in this huge labyrinth of caves (now we are “The white guy and his harem of three wives”). The girls also noticed that some weird dude in a green shirt had been following us for like an hour. An hour later he was still creeping behind us. Jess told me to do something, but I just felt sorry for this silly pathetic dude.  So, after calling me a wuss, Becca, Jess, and Irish girl unleashed on this sorry fool a fiery tornado, wrapped in a hurricane, nestled in a box of tsunamis.  He pleaded “I wasn’t following, I promise,” but when they were done with their verbal assault he would have admitted to assassinating JFK.  He sulked away apologizing for being creepy and I just snickered and laughed at him…poor guy, he just want to follow some cute white chicks around and didn’t even know what he had coming.  (Jess told me to take out the last line arguing: “He was not a poor guy, he’s a creeper,” but I think I’ll just leave the whole dialogue in).  I make it sound like such a horrible time, but really that’s all just typical India, something dealt with nearly every day.  In reality it was an AWESOME day all around.  The caves were breathtaking, again just see the pictures and in person the detail of the carvings up close is beyond incredible!

This was in a really dark hallway on a tripod and timed shot on HIGH exposure.  No post editing.

We were shortly after on a rickshaw back to the city and caught dinner at a really terrific vegetarian restaurant frequented mainly by locals (so we got more crazy stares being the only white people). 

03.June.08

We went for the trifecta of caves today with the far less visited Aurangabad caves.  They are less visited because they are actually less exciting.  Nonetheless they were worth a visit.  Since they were more free of tourists, the Buddhist caves were in use by bright orange clad Thai-style young monks.  Their silent pressence added to the environment and made the whole place very peaceful.  We wandered around for awhile and complained to on another about the shotty “restoration” work they were doing on the caves.  In typical Indian “restoration” fashion, they were simply throwing us spackle over cracks, or ”reconstucting” crumbled caves and painting to look sort of the color of rock.  Instead of just leaving the caves all crumbled and pretty, they have to make them fake looking.  Thankfully this doesn’t happen everywhere, the Ajanta and Ellora caves were better I think because they had UNESCO overseers for the restoration work, but the Aurangabad caves get less attention and shady labor that don’t seem to know what they are doing.  Too bad.  We spent the rest of the day just hanging out, ate at the clean veggie place then went to bed early to wake up for our train back to Mumbai early in the morning. 

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157605452381499/

Eight-headed kitten. June 12, 2008

27.May.08

We were rudely awakened from our cramped box at about 4am to be hurriedly tossed out of the bus and left out in the middle of nowhere with only one other person around…a rickshaw driver. Thankfully he didn’t use our completely screwed state to his total advantage, and only moderately overcharged us for a trip to our hostel (who were SUPPOSED to pick us up free, but the night boy was too lazy at 4am when I called). Our room was an instant relief, and I even bartered the price of this “luxury suite” from Rs 300 to Rs 250/night. The joke was lost on us until later that we were put in room 007; Octopussy was filmed here (I never realized they filmed a Bond movie with cats, hmm…) It was a room befitting ol’ Jimmy Bond, and for such a deal! I decided not to be lazy and went to the rooftop (being careful not to step on the hotel workers sleeping there) to take pictures of the city at sunrise…which was mildly disappointing and didn’t seem like “the most romantic city in India” though the countryside was nice. Then I went down to join Jess in bed where we slept in to a more reasonable hour.

We woke up at a more reasonable hour and got some light breakfast on the rooftop where they put our bill on “The James Bond Room” as they thereafter called it. Then we headed around to see some sights. The first sight we saw was the super posh hotel the “Lake Palace.” We’re talking $400 – $2000 PER NIGHT to stay at this place in the middle of a once beautiful, and now almost completely dry (and filthy) lake. They are supposed to have a great restaurant, though we wouldn’t know as ONLY GUESTS CAN EAT THERE…assholes. One technically must arrive by boat, but the lake is so shallow you could walk over the thick, dirty mud to the front steps. It’s really not THAT pretty looking anyway, judge for yourself.

We visited the city palace which was just a place where some king dude, his wives, and court used to hang out. It was nice, but tacky, and the guide we took for a change was not worth the price. We justified paying a guide because we got in for the student price! Yay student ID’s. Next we went to another madly expensive and gorgeous hotel for High Tea with live local music. We ended up being the only people there and they started playing beautiful sounds just for us. Tea and sweets were delicious and an awesome change of pace. Though a bit pricey, still fractions what one would pay for the same quality and service in England i suppose. The hotel was an attachment of the palace, and still the residence of the local Rajisthani kings descendant (who isn’t really a king anymore, just some really rich guy, as it happens). The hotel had an awesome ballroom and great view of the Lake Palace which looked much nicer from this angle.

We left the ballroom and wandered the streets to a superbly intricately carved Hindu temple, and then another one nearby. They always make terrific places to meander and get away from the hectic city, though this city really isn’t all that bad. The carved Kama Sutra images are always fun to more closely examine as well. We headed back to the hotel and ate a simple and mild dinner on the rooftop as jess wasn’t feeling to well.

28.May.08

We did next to nothing today. There were only really three things worth mentioning. The first was waking up at the painful hour of 4am in attempts to take a rickshaw to some hill fort station to catch a gorgeous view of the city at sunrise. Even though our book suggested this, it was made impossible a couple years back by some government dickheads who closed the park area from 6pm to 10am. We decided to boycott and not go to the fort at all as they charge an arm and a leg for tourists anyway, and it’s not supposed to be spectacular past sunrise anyways. So we went back to bed to again wake up at a reasonable hour.

The second notable thing was taking pictures of this group of kids who lived right outside the hotel. One of which was the cutest little four year old girl we have ever seen. They all went crazy and did a whole photo shoot for us just because they loved pictures taken of them. It was great, though the boys got quite pushy not wanting the girls in the pictures, we eventually got them to all get along. Just look at how cute this picture is!

The third notable thing we did was have a terrific dinner at a nice lakeside restaurant with another view of the flame lit palace in all its glory where we SHOULD BE EATING. I finally found some good imported whiskey and so excited about the cocktail prices. We had an overall delicious meal with great naan and succulent chicken tandoori. The pic is a view of the City Palace left and Lake Palace down right.

29.May.08

We packed our bags up, left them at the front desk, and checked out. Then took a long rickshaw ride over hills and windy roads to the Eklingji temple in a little village nearby. The literal Hindi translation for Eklingji is One Respectable Penis; Ek – One, Ling – Penis (Also Lingam, the dick shaped rock carving in EVERY temple as a symbol for the main god Shiva), Ji – a term of respect. Sure enough, the temple had a lot of Lingams, also some gorgeous carved pillars, and stunning silver interior of the main temple. We couldn’t take pics anywhere inside the huge complex, which really bumbed us out, but you’ll have to take our word that it was stunning! Here’s a pic of the temples from above, but it doesn’t do it justice.

Then we headed to the Nagda ruins. Where the center of some ancient kingdom once rested, which later moved to what is now Udaipur. Most of the structures are crumbled or gracefully flooded over, but we walked around one temple area that was well preserved and very quiet and peaceful as we were the only people there. We hopped back in the rickshaw and rode to the hotel where we went to another nearby hotel and had a decent dinner while conversing with a crazy Australian. Grabbed our bags, took a rickshaw to the train station and away we went for a 27 hour journey through Mumbai and on to Aurangabad.

I figured just for fun I’d put a direct link to the pictures after the blog, since we now write it by city as opposed to time frame. So here are the Udaipur pics:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157605316533440/