I've had a bit of a photo-uploading spree! I really am all or nothing. :) I am aware some are upside down, but I'm afraid you're just going to have to deal with it.

So I am now in Udaipur. I really like this city. I thought it wouldn't be as nice as Jaisalmer, to be honest, but I think this is my favourite place so far. Udaipur has several nicknames, including "City of Lakes" and "Venice of the East". As you'd expect from this there is lots of water and pretty buildings around. It's the dry season, so there is not so much water as there can be, but there's enough about to still be impressive. There are a couple of big lakes. Many kings in India seem to have decided they wanted some water lying around their cities for aesthetic purposes, so made and burst dams and flooded villages to achieve this. Still, it all looks very nice. There are lots of very grand imposing palaces; it reminds me a lot of St Petersburg actually. The city centre is bustling and there are loads of guesthouses and tourist shops, but if you go right down to the lakeside the whole place has an abandoned ghostly charm to it. The buildings on the lakeside are covered in water for half the year, so they're in need of a lick of paint, but this just adds to the character. There are a few big, important buildings, being City Palace, Lake Palace and Monsoon Palace (the latter is on top of a big hill!), all of which are really beautiful. They know about architecture in India, that's for sure. I loved City Palace, all the rooms are completely covered in paintings, murals, stained glass, mirrors. I have been wandering around imagining myself to be a princess. It doesn't help that I'm reading a book of Indian legends, many of which involve princesses. The whole place is surrounded by mountains as well. We went to the top of the mountain with Monsoon Palace yesterday, and the city looks so beautiful nestled in the valley with it's glittering blue lake. I could definitely live here. (So long as I could be a princess). While we were there, there were some local young men (early twenties) playing music on their phones, the way chavs do back home. They were playing Backstreet's Back and Barbie Girl, which completely cracked me up.

I'm staying in Lake Corner Soni Paying Guest House. You'd have thought they may have used a catchier name. It's run by this really old couple and I feel bad asking for anything or coming back late as the lady takes 5 minutes to get down the stairs. They're very sweet and friendly though their English isn't too good, and you can tell nothing has been replaced (or cleaned above knee height) since it opened 20 years ago. Still it's very cheap, so I'm definitely not complaining. Oh, the first night, we arrived at 5am, and went to this hotel owned by another of Arvy's friends. It was really posh and I felt a bit out of my depth. I've realised I've gotten so used to staying in shabby, cheap guesthouses, I feel more at home in places like that than fancy ones. I don't like posh hotels as they always have a ridiculous number of lights in the rooms. I spent 10 minutes trying to find the light switch for one light, after turning off the other 5, before I could go to sleep. Even though it was posh, it wasn't really finished, and they started construction work at 6am. There was no water coming out of the shower and there were no towels, so bathing was somewhat of a problem. They tried to charge us 2000 rupees a night for this (bearing in mind I'm now paying 100 a night) so we basically said no way and scarpered.

Yesterday we also went to this very very old Hindu temple. It was built in 700AD. It reminded me a lot of Angkor, except it is still a functioning temple. Deepti is Hindu so we went to a worship thing as well. They seem to have a few a day and you go and give offerings and such. It was very interesting. Plus the temple was amazing, really beautifully made. I have been learning about the Hindu gods; they all have their own legends and specialities. For example, Ganesha is the one with the elephant head, and he has an elephant head because his mum left him alone with his father, who fell asleep, and someone came and cut the baby's head off (see, you really can't depend on men!). The dad decided to replace the baby's head with an elephant's head, and because the parents were worried people would now make fun of him, his dad pronounced that people would have to consult Ganesha first for everything. So every time someone opens a new business, or gets married, they pray to Ganesha because he's the god of new beginnings. When people get married they paint Ganesha and the date of the marriage outside their house for luck. Very interesting. There's also a god who is blue because he drank poison to save the world (which has several connotations to Christianity as well, methinks).

I have been going to rooftop yoga classes in the mornings (unblocking my meridians). After being disappointed by my Thai yoga experience because the class was taught by camp Manchunian, this more than makes up for it. The teacher says absolutely nothing during the whole class apart from "see" every time he changes position (which can be kind of dangerous). He also made me do a headstand, which I've never done before, by holding my legs up, to which I shrieked "I don't like it, I want to go down". He also does this weird thing with his eyes, either rolls them back in his head or crosses them, and goes into a trance, while we look at each other wondering if we're supposed to copy. Then, after the class, he invites us, in perfect English, to his house for chapattis and chai, and tells us about his day job as environmental town planner! It's the Prakesh yoga class at Nukkad Guesthouse, every morning at 8am.

I have been learning Hindi. I carefully learnt to say "how are you?" yesterday, which provoked the response of "my name is X" from the first few people I asked it too. Oh dear. Now though, I get an answer I don't understand which I assume is "very well thank you", rather than "my name is X" in Hindi. I have also learnt to say "what is your name?" (as it's obviously similar to "how are you?"), ask for water, and count to five. Almost an intelligent conversation!

Speaking of intelligent conversations, everyone here is very friendly and chatty. Well, the men are. This ranges from in-depth conversations about the difference between our cultures in terms of religion and family, to being told by a 13 year old that I'm sexy, a million "hello sweetheart"s, and being invited for chai at a 16 year old's house, where "nobody else home". I have chatted to the ones who (seem to be) just friendly, but have politely declined offers to go for coffee, chai and drinks. When I double checked this with Arvy, just to make sure I wasn't being overly paranoid and/or conceited, he told me under no circumstances to accept an invitation for drinks because they'll drug me and kidnap me. He can be a little melodramatic at times, but I don't think I'll take any chances.

Last night we were invited to Arvy's friend's house for dinner. I'm getting good at understanding what's going on when I don't understand the language, you can read a lot from gesticulations, tone of voice and facial expression, which is kind of obvious really and I'm sure you already knew that, but there we go. Anyway, they had two kids, one was a six year old boy who was so shy he wouldn't even look at me and kept running away to hide under the bed every time someone made him come and sit with us. The other was an eleven year old girl who was so clever she put me to shame. She spoke perfect English, was in the top percentage of the best school in the area, and was really clued up about all manner of things, so had common sense as well. She did try and engage me in conversation about Hannah Montana and Hillary Duff, and I think I disappointed her in my lack of knowledge on this subject and my persistence in talking about Snow White and Cinderella. She'd liked those things when she was younger, but now she was a big girl they were too childish, but she liked Miley Cyrus, she told me. "Oh yes, I like her song, what is it, 10 Things I Hate About You?" She looked at me in exasperation, I only remembered today this is a ten year old teen flick. She was really sweet and talked nineteen to the dozen, and made me take a memento away with me, a pen she'd just bought with an elephant on it. Unfortunately I had absolutely nothing with me except half a squashed pack of chewing gum, so I had nothing to give her, which I felt bad about. However she has pronounced me her new best friend (sorry Dave) and we have exchanged phone numbers and email addresses.

I have also been horse-riding! I met a girl at my yoga class who wanted to go, and as both of us were apprehensive about going out alone with a random Indian man, we went along together. Her boyfriend ended up changing his mind and coming along in the end as well, so there were three of us and a guide. The last time I went horse-riding was in Mongolia, where I was freezing cold, the horses were ancient and tiny, and you had to constantly boot them to get anything faster than an amble towards food. This experience was slightly different, as they put me on a four year old which happened to be the sister of the guide's horse, who I was meant to be riding behind, and there was more than a touch of sibling rivalry to say the least. My horse spent the whole time trying to get to the front, and the guide had a habit of trotting up hills, which made my horse think, "oh, goodie, we're racing", and attempt to charge off in a gallop. Still, at least I was actually riding this time, and although I came off with sore fingers and a sore ass, I enjoyed it. The scenery was beautiful as well, we ended up coming back for sunset through the mountains, and even went through some proper villages with houses made of dung and gazillions of children.

Tonight we have another sleeper bus to Jaipur. I'm getting a bit sick of sleeper buses. It's so hot you need the windows open, and then you get loads of dust in your compartment and by extension your lungs. I also lost my sleeping bag sheet on the last journey as it rolled out when we went round a corner. I suppose it's good it was nothing more important and taught me to be more wary of my belongings rolling out. I also dreamt I was on a boat, because we were going round mountains, and then woke up in the middle of the city.