Udaipur (2 nights)

The sleeper bus was OK, but I still found it hard to sleep. The Indian sleeper buses are different in style to the ones I had in the sout eastern Asian countries. Rather than reclining seats the bus had separate sleeping compartments with sliding doors. It was fairly private and fairly comfortable but for the cracked fake leather pillow and the fact that the bus kept bouncing up and down on the shoddy roads. I also found myself desperate for the loo in the middle of the night and the bus didnt seem keen on stopping. Only when a few people got up and started banging on the drivers window did he bother to pull over.

When I got to Udaipur I checked into a guesthouse with a good dormitory. There were about 10 beds in the room, but they were normal beds and not bunks for a change. They were arranged in 5 pairs with a dividing wall every 2 beds and curtains for privacy. Each bed had a locker underneath the mattress, so it was very secure.

Udaipur is labelled a romantic city with a nice big lake and a couple of fancy palaces. The City Palace is huge and sits on the banks of the lake and the Lake Palace (yes, you have guessed it) sits in the middle of the water. The latter featured in the James Bond film Octop**** so all the hotels have showings of the film every night! My guesthouse was also right on the lakeside and had great views of the famous landmark.

On my first day I met an American/Argentinian by the name of Jordan who joined me on a ramble around the City Palace. To begin with the place was filled to the brim with tour groups and I was not having fun, but by lunch time it emptied and we had the place to ourselves. It seemed to go on forever and had lots of typical Rajasthani stained glass windows and some rather impressive murals.We went for lunch and then had a look around the nearby temple, which was had a very attractively carved exterior. It was staggered so that hell was at the bottom and heaven at the top, with many levels in between. It also included some rather naughty images, which I am far to embarrased to describe!

That evening I watched Octop**** (of course).

The next day I decided to be lazy. I had a nice lie in and caught up with the sleep I had lost on the bus. Then I set about posting some clothes home. This, you might think to be a fairly simple thing to do, but This Is India. First I went to the small post office near the palace and got the stuff weighed to see what it would cost. Finding that it would be about 10 pounds for shipment by sea I then had to go to a tailor to get the stuff packed in linen and sealed with wax. This cost me Rs 100, so about 150p (I have no pound sign on my keyboard). Then I walked 30 minutes to the main post office where I hoped to send it by air. I managed to borrow a marker pen to write on the address, got to the front of the que about 2 minutes before closing and got the thing sent, though I found that even here shipment by sea was my only option. Anyway, I felt quite satisfied after 2 hours of work and the only thing left to do was to pray that my package would not meet the same fate as the sister of one person I spoke to. When she checked the status online of her delivery to Israel, she was surprised to see that it had been successfully delivered.....to Spain!!

(Actually, my package arrived safely home after just 3 weeks)

The following day we had a look around a very well restored Havelli and then sat down by the ghats on the lake. The women were washing the clothes, but also, alarmingly, washing the clothes that they were wearing, so that I suddenly found myself looking at a half naked old lady! This was most unexpected as I didnt think the Indian ladies liked to show even a little bit of skin, let alone all of it!

Trying to erase the above experience from memory, I went to catch my bus to Mumbai. I had decided that it was a good idea to buy simply a seat and not a bed, because it was half the price and I wouldnt get all that much sleep either way. Oh what a fool!!