Udaipur - The mystical city of Lakes.

So from Mt Abu it was on a bus to Udaipur, the mystical city of Lakes in south western Rajisthan. Mystical and fucking hot. I first checked out a hotel that I went to 6 years ago, which was nostalgic but also far more expensive now. Ended up staying in a smaller cheaper hotel with no lake views (Udaipur is built around an amazing lake, with a couple of Palaces sitting in the middle of it, like islands - see attached photo), but suited my frugal travellers budget. Was there for 2 nights before the frugal traveller in me lost to the 'I CANT STAND THIS FUCKING HEAT AND NEED SOME A/C" in me. So I went around to another hotel which boasted a swimming pool which you could use for the day for 100 rupees ... however when I got there, the hotel desk worker said only guests could use the pool - I begged, bribed and pleeded with him to let me in, but no ... this lack of flexibility even with a baksheesh bribe is very rare so I knew there was no moving this very straight down the line fella ... so I checked in to the hotel! Was a really beautiful mid-range hotel (mid-range here is about $20 a night - totally plush!!), Ive attached a picture of the pool, hard to resist huh?!

The lake here is amazing - last time I was here it was a couple months after the monsoon season (around Nov/Dec) and the 4km by 3km lake was completely full, lapping up the sides of the building and temples built along it. This time, I've come about 2 months before the monsoons are due here, and it is sooo dry, the locals say that in about a months time it will be empty and you can walk across it. One fella told me that some years ago, everyone went to sleep at 10pm and the lake was dry and you could walk across, they woke up in the morning at 7am and the lake was full and flooding into peoples homes. That's monsoon rains for ya.

Definitly got my shop on here! Did all my present shopping and spent a mammoth day in the post office sending them all off. Indian Post is somethin else. Just to give you an idea on what getting and posting gifts is like here, I'll give a brief run down. Shopping - buying things is not as easy as you'd think. Yes its fun, but its also extremely exhausting. After walking down a shopping strip constantly saying "no, no thankyou, no, no thanks, no not shopping today, no sorry, no no no" to everyone wanting to sell you their goods, you then have to decide which of 6 IDENTICAL shops in a row you'll chose to go in to, all with their shop workers standing out the front trying to coax you in .. you're also expected to have a chai with the shop owner whilst you peruse the goods, even if youve had 48 chais that day. You will be shown things that you dont actually want to look at and before you know it youre literally standing in a metre high pile of clothes, bags, shoes, scarves, aladin pants, salwas and saris, all the while saying/begging "Please dont show me any more stuff, pleeeaaase", he or she (normally a he) will reply "just looking madam, looking is free" ... you cant argue with that really ... so the entourage of 10 year old boys this owner has working for him continues to 'just showing' you things. Once you've selected what you want to buy, you then have to negotiate a price. It starts with him saying a REDICULOUS price, normally about 6 times what they would actually be prepared to sell it for. I laugh and pretend to walk out the shop, he says "ok madam, how much" .. I say, 'I've been to India many times, and I know that this cotton scarf is NOT 4000 rs, but its about 250 rs', then he laughs and says "not possible madam" .. I say "ok well I'm prepared to pay 250 for it" .. says "ok, good price, 2000". I collect my things and act outraged, he laughs and he knooows that I knw .... after going back and forward we decide on a price that doesnt break my purse or his "not for you and not for me". So ... off to the post office .. well not quite. First, its off to find a tailor who also does parcel packing. In India, you need to post ur items inside cloth fabric and then have the sides stitched and seeled with wax. Once youve found a tailor who will make parcels, you need to negotiate a price for the packing with him ... you wait sometimes 20 mins, sometimes he'll ask you to return the next day for your parcel. You come back to get ur parcel and hope that your item is still inside this stitched up parcel, and its not now filled with newspaper while his wife is now wearing the scarf you thought was inside headed to your mum! You take ur parcel, negotiate to pay him and head off to find a newsagent that sells Lac - a wax stick that you use to seal the sides of your parcels, you find some and then go about the task of lighting a candle on the side of the road to melt your wax stick and make your seels on the parcel. From there, you find a waterproof black texta to write on your parcels and head to the post office. This 'government office' will generaly open when it suits the staff, and the weather. The day I went in Udaipur, the post officer manager was out to lunch ... for 2 hours. So I waited and I waited, in an office with no a/c on a 45 degree day.... she returns. Your items are weighed, and you think youre just about ready to pay when 3 identical forms are put in front of you to fill in. There is no photo copier, so you have to fill in the exact same form three times with the same information ... no one can explain why you have to fill in 3 fucking exact same forms, they just wiggle their heads and say 'this is the process madam' .. so I do it ... as sweat runs down my face. I finish the forms, 3 forms per parcel and I was sending 6 of them (so 18 bloody forms!), and pay them the postage fee. I think its nearlly over when I see my 3 smallest parcels being put inside A3 yellow envelopes, I ask why did I need to get them all tailor packaged then? The postal worker states "it is a small parcel" .. 'yes' I reply, 'but why did you say I needed it to be material parcel packed and how you are putting it inside a paper envelope??" ... she replies "because it is a small parcel" ... oh my god ... I stop asking questions and resolve myself that this is just the way it is .. suck it up Brook! So .. I leave the post office looking at my parcels sitting on a dusty concrete floor among manual weighing aparatis, other tourists parcels, local mail, a heap of blank forms and the postal worker's lunch .. the 18 papers I had just finished now in a pile about 12 inches high on a desk which looked rarely cleared .. and I wonder, a) will my parcels ever actually get home, and b) did I just fill in those forms because it is 'procedure' but will they sit in that pile and never be looked at again? I strongly think so. This whole process from shopping, buying, packaging, waxing and posting takes daaaays .. literally days.

So ... I really hope my stuff and gifts Ive sent arrive safely! Please let me know if you receive them! As my time in Udaipur extends longer than I'd expected, I start getting ready to leave India. I need to head back to Delhi from here on a bus, and get my flight on the 20th April to Istanbul, Turkey. I give away a heap of clothes I dont want anymore to people who need them, send home my India Lonely Planet and start reading my Turkish one. I love India so much, I am starting to feel sad to leave already.

Could I live here? Would bringing a baby here work? Would I get lonely? Hmmmm!?? The pull is so strong for me here, its hard to ignore.

PICTURES - The first 14 pics are from a cultural show I saw one night near the Lake. It was really beautiful demonstration of different cultural art forms in Rajisthan. Puppetry, traditional dance and this spooky ceremony where this fella gets into this crazed trance like state and puts burning coals in his mouth and drops them onto a copper plate (thats the pic of the man with a white ball coming out his mouth, its a coal that just came from the fire). The first shots are of this woman who I just loved, she started this dance with a single pot on her head, and as the dance continued she had someone stack more and more pots on her head until she ended up with 9 on her head .. all the while she was dancing (bollywood style belly dancing), she was in her early 50's too I might add! She also stood and danced on glass with all the pots still on her head, and was also able to bend down and get onto her knees then onto her stomach then back up again! Was really amazing.

Another part of the show is the pic with the woman in blue sitting down - there was a group of 6 of these women who did a traditional sympbol bell performance - basically if you can imagine those brass symbols that they bang together in like marching bands (like the one you have in a drum kit), and imagine them about 1.5 inches small. They have one half in each of their hands tied onto a string that they have gathered up in their hands. Then they have about 30 little ones the same (so making up the other half of the symbol to what they have already in their hands) sewn onto their clothes, up the shins, their shoulders and their arms, on the soles of their feet and on their backs ... really quickly, the use the half in their hands to tap at the halves all over their body ... so they are flicking the ones in the hand all up their shins, behind them to the backs, on the soles of their feet etc. It is soo amazing to watch and is really beautiful to listen to aswell. Its hard to explain in words, hope this and the picture together gives some indication of what I'm talking about!

Theres a pic of the Monsoon Palace in the middle of the Lake, a pic of the pool in my hotel, and lastly, one of the sunset which you can see the massive fort on the top of the hill to the right, and a wedge-tail eagle flyin around too .. there were heaps of these eagles fying about, was really amazing to watch. Grandma and Gramps would have looooved it!