Udaipur

Everyday I am more impressed by this amazing country- the people, culture, and places are just amazing. In addition I have managed to find wonderful guest houses that are relatively unknown- but very cool. I am staying in another restored Haveli mansion. It is run by a very nice couple Carol and Babu and their 5 month old great dane puppy, Oscar. I have an amazing room, but both nights I slept on the roof under the moon- it was awesome.

Hibiscus Hotel

Where I slept

Oscar

The first day I explored the old city, having to navigate through the winding alleys once again. I had lunch at a rooftop cafe and made two more friends. The girl, Rin, was from Alaska and was in Udaipur working as a midwife for a German couple and Kury, from Argentina, was spending a year in India making a yoga documentory. I spent the afternoon with them and we visited a non-profit organization that focuses on rural development. Afterwords we walked around and drank some of India's finest drinks- coconut milk and cane juice with mint and lime. The sugar cane is pressed through a machine and the juice is poured right into your cup- delicious!

View from the Old City

Sugar cane press

Cheers!

Still thirsty?

We returned to the rooftop restaraunt for dinner, and as it turns out it was a very special day in Udaipur- Shiva Day. Everyone in the city was on the rooftops having kite wars. Hundreds of kites were flying above the city- the mission to cut the line of the other kites with the string that is soaked in glass powder. It was amazing- this continued through the sunset.

Sunset in Udaipur

The next morning I met Kury and we rented bicycles. We rode 10 km into the surrounding hills through local villages. Everyone waved and all of the children yell "hello, hello, hello!!!" The experience was wonderful- although very hot. On our way back we decided to stop at this hotel with a pool. We entered and to our delight the pool turned out to be practically an olympic size pool that was pristine- what a treat!

Riding bikes into the countryside

In the hills outside of Udaipur

Later that evening a family invited us into their house for chai. Such a nice family- living in an 8 by 8 room living off of practically nothing. In addition that had a 6 month old baby girl that was very sick. They did not know what was wrong and they could not afford to go to a doctor. It was so sad. And yet they were more than happy to share what they had. One of the girls drew a beautiful Henna design on my hand and insisted on giving me her ring.

The young girls beautiful artwork

The next day before I left for my flight to Goa we went to a local toy store and bought noise makers, tops, and funny pencils for the children of the nice family. We dropped the toys off and could tell the children were very excited- although Indians are very modest about accepting gifts and apparently do not usually open them in front of you. I also bought a special ring for the girl that so kindly gave me hers- it was silver with a bell on it.

The children

I enjoyed Udaipur very much, but now I am off to Gokarna via Goa to meet Arati!