Namaste from Udaipur

We arrived in Udaipur in central Rajasthan at 8 am yesterday--our first overnight train trip in India. Sadly, all that was available was the third class car, and let me tell you--I don't recommend it. It could have been worse, but it was very cold, with very bad smells, very loud snoring, and very hard seats. On the plus side, I had just bought a wool scarf, which I was able to use as a blanket. And, we had no attacks of the bad Delhi Belly on the train. So that was good. Plus it was cheap (about $8 for both of s for the 9 hour trip). It was only 2 hours late, which for India travel is not bad at all.

So we made it and Udaipur is a little Indian gem. It's relaxed and clean and lots of buildings have gorgeous rooftop views of Lake Pichola and the floating palace in the middle of it. (For great views of the city watch the horrible Bond movie Octopussy--which was just saw at a guest house last night and rolled our eyes most of the time. The worst of the worst sexist Bond dialogue and cheesy jokes. But it really does have nice views of Udaipur.)

The monkeys in Udaipur are different than the ones we've seen further east. They are bigger, and lanky, with really long limbs, and incredibly long tails, and black faces. And they can jump really far. Like from building to building. Sam nearly got attacked by one last night, walking up some stairs to the roof and coming face to face with a big papa. They stared at each other for a second from about a foot apart, and then the monkey bared its teeth. Sam nearly fell down the stairs.

Yesterday we went for a long walk to the city palace and along the water and took a boat ride out to Jagmandir Island, which is an old palace ringed by marble elephants-then back to the city for sunset. Tonight we'll head to Monsoon Palace high up on a hill above town for sunset.