The White City

I had a long day to kill before my night bus to Jodhpur that evening.  I let myself get lost through town again, looking for the post office.  It is a bit of a haul away in a nondiscript building whith a small counter in the front that you can easily walk past, twice.  I took a rickshaw to The Queen's Garden which had some fountains and a lawn to relax on a bit.  On returning to town I realized I had enough siteseeing for a while, ugh what will Jodhpur feel like?

Udaipur is known as the white city because most of the buildings are whitewashed to reflect the heat.  When I arrived at the station yesterday, I was the only visible foreigner on the train.  I was not prepared to see tourists everywhere when I got to town.  I was a bit aprehensive because tourist cities usually have very aggressive shopkeepers and there's always a hussle.  This place was a pleasant surprise.  It's a pretty low pressure place and the prices are great right off the bat, so I didn't bargain for much, which probably led me to overpay.  The thing I did bargain for was my hotel, got a great deal on a great room and no William Shatner.

There are three palaces in Udaipur, one for the summer, one for the winter and one for monsoon season.  I visited the winter palace yesterday, the summer palace is a hotel and tonight I had planned on visiting to the monsoon palace, on a hill overlooking the rest of the city, to watch the sunset.

To spend some time until then, I decided to do some shopping and had a few things made, a pair of loose pants, a couple thin pullover shirts and a cover for my notebook.  While I waited for them to be built I relaxed over a great ayurvedic massage.  I recommend skipping the head massage if you can't shower afterward since they pour oil onto your scalp.  Unfortunately, the guys making my notebook cover decided not to start on it until I showed up, well at least I got to watch the process from start to finish.  I even took over for a while when they were getting too distracted and slow doing the stitching.  By the time they were done it was too late for the Monsoon palace, which is fine because I have seen enough palaces for now.

I sat down across from a couple of tourists at the bus stand and when I chimed in on my theory of malaria and why I'm not taking pills one of them did a cartoon double take.  I'm totally passing for local now.  Anyway, he's getting around with a small over the shoulder backpack, traveling for the next few months until he "runs out of money."  He has just a few changes of clothes and mails his souveniers home as he picks them up.  I love the idea in theory but my toiletries alone would fill a backpack.  Yes, I had to take the electric toothbrush.  A gentleman should not have to move his own bristles.  Also, a hard shelled rolley is so much easier to drag than any backpack is to carry and it doubles as an impromptu seat on a crowded platform.