Udaipur is for Lovers

Hi!

I will try to write a coherent entry despite my excitement. I wrote something on my laptop thinking I would switch it to the guesthouse computer, but there is a rule of no USB drives for transferring documents. There is also a rule of no washing your own laundry in your room, but I did mine any way. You can take the girl out of Khedi Milak, but you can't take the Khedi Milak out of the girl...

Let me try to begin at the beginning. I left Jaipur on Friday on the night train to Udaipur. Before leaving the I met two other solo female travelers who were heading to the same train. We decided to share a rickshaw and we ended up hitting it off completely. One is from Spain, Angela, but living n Ecuador. She came to Mumbai for a friend's wedding and decided to do a bit of traveling afterward. The other girl is Moona and she comes from Jordan. She was teaching for a year in China and just made her way overland through Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal. She's one of the coolest people I have ever met. We ended up getting along so well we decided to share a room once we arrived in Udaipur.

So here we are. The first day here I wanted nothing more than to sit and read my book and drink a lot of chai. Nothing else. Period. So I did that, and the next day I hit the town for a bit, then spent a large portion of the day reading and drinking chai. It has rained a lot more in Udaipur than it ever did in Jaipur or the surrounding areas, so that has put a bit of a limitation on how much I've wanted to do.

Moona and I decided to have our palms read after having a brief conversation about men. It was a pretty ridiculous experience, but it was fun. I think she got a bit more out of it because she knew exactly what she wanted to know, and asked all the questions she had. I was told that I will be successful in literature (after he first told me science in math), that I have a good head, heart, and will enjoy good health. But he advised me that I need to start setting goals and making plans. I think this is pretty sound advice; I am constantly doing really cool and awesome things without a set goal or plan, believing it will somehow work out perfectly. It usually does, and that's probably why I continue to do it, but at some point a person does need to develop a master plan. So I'm setting a goal of beginning to set goals for myself. Haha!

Yesterday's awesome adventure was an authentic Ayeurvedic massage. I can tell you right now that it was the weirdest thing I have ever experienced. I'm not quite comfortable with explaining the details of what happened to the public, over the Internet. If you know me well, prepare yourselves for a story. If not, come to India and get yourself an Ayeurvedic massage. It's definitely something to talk about.

For our evening meal we were invited to Angela's friend's home for dinner. She met some Indian people at a temple a few weeks ago and kept in contact with them. Check out this romantic story! One of the young men goes to the Jagdish temple every evening for the chance to see a girl he fell in love with four years ago. He saw her once during a festival, fell completely in love, and continues to go back every evening at the same time in case she's there. He has seen her four times since, once a year at the same festival. He has never spoken to her and doesn't even know her name. Last night he broke out his harmonica and played Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On for her. In the end, all this romance is quite sweet, but sad at the same time. The young man is the Brahmin Caste, but his love is the Rajput Caste. This simple fact means that there is absolutely no chance for the two to ever marry. But he still loves her with all his sweet little heart.

Dinner was amazing. The company was lighthearted and fun. Today they are taking us to some temple in the mountains on their motorbikes. This should be fun and exciting! I was supposed to take the bus to Jodhpur this morning, but staying another day seemed like a no-brainer. So I will leave tomorrow instead, same time as my new friends.

I have to run! I have been spoiled by free internet at Gram Chetna. All this pay as yo go stuff gets expensive!! xo

MCC