The Wheels on the Bus Make Me Vomit

When we finally got on the bus, it turned out to be a rather nice bus in spite of having no AC. The guy at the ticket counter definitely overcharged us citing it as a "deluxe" bus, and I fail to see how anything could be considered "deluxe" without AC, but all the same, the bus was decent. Well, it was as decent as it could be going down the bumpy wandering streets of India. All said, the trip from Jodhpur to Udaipur (both in Rajasthan) was a bit rough. After the first couple of hours I got used to the bouncing and jolting, but Brittany was feeling pretty nauseated from it. I never did get used to the stupid horn that the driver used incessantly. I wanted to throw him off the bus.

And the ride wasn't just rough, it was scary. There are no lines on the street to indicate the lanes, and we frequently went around large lines of dump trucks as we drove through the mountains. We saw four wrecks in all in the seven hour trip, and they all looked really rough and involved large bus-like vehicles. The first half wasn't very noteworthy. Though the Thar is a desert, it is not a conventional desert. It is dusty and rocky. There are no sand dunes and it is not a flat barren desert. There are "mountains" (people who actually live in real mountains might call them hills) and there is greenery everywhere. In fact, there are a few patches of farming with a vivid-green grass-like plant (I think it is rice). As we got into the mountains it became beautiful. It is forest land and monkeys were very common. We saw a lot of rural Rajasthan and it was very neat to see the culture. The closer we got to Udaipur the more towns we started going through, most of them featuring mile-long strips of marble dealers and factories. These shops have stacks and mounds of marble as far as the eye can see.

The first night in a city is always the scariest. You don't know where you are, and because you have backpacks on everyone knows you're looking for a hotel. Everyone wants you to stay at their hotel or a hotel they know of where they get commission. We had a place recommended by a friend we made in New Delhi (many thanks to Emma) and managed to shake the commission-sharks who stalked us. When we finally got there, we negotiated a room down to Rs 650 (about $16USD) and it is the nicest hotel we've stayed in thus far. First of all, Udaipur is not like Jodhpur. Jodhpur is a filthy city with dung and trash and litter everywhere you go. Udaipur is clean (apparently the royalty here is into saving the environment) and romantic. Our room has a view of the entire city, which sits on a lake. The lights add to the romantic feel and we had dinner on the rooftop restaurant which played American-like folk music. The food was good. After a while, the novelty of Indian food wears of and you just want some chow-mien or a pizza, which is what we had.

India is dirt cheap to live in. We stayed at our hotel in Jodhpur for six nights, had them do laundry, and ate at the restaurant three or four times. Total bill? Rs 4250 ($105USD). The only thing here that can be expensive is alcohol, as the taxes are high. While your meal may cost just over Rs 100 (if that) and a beer would be the same, although they are big beers. Kingfisher still sucks. We haven't been drinking much, Brittany particularly as she can't find anything she likes (I don't blame her either). Both of us have been losing a great deal of weight for two weeks. My pants were a bit tight on me, and now I struggle to keep them up. We walk just about everywhere we go, and because of the heat our appetites are satisfied pretty easily. I miss America a lot now, although I am really enjoying my time here. I crave cheeseburgers, clean tap water, good beer, sushi, Italian food, mate', real internet on good computers, safe driving, central heat and air, and real showers. Mostly, I miss the food I think. Of course, more than any of that, I miss friends and family. Weekends with Chris, Rebecca, Sean, Leane, Lisa, and the others. We miss our friends from work, particularly our close friends Stephanie, Suzie, and the others. Of course, we don't see our family too often, but being across the globe makes us miss them more and I'm really looking forward to seeing my family when we arrive in the airport! I know Brittany wishes she could see her family too.

The original plan was to go from Udaipur to Mumbai (Bombay) and then to Goa and then to Kerola. As our trip has progressed we have decided not to go to the south. Slowly, but surely, each planned city/state in the south has dropped out of the plans. We are staying in cities (coincidentally) much longer than planned and between the expenses and time issues, going to the south just doesn't seem like it would be good on this trip. This isn't really bad news. India has been different than Brittany or I expected. It's not the place she fell in love with so long ago. It's not that it has been disappointing, but it hasn't quite been what we came for as it is so touristy. Because we are skipping the south (which is packed with tourism) we'll be headed up to West Bengal where Brittany stayed her first time to India. We're hoping that places like Calcutta, Darjeeling, and Kalimpong will get us away from the greedy touts and inflated prices (we call it the skintax).

In other, not so good, news I just read the latest on the Jaipur bombing. It is the first thing I've read on the incident (everything else was word-of-mouth) and it looks worse than I thought it would be. You can read about it here, and it pretty much says it all. We, of course, are staying away from violence hotspots like Kashmir, but it seems that it isn't Pakistan who is responsible for the bombing. Apparently, Indian Muslims are and they are targeting tourist because India is supporting America. We are currently making plans in the case of an incident, and we're hoping to stay away from anywhere that might be dangerous. The truth is, Calcutta was mentioned by the group as a possible place to attack, but, unless there's another major attack, I think we still plan on going there briefly because it is hardly tourist, and is certainly not tourist this time of year. Jaipur was a well-planned hit on their part as it is packed with tourist year-round (we've met several people in Jodhpur and Udaipur who were there when the bombing happened). We will be flying out of Delhi, so we won't have too much of a choice but to be there. The most important thing is prayer as we travel. It may not be a market next. It could be a train or they could use a bus. The good news is, security is tighter in those areas, but the bad news is things can still get through. So pray for our safety.

Though this computer is slow I think it may have the capability to upload pictures onto Facebook. When I get a few more new pictures I'll try and post them and we'll see what happens. I know they aren't the best and most detailed pictures, I've already taken over 1000, but have no way of quickly uploading them anywhere. When I get home from India, I'll probably start from scratch and upload better selected pictures that have been cropped and photoshopped (to adjust brightness and color, not alter).