OK, I'll back it up first to cover what there is to cover of Udaipur. It's a pretty little setting, a nice lake, a beautiful palace all lit up on the water at night on that lake... But I have to say that I didn't dig it too much. I suppose that if I'd stayed another couple of days and hightailed it out of the tourist town part of Udaipur, I might have found some personality and charm that I would find unique to that place... I did not. It felt like a larger version of Pushkar; less dready and meditative, more tourists and touts, and generally I was pretty happy that I f*d up my travel plans and had only one evening to spend there before hopping on a plane to Mumbai this morning. I was not stoked at all about having to spend time in Mumbai, but I was really ready to ditch Udaipur. I kinda feel bad about that- Seems like I should have liked it, I was supposed to.

Didn't .

Sam and Flora went on their boat ride to the palace on the water (beautiful at night, I'll give it that, for sure), and I finished my lunch while typing away to you all.. God, was that yesterday? Feels like a week ago~! So, I went and showered as I promised I would, got my shit together and decided to walk around the area there to see what there was to see. It was all very touristy shops- tourist prices, a lot of people yelling at me, men following me, you see my shop, let's go get a drink... And I lost patience for it in record time, especially given how long I've been here. I ducked in to get a lassi and regain my strength to deal with the hassle again... I made it “out there” only for about an hour and change, and for that long only because I (naturally) got lost- the place is tiny, really, but the streets loop around and around, the only constant is that everything there is on a hill, so there's up and down and looping and of course water at the bottom of the hill (not the top- I know, everyone's shocked), but if there's a possible way to get lost, I'll find it! So I was sort of doubly irritated what with trying to find the hotel again and passing the same hecklers that I lied to about meeting someone, or yeah maybe tomorrow, blah blah ... I bought some postcards though, that was the one thing. There's a post office at the train station that I may try to find tomorrow morning before I get on – but it's a big-ass train station, and I have a heavy-ass pack, so who knows. Tangent.

I wound my way back to the hotel and Sam and Flora were there; we chatted about goofy girly shit for a while, and then Flora was hungry (she doesn't like Indian food, so she was happy to be in this touristy area where there looked to be many European menu choices. She doesn't like much, actually, and I guess I'm pretty much assuming that she won't see this...) She was openly and overtly – aggressively, even – not trusting or liking pretty much anyone (Indian). She said something about not having any respect for any cultural practice that involved the wife sacrificing herself if her husband dies before her (historically, that's been the case in many cultures); hey, I'm with her, it doesn't sound like a great plan, but to actually just go out there and deny the entire cultural history the basic respect it deserves? Those women may or may not have willingly endured what turned out to be their fate, but I don't think that an about face in terms of “respect” for their culture as well as their lives and deaths is due . I mean.. She's English. Let's think about that one. Not that I am throwing stones from my glass house, that's for sure... She got a couple bites on her hand- mosquito bites, and she's just very sensitive and her hand was kind of swelling up and not looking so hot, so we walked to the chemist on the way to dinner for an antihistamine. The shopkeeper had an offering hanging from the front of his shop; she'd never seen one, and she asked him about it, and he tried to explain (very sweet man....) and he was working his way through the English translation of what he meant, and while I knew that the offering had to do with protection basically from “bad vibes”, he worded it a little differently, saying that the offering was believed to provide protection from mean or jealous people. She got this nasty smile on her face, and said, “You think people would actually be jealous of your shop?” Belittling him. His life. The way he makes money to feed his kids. Not taking in to account the fact that he'd just helped her, either, and.. Whatever. Just plain mean! I think her conscience has the “kind” cog missing. I know he didn't pick up on it because his English wasn't that great... Or maybe it was the offering, ha, bouncing her bitch back out on the pavement in front of the store, but man! I thought, really... Why are you here? You should probably go some place where you might enjoy the people, the food, the culture, instead of just feel like you're there to maybe prove to yourself that you're better than it all..? ..Jesus. There were more than a few moments during our two days on and off together that I just sort of thought, HMMM. I would not have chosen this person as my travel partner. Sam, on the other hand, was really cool. She was funny and happy to be having an adventure and laughing at herself.

Good luck, Sam .

Well, there went another whole tangent! Let's see... So. We got the meds for the bug bites, we went to a restaurant for dinner, and sat and ate and chatted a bit, which was fine. I ducked out early and went back to the room to pack up and get ready for the Mumbai plane, and Sam and Flora came a bit later. Getting to bed was pretty funny- Flora has this mosquito net- I don't know why, at least not in Udaipur- anyway, she was so weird about getting in there and having it completely cover her... And she performed sort of acrobatics trying to get in there and have it stay tucked in all around her. I said to Sam... I feel so simple right now! So did Sam. Anyway. Fell asleep shortly, woke up before my alarm went off; I was super organized, so all I had to do was creep around for a few minutes and I was off. I woke them up when I opened the door to leave- felt bad, was so close to not waking them at all. but said goodbye, happy travels! And I was off.

I got a cab ride from an older man who'd been driving taxis for 40 years; we got in a very funny early morning (6:00) conversation about relationships, how easy or difficult they were for westerners and for Indians, religion, politics ... I rode with him for about an hour, and while I wasn't entirely awake, it was good conversation! Tipped him well, got dropped off, made it through security and on the plane, and off I went to Mumbai.

I was not at all stoked about going to Mumbai. I've been avoiding it since the first year I've been here; I know that, in any city, there are interesting buildings to see, in a big city like this (16.5 million?!!) there are museums, historical sites, etc., but I'd heard that Mumbai is expensive, and the furthest along of cities in India as far as becoming westernized - which is true, and the wealth is more disproportionate here than probably anywhere as a result - but that was enough to make me say, “..Nah.” whenever putting together (a semblance of) an itinerary. Dropping in by plane, though, I got kind of weirdly excited as we circled in over the water, not sure why; I've flown in to Mumbai before, and have changed my plans before to not have to spend any time there . Well, this time, my other plans got jacked, so I had an afternoon and an evening here before I get on the train for Goa tomorrow.

Got a prepaid taxi, and I didn't know where I was going to stay; Kunal had said that there were some budget hotels around the train station, where I'd decided to stay because I need to get there first thing tomorrow. The cab driver didn't speak one word of English (my Hindi still sucks, too... Ha.) so I called Kunal to beg him to explain to the driver what I was trying to do. Kunal suggested that I get dropped off at the Hotel City Palace, which was more expensive than what I was looking for, but that there were budget options nearby. I trucked around to a few different guest houses; they were either expensive, or there was this one that was cheap (by Mumbai standards- 450 rp); I checked it out, walked up a staircase that was buried in garbage and in to a room that basically had two dirty – I mean DIRTY – mattress pads on the floor. .. I am cheap, and I'll deal with some stuff, but this had to be the worst roach-bedbug-oily dirty place I've ever seen. It was a film set, I swear. Flophouse for prostitutes. No other rational explanation for the place. Wow.

Anyhoo. Ended up coming back to the Hotel City Palace and actually, they have tiny closet sized, clean rooms with shared bath for 850rps, and an unbelievable restaurant downstairs. I'm happy!

After I checked in, then ate, I decided to brave what I thought I was going to really dislike.. The Mumbai streets. Kunal suggested that I go to Calaba market, as well as some other spots (he went to school here, knows it well), and said it was easy walking distance from here.. So I jetted out on foot to find the market. Markets are always so colorful and interesting. “Right staying, go straight,” said the man making wide gestures to the left, when I asked where the market was. The LP map isn't very easy to read, and neither are any (nonexistant) street signs, and because there are roundabouts in every intersection- there is no such thing as straight . Which is funny. But soon after setting out on foot, I realized that the “Hello, ma'am's” and the “you come my shop?” calls were far and few between, and actually relegated to people selling things, and not just folks wandering around, and I wasn't getting followed, or bothered really at all- sure, there's staring, whatever, but I started to really enjoy my walk! Mumbai is MUCH different from Delhi; there's cleaner air, remarkably, and though it's so big and bustling, it's somehow a little more laid back. I did walk by some streets that were obviously the start of the slums, though, which was sad- and intriguing, too; There are people doing everything, everything on the street! Selling, bathing, eating, conversing, sleeping (and not just the obviously distraught homeless, which of course there are- I mean, just time for a nap), getting a shave, a shoe-shine, it's all there. There are other places in the world (or cities, in India) where this has been the case, but none so lively as Mumbai. So many interesting people to see, things to check out, on and on and on.. .I got particularly sassy at one point when I stopped at a snack stand in front of a street side gallery (in front of a museum) where there were probably four tourist buses parked, filling with their groups that had obviously just done a run through the museum. I was watching them all get herded, and feeling so not herded. I bought my nice cold 'ice cream soda' from the stand, the kid popped the lid for me, and I guzzled it down and snapped the bottle back on the counter (you can't leave with the bottle), swept my sleeve across my face to get the soda I'd missed, and turned and walked off. It was just one of those moments. Happy.

I kept walking for about another hour, stopping here and there to try to figure out where I was, found a garden, found some cool old buildings, checked out where the Navy lives, and hit and missed (straight, said every person I asked, except pointing in differing directions- because I think I kept missing it on either side) my way along til I decided, hey, this is great, but if I actually want to see the market I should probably white-flag it and get a taxi.

The market was cool- I think I saw only one pair of travelers there, and that was it, though I know it's a tourist destination. I bought my first stuff of the trip there (other than food, tickets, etc)- two pairs of gorgeous earrings, took a bunch of pictures, saw a sweet shop and so bought some burfi and ducked in to the little restaurant behind the sweet shop and had some tea. Lots of stares, but friendly ones. This restaurant was definitely not a tourist destination. I hung out there for about half an hour or so, reading my book.. trying to place myself and figure out my next move. I wound up leaving there and winding around the market once more before heading off in the totally wrong direction to get home, of course. So, stopped at a chemist because I needed to buy a razor anyway, and asked him which way to get back; he said straight and pointed right- I started laughing and was like, “Sir, everyone says 'straight', but that road is not straight!” and he thought that was pretty funny, too, we carried on a bit about being lost... He said, walk to the other side of the road, catch any bus, it will take you to CST (the station near my hotel) for only 5 rupees! I bought my razor, became one with the tight herd that ran and jumped on to that crawling city bus, and the driver took that thing through gridlocked rush hour Mumbai traffic like it was a Ferrari, laying on the horn, screeching to a halt and gunning it to take off- quite the ride. I loved it. I stood and gripped the railings to keep from falling over. Off at CST, and found a bookstore on the way back (my Hindi book! Finally) as well as a sugar cane juice stand. Got myself a big 6-rupee glass and with the same soda swagger of earlier afternoon, soaked up that cane juice and popped the glass back on the counter, smiled at the rest of the people in line, and headed the final block to the hotel through the crowds in the dark.

So, that's all, folks. I do wish I had an extra day here; Mumbai is pretty fascinating. I'll load up some photos tomorrow- it's well past the time to be going to sleep! It would have been neat to see the court in action, which you can do here, and I should have seen the mosque Kunal suggested as well. ...Next time.

Til next time, then... Goa!