India - Week Two

Our second week in India has been just as busy and bizzare as the first! On our last night in Pushkar, there was a freak hail storm which cut power to the whole town and made it impossible to go outdoors for about an hour. When the heavens had subsided, we caught a freezing cold, 8 hour overnight bus to Udaipur - a beautiful lakeside city littered with wonderful old palaces, including a floating palace where parts of the James Bond film, Octopussy, were filmed. It was an amazingly charming place and felt like an Indian Venice! Before catching our next overnight bus, we had a lovely Indian meal in a Parisien-esque garden restaurant, looking over the lake towards the palaces. Unfortunately, we only had one day in Udaipur, but I easily could have stayed there a week and will definitely return in the future! The 16 hour bus ride from Udaipur to Mumbai was probably the most uncomfortable and difficult - we came too late to get sleepers, so we had to sit for the whole journey and, after almost 36 hours without being able to lie down, my feet had swollen beyond recognition by the time we reached Mumbai! As soon as we left the bus station in Mumbai to catch a taxi to our pre-booked hotel we were

caught in a massive downpour of rain and all of our clothes and most of our bags were soaked. To make matters worse, by the time we got to our hotel they had increased the prices of the rooms by 300 rupees, so we had to walk the streets of Mumbai, sopping wet, heaving our luggage, until we found a reasonably-priced (but very very basic) hotel. Nonetheless, I still really enjoyed Mumbai - it is a crazy, huge, and busy city but being by the seaside gives it a relaxed and easy-going feeling. One of Tara's university friends showed us around the city and treated us to a wonderful meal. We were hoping to be able to watch a Bollywood movie while we were there, but we couldn't find a 4 hour block of spare time to do it in! Instead, we went to the post-office where, much like in Chinese government-run stores and offices, you have to go to a different counter to buy stamps, another for weighing your packages, another for buying the envelopes, and another for the final sending off! On our way out of Mumbai (this time on a sleeper bus for 14 hours), we watched the massive city continue to pass by for hours and were very UN-gently rocked to (very little) sleep until we arrived in Goa. For the past few days in Goa we haev just been relaxing by the beach, swimming in the warm ocean, sipping cocktails while watching the sunset, making friends with the cows on the beach, and having long Ayuvedic massages. Tomorrow evening we head off the Hampi, several hours West of Goa, to explore ancient ruins!