Sunday, September 24 Udaipur Again

I reached the Udaipur bus stand at the same time in the morning as when I first came, two days ago, having slept in transit. Moreover, I went on the same government bus tour for the second time, because the first time I got lost and missed the majority of it. I felt like it was Groundhog Day. It was surreal. I walked to the Old City, and watched the sunrise over the City Palace and Lake Pichola while eating a parantha on a rooftop hotel (there are so many in Udaipur). It was comfortable, peaceful, and beautiful. I then walked to the Hindu Temple, the best place to view the lake. I struck up a conversation with a Udaipur professor whose head was shaved because his father died a week ago, and he’s performing the 8-hour ceremony today. On the city tour, the tour guide laughed because this is the third tour I’m taking with him, and the second of the exact same one. I sat out for the first sight, and he got the camera fee for the City Palace waived, so I got to take amazing pictures of the sun glinting off Lake Pichola, gaudy mirrors, curving Rajput knives, and glass inlay on the building. This time it was better because a slow and talkative Croatian woman insisted he speak English. The tour guide, a wealthy Rajput who lives on the lake, invited me to his house to make Rajasthani mutton and sip some beers. He’s Hindu, but obviously a kshatriya. The lady overheard, and he told her, “No, just him, because us two are friends. You’re not my friend, and the invitation is not for you”. This simple statement, my stomach hurting as is, the fact that he was charging me 250 Rs for the mutton, and the fact that he would buy the meat while I walk alone to his house was enough to decline. Even though I would love to have mutton with a Rajput warrior, he was simply put, a sketchy asshole. I instead went to Natraj Hotel for a vegetarian thali-only lunch dining hall, filled to capacity with locals. It had delicious rice, chapati, dal, dahi, papad, aloo, two sabzi, and salad. Although I have a painful upset stomach, I’m salivating writing this, it was so good. The best part? Unlimited servings of everything you want. These lunch thali dining halls are genius, and my favorite restaurants in India by far. I went walking back to City Palace, and it started raining so I took shelter under an awning and fell asleep for half an hour. Then I walked through the touristy bazaars and past the hotel in the City Palace, one night costing $300-1500, as well as the Oberoi and Lake Palace, on islands in the lake. I ended up sharing company and chai with an artist named Lala. He was a painter of “Rajput Miniatures”, the style of painting for which Udaipur is world-famous. However, he was different because he also paints in Mughal and modern style. His collection included farm scenes, Mughal emperors, camels, elephants, horses, peacocks, Rajput kings, kama sutra, and erotic scenes. The erotic genre is mostly for his Israeli clientele, who mostly come to India for the drugs and free nature In this country they can live like kings, before mandatory military service and a life within the religion. Lala’s other customers are mostly young rich tourists from Bombay, Madrid, New York, and Rome. I also spent some time talking to a master sitar player and teacher. I was once told by a music teacher that there are and always have been birds on the front of a sitar, and no one knows why. It’s kind of like those curly q’s on a violin. It turns out, he didn’t know, either. He said they were just for decoration, and if I didn’t want them, he could take them off for me. I said I couldn’t afford the sitar in his shop ($200), but that is a steal compared to US prices. After that I spent the evening watching the sunset over the lake and Palace. I took my overnight express train to Delhi. It was not a comfortable ride for three reasons. One, my stomach hurt and I was writhing in pain. Second, four police officers were sitting next to me. They had an inmate chained by one hand to one of the officers, and the others were all carrying Uzi’s. Third, it was cold.