In review..

So it's been a hectic week.

Left Jodhpur at 9am to find a government bus to Udaipur as my hotel owner did not want to help me book a private bus ("No you must stay in Jodhpur and book a tour you have to stay more days.."). Even though no one at the bus station or on the bus spoke any English at all, I managed to get the best seat (seat #1) and have a nice woman next to me who gave me some crisps half way through the journey because I saved her seat at one of the stops. Was a local bus, which the guidebooks really don't recommend, but it was pretty awesome seeing all the villages first in the desert around Jodhpur then in the mountains through to Udaipur, very very beautiful was so good to see mountains and monkeys again! Think it was a much better view of Indian village life than the crazy desert safari ("one rupee one rupee!"). Saw one woman carrying an axe on her head while her daughters carried a million branches on theirs.

My dorm in Udaipur was amazing - right on the lake with an AMAZING rooftop view. Arrived 15mins before sunset and watched it drop over the mountains reflected in the lake.. really really beautiful place. My dorm bed was SO COMFORTABLE and even had a curtain for privacy! More privacy than that shared rooftop bathroom in Jodhpur.. ahh good times! On my birthday I woke up early and took a stroll around the city while the locals were setting up shop and the tourists were still in bed. I booked a cooking class for the next day and sat on a big carved rock and chilled by the lake for a bit. Had a man come up and start chatting to me who was pretty decent. After we talked about what I was doing in Delhi we talked about the education system there in Rajasthan and poverty and begging and then family and his family - had a daughter my age also doing Commerce! He had a cafe next to us so brought us out some chai and talked until people started arriving for breakfast and I walked back to the guesthouse, but a good way to start the day - always find it so interesting to hear other perspectives on this country because everything is so different, and it's so much more genuine to hear from a man like that than a tour guide!!

On my way to city palace I got distracted by some of the silk paintings Udaipur is famous for, and ended up in one shop for a good hour chatting to the owner about his family and the tradition and had more and more chai.. met a couple from Melbourne who just got married in India (originally from Punjab) and they were cool bought some nice paintings themselves. Walked out buying far more than planned but they're so pretty and I did enjoy the chai!!

After a good ayvedic (sp??) massage across the road from the guesthouse I finally got to city palace which was absolutely amazing - the views from the windows over the lake and the city the other side were just breathtaking - especially at that time of day when the sun was getting lower and casting this beautiful light, I just spent so long sitting by the windows taking it in and relaxing after my first week of travel!

My cooking class the next day was fantastic - was with these 2 other English girls from London who were in India for 3 or 4 weeks, and they were so funny they had so much planned it was insane! We were in this woman's kitchen and she showed us many many things and then we got to eat it all - best ever! Am looking forward to cooking it all back at home, was just good food!

Met a Canadian girl that morning and planned to meet up with her in the arvo to go to this park north of the city and chill there. She's traveling alone too and has been for a month or 2 before me, and still has ages to go all over the world. Was nice to hear her view on it and on India, shared some stories, was a good laugh.

Arrived ON TIME to Jaipur by train! Amazing. By sleeper class too! Yeah got well into slumming it again, felt good. Met 2 New Zealand couples at the hotel who were really cool - nice to hear some familiar slang! Drank lots of chai and bought some kites for the kite festival and walked around the bazaars with one of the guys who was in SHORTS! Everyone is in blankets here so anything non-warm looks so crazy and out of place. That evening sat up chatting with the Kiwis, an Aussie couple from Darwin (well, the girl was French), and an American fashion designer and her Indian business partner. Was a good group and by this point I was feeling much better about everything!! Rich and Noelle's train was hell late at this point, but my room had a tv (living it up!) so I watched bad movies til they arrived at 2.45am, poor things..

THE KITE FESTIVAL WAS AWESOME.

The sky was FILLED with squares of colour, and we met a group of guys who let us fly all their kites and we broke so many!! But they were a good laugh and we all enjoyed it so much, was such a childish thing but yeah, so completely innocent and enjoyable!! I think at one point I even cut down someone else's kite, champion!

Went to the Raj Mandir cinema to see 3 Idiots that night - great atmosphere, everyone cheering when the actors came on and singing along! Have those songs stuck in my head now! Shelled out for "box seats" so had private lounge during the interval, the guy even gave us our popcorn personally during the beginning of the movie because we were late to ask for it! Didn't cost more than $5 each. Good stuff.

Going to quickly gloss over the shambles that was my last 2 days though. Noelle left for Delhi at about 8am, while Rich and I had different trains to Varanasi at about 3pm. I saw him get on his, then found out mine was canceled. No one could help me book trains to get in that direction, so booked a bus online at an internet cafe, then realised it was to a wrong place on the other side of the country.. but had a guy at the bus station take pity on me and he bought me a ticket to Delhi leaving at 11pm that night, motorbiked me (with my backpack on my back! Extreme!!) to the bus, sat me on my seat(after removing some other guy with no ticket), and sorted my ticket out with the manager of the bus so all I had to do was fall asleep and wake up in Delhi. Was good to be back there at 6am.. calmed me down to be back somewhere I knew! Got a decent auto to Siri Fort and booked a train to Varanasi from Delhi that morning. Left at 8pm to arrive at 7.30am, but ended up on the train til 6pm... yay fog!

BUT.

I am here in Varanasi now, with a good room right next to the body burnings (wooo!). Found a great cafe and had good dinner last night and a beer which I was absolutely in need of, even though it cost 3x the amount of the food!! Went back there for breakie too and filled up on that. In the words of 3 Idiots - "ALL IS WELL!"

Rebooked to go back to Delhi tomorrow night on Rich's train. Sleeper class but he is in 3AC so may move after my ticket has been checked. So foggy here!

Feel like my trip is coming to its last stages which is a bit sad, I'm still getting into the crazy system here and enjoying even the worst parts - it's just so intense you can't help but go with it and laugh about it the next day!

But saying that, am looking forward to clean clothes and a decent shower!!