Namaste

Sooooooooo sadly we hugged Ryan goodbye, and off we went. But FIRST,, here is a little update on what we did until he departed!

We spent another day in Goa waiting for a train to Mumbai, and we spent our time wandering and eating Portuguese Indian fusion food. Mmmmm. Oli and Ryan went to a shady little corner bar and came back without any interesting stories.... and then off we rode! Long ass day on an AC train- far too cold, so we napped most of the time. Arrived in Mumbai and stayed at Bentley's Hotel- very nice! We had our own private balcony and a nice big room. We set off to internet for a little bit then crashed out early, tiring day! The following day we bumbled around the area, passing the Taj Mahal Hotel multiple times in disbelief over the whole terrorist attack a few months back. Insane. We passed the Gateway to India, wandered the streets, and ended up at Victoria Terminus. Micky D's for lunch- no beef but the chicken sufficed. Mmm. Back to our room for a bit to let Ryan nap and then Oli and I set off to buy the train tickets for the rest of our time in India, but to no avail. We went to famous Leopold's cafe and had massive personal beer taps (thanks M+D) then wandered back to our place to chat and sleep.

Woke up the next morning and grabbed tickets for the ferry to Elephanta Island- the ferry was far too long and crowded, but the island was cool. The first of the five caves was infinitely better than the rest, and we got some amazing photos of the different carvings and pillars. There were cheeky little monkeys running around everywhere, and we killed some time before we headed back to the mainland. Finally bought our tickets at the Churchgate train station (sorry it took so long Ryan) and then we headed a few doors down to a hip cafe called Mocha's- it was packed with local twentysomethings eating fabulous cheap food and smoking hookahs. It was pretty cool.

The next day we bid our amazing travel buddy adieu, and hopped on our long train to Udaipur. We departed at 1:40, arriving in Ahemdabad at 9:30pm, and then switching to a nice AC 4 berth cabin for the next train to Udaipur. We had the cabin to ourselves, sweet! We slept nicely, and woke up as we arrived the following morning at 7:30. We groggily packed our things and grabbed a rickshaw- and we lucked out! Our driver was a 30ish Indian local named Farez who sometimes gave tours to tourists, so we booked him to take us to the Monsoon Palace that evening for the sunset. After he dropped us off at a better, cheaper hotel than the place we were planning on going (next door!) we relaxed and had some breakfast, then wandered around the city window shopping and taking photos. Udaipur is where they filmed much of the James Bond film Octopussy, and we got to see the different palaces used in the movie, though we don't remember a thing about the movie to begin with!

Farez picked us up at 5pm and drove us towards the Monsoon Palace, warning us that we were entering a national wildlife park and that there are panthers and wildcats, so to be careful. Yikes. We arrived at the top and toured the magnificent but deteriorating abode, then watched the sun creep down over the mountains, turning the sky a deep orange and illuminating the colors of the palace. We headed back down to town in our rickshaw, and Firoz took a little detour and invited us to have tea with him at his brothers place overlooking the lake. He showed us his photo album of his home and his favorite places in the city, and then took us to a secluded secret lookout over the lake of the City and Lake palaces- the view was absolutely insane. He took us back to our hotel and we booked him for a tour of the northern parts of the city for the next morning (today!) at 9am. We then grabbed some DELICIOUS chicken curry and biriyani at the Lotus Cafe and called it a night.

This morning Firoz picked us up and took us out to see the ghats where the poor people bathe and wash their clothes, then out to the Jain temple and then the burial place for all of the royal family. We visited the vintage and classic car museum and then the gardens that the ladies in waiting used to frequent, complete with elephant fountains. My personal favorite aspect of the tour was the walk through the local fruit/veg/spice market- completely off the tourist track, bustling with little old ladies selling out of baskets and larger operations with bags and bags of spices. The colors were phenomenal. We grabbed lunch at one of Firoz's favorite thalis, and then headed back to the hotel.

We have been having a fab time but we miss Ryan's head waggle and cheeky grins! We are off to Agra on overnight train tomorrow. We will keep you posted! Happy Easter and Passover friends.

btw- we booked our flights back to the states for SNWMF- we will be in California from June 5-28 working before we head back to Bangkok for another segment of our journey.