udaipur

from the moment i woke up on the train as we just started to approach udaipur, i was already in love. vast fields of yellow, hills, trees. as soon as we stepped off the train it was a breath of fresh air (especially after a damn 16 hour train ride). instantly you could tell it was much cleaner here and that the people were very different. we stopped next to the train station to get a bite and hop in a rickshaw with a young, sweet guy named jahel. when he dropped us off at the guesthouse, we work out a deal to go on a tour of udaipur for the following day. we walk up to the guesthouse called kumbha palace- and it is gorgeous. its up this long hill, past another guesthouse (we later talked to the man who runs it, who was a great guy as well. he wore his pink shirt everyday and looked damn smooth in it. they had a little white dog named duffy). there was this huge lawn with chairs, a sweet rooftop restaurant and the room was huge (indian toilet and all). after arriving and settling in, we started up the road. we met this young guy who goes to college there right off the bat and started talking with him for a while. thats the great thing about these indians in rajasthan, yes they all know someone that they want you to buy from, but most of them really just want to talk to you. i think we have been asked about 200 times already seriously what our country is. we walked up to the city palace and ended up meeting this local, uma, who was giving tours at the palace. He is super witty and had lines for everything '24 hour power, no bathroom no shower' and when asked why so many men here have mustaches he says 'a man without a mustache is a woman'. anyways, after that initial meeting, we decided to save the city palace for the last day and told him we'd hope to see him again. after spending our day, i was exhausted (also i feel like i have has sinus problems since we have been here. travellers last night said the same thing. air here is really poor and its so smokey and dusty in general). i ended up staying back in the room as gieves went out to explore for a bit. he ended up seeing uma again who runs a little art shop as well down the street. good thing he went alone, he found out all about his life (that he most likely never would have told with me there). he is a prince in a city right outside of udaipur and a few years back had met an english woman he had fallen in love with. right when they were to get married, his father busted in with a sword and said if you marry this woman, and not an indian to be the princess, i will kill myself right now. clearly, the wedding did not go on and uma was left heartbroken. he was left to the arranged marriage for which he said 'she is beautiful, yes, but is very very boring, and sad for me, i fell in love with her cousin now'. the poor guy cant get luck in love. he did however say he loves his life, so much so, and he is very wealthy. he already owns 9 stores and in a few years hopes to own 30! on our last day, we went back to the palace and have him give us the tour. though he doesnt need the money (he didnt shy away from saying he has a loooot of money) he was so knowledgable about it all that it was the best tour guide we could have gotten! the palace is the 2nd largest in all of India (the first being in southern india) and it was just breathtaking. i learned so much history on it and will not at all be forgetting it anytime soon. the architecture in india is so so so amazing. this palace was so simple but the designs were so beautiful they were just making me invision of having a small little place one day, decking it out in indian colors and styles. it cant be beat. the day before was good too, we cruised around in a rickshaw all day and saw really cool sites. a jain temple that was 2200 years old. another place with huge memorials of past leaders who have passed. it was a great experience. uma recommended some of the best restaurants to us. the first place being only locals, a thali place that served you fast, and real great food. the second place recommended was this restaurant called ambrai. it was absolute paradise. it was right on the water with an amazing view of the palace and city and some ghats. i cant lie when i say the view almost brought me to tears it was so beautiful. not with all of the other parts of the city, like the marketplace and city centers, but that spot alone lived up to people saying udaipur is arguably one of the most romantic cities in all of india. after that dinner we stopped in to see uma for a last time. he is a talker and we ended up staying in his shop with him for a good 2 hours. it makes me sad i will never see him again. a nice and handsome prince, he is. he said to me, americans tell me i look like pharell (which actually in a weird way he does) and asks what he should do to get the american ladies. i told him, you dress nice, look nice, all you need to do is go to the u.s. and you are set. it was actually pretty sad leaving udaipur. after only staying for a few days, i feel like we made some friends and starting recognizing and talking to other people. it reminded me of california in a weird way as well. warm weather and really chilled out. you just hangout. it was great.