"what is your name? where are you from?"

UDAIPUR TO BUNDI - 26th-28th October 2011

Whilst traveling in India there are days which have been filled with excitement and adventure and other days which have felt more like a survival test than a holiday and the past few days have been a case of the latter.  Although very hot during the day, at nights, especially in desert areas like Jaisalmer, the temperature drops quite drastically so I managed to pick up some serious man flu.... and its wiped me out for the last three days or so.  It pretty much struck on the day of Diwali, the morning after the whiskey session... and has been lingering ever since. Still i can thank myself lucky that I have still not been hit by the infamous Delhi Belly (aside from a dodgy night in Jaipur) however I now realise that in saying this, I will no doubt be struck down first thing tomorrow with a hefty dose of dysentery....I've kept away from all meat and doing small things like carrying a small bottle of hand sanitizer to clean my hands before eating has obviously gone a long way in preventing the dreaded shits! Its been crazy, as I've never talked so much about bowel movements with complete strangers in all my life but its always a subject which is discussed in great detail whenever you come across other travellers (sometimes too much detail!) Due to the dreaded man flu shivers the last two days in Udaipur were spent in the hotel room which was a bit shit but I've realized on a trip this long I'll have to take the highs with the lows and just accept it as part of the experience...

I would like to mention briefly here a few thoughts I've had about this country as I've now been in India for a few weeks and have developed some ideas about the place. In the rough guide it talks about how many travelers in India develop a love/hate relationship with the place and that from day to day most people tend to oscillate between the two emotions. I couldn't agree with this comment more. There are times when the constant crowds, piles of rubbish and beeping horns - not to mention feeling unwell from the flu or whatever ailment bothers you - get too much and can get you in a really foul mood, so that when the next unsuspecting shop owner asks you the classic combo of "Whats your name? Where are you from?" You end up either snapping at them, forcing a distinctly unfriendly grunt or completely ignoring them altogether. Another issue is that after the thousandth beggar has approached you asking "rupee, rupee" it can also severely test your patience. Any notions of philanthropy which are held when you arrive in the country are quickly erased as I've started to become a pretty callous bastard, unaffected and desensitized by the awful scenes I encounter in many Indian streets. There are still things which obviously shock, such as the dead dog i walked past, which had been shoveled into an open sewage pipe but in general the surreal becomes normal here. Pretty grim stuff but that, as I'm beginning to learn, is India and if you don't like it, you  can get on the next plane out of here! In saying all this, although it is testing at times, when good stuff happens it completely blows me away and if you've read my previous posts I'm sure you can see what I'm talking about!

Along with Julien and Lilly we left Udaipur on the 28th and headed for the peaceful town of Bundi. I got my first experience of the buses and trains in India as we did a two leg journey there. A bumpy two hour bus journey stopping off in Chittorgarh where we then caught a connecting train to Bundi.As I've had a driver for two weeks i'm still pretty unsure of the train system in India and rocking up at the train station, two days after Diwali, we were greeted by blank faces saying that unless we had a reservation, which of course we didn't, the only option was to buy an unreserved ticket and slum it for a few hours in the bottom class. Although I'll definitely get stuck in with the third class carriages later on in the trip, as apparently you meet the most interesting characters there, we thought we'd play dumb and get on second class sleeper and see how far we could get. By sheer luck the family who was supposed to be occupying the seats we had plonked ourselves down in had not shown up and with a knowing smile from the inspector we were allowed to stay where we were without a fine as it was only a short journey. Although I've only taken one short journey which lasted a couple of hours, the trains seem to be the way to travel in India and i'm looking forward to spending alot more time on them whilst I travel down south. I will write a separate post about the trains later on I think.

Biggles the Mammoth follows me everywhere.

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