Jodhpur

January 20th
Today was our second and a half day in Udaipur. For breakfast I had the most wonderful french toast in existence. The syrup is embedded in every particle of bread and then the bread is doused in runny egg and fried. Every bit is sweet and the texture is perfect, a sort of melt-in-your-mouth feeling. The banana porridge was good too. To start the day, we walked to the City Palace Museum. It was a big, beautiful building. The owners of the palace were very creative when it came to weapons. They had an array of swords,

daggers and axes that all had guns attached. There was more than just weapons but most of the paintings seemed war oriented as well. They depicted people chopping heads off, battling, or tiger hunting. There were nicer things than that though. The views, oh the wonderful lake, crystal clear yet a beautiful blue. The enormous hills, toffee brown and an apple green. There was a palace in the middle of the lake that was very white.

January 24th
Today we left Udaipur for the sunnier hills of Jodhpur. We got on a bus at 7:45 AM and drove for 6 hours until we finally got there at 2:00. As soon as we got off we were bombarded with the usual brigade of touts all talking at once. "Sir, come, I have a nice room for you." "Come here. Taxi. Sir. Taxi. Sir!" (Jonas goes on at great length about all the things shouted at us here. If you're interested in reading more, ask to see his journal.) To top it all off, they all try to get as close to you as they can so they can show you their business cards. We told them we already had a place and that sent half of them away. The other half were the rickshaw touts. ("Taxi sir!")
We got a rickshaw to the train reservation office to make any would be hotel touts get thrown off the scent and think we were leaving. Then we snuck out and went across the street to the hotel we were going to stay at. It is an okay place but it has two things that make it top on the list of hotels we've stayed in for the past four weeks. Internet!! Hot water showers!! Hooray! We took a walk through the old part of Jodhpur and marvelled at how untouristy it seemed. Udaipur was touristy but this was a place with no tourist-oriented shops or businesses whatsoever.

We went to the old clock tower and realized that we would never be able to find our way back with the map that was in the Lonely Planet, so we searched for the tourist information office in the newer part of Jodhpur. Eventually we found it and got a really good map. Then we walked back to our hotel.
We tried to get on the internet (wireless) but it is only for the restaurant and doesn't reach our room. So I am writing in my journal instead.