007

The last couple of days have definately been a welcome change of pace. Friday afternoon i visited a resident sitar player in his music shop. I had a turn of his sitar to find that I am hopeless at it. Tho, that is as expected for a first timer. He played for me some classical music, and at my request some beatles, sold me his CD, which he signed, and a small brass indian mouth instrument which Sunjay asked me to find for him. Friday night was spent as usual eating and playing games on our rooftop resturaunt. Ash was well tired and went to bed, I stayed up teaching 13 to my new friend Raj, who is the waiter at our hostel. His life is so far from anything that I know but typical of a young Indian villiager. He is 18 years old. He lives in a small villiage a short bus ride out of town, where he was raised and schooled till year 9. His father works nearby as a waiter at the lake palace hotel. (Udaipurs finest). Raj has been working at our hostel since he left school. He works from 7:30am till 11:00pm every day for a month, before returning to his villiage for a 3 day break. He earns Rs 2000 per month, or 12.5c AUD an hour. His future wife who is currently in her last year at school (also year 9) lives in the villiage, and they will be married next year. He is however extremely happy in Udaipur and I am happy for him. After exhausting him with tales of Australia my family, job, education, (the standard questions in india), I went to bed in our room 007.

Yesterday morning got up at 5:00am to drive to the legendary Monsoon Palace, (a 500 year old palace perched atop the highest mountain in Udaipur) to watch the sunrise over the city. Found ourselves a rickshaw and got in. He drove us as far as the gates at the bottom of the mountain to explain: Ahh, closed sir, I take you home now. Sorry, 100 rupees. It’s a con, he wouldv’e known it wasn’t open, but I had to cut my losses. He dropped us home and said: Ok, it opens at 10 I’ll see you then. I more or less told him to get fucked and went back to bed. 

I love getting up to the morning to good morning Mr. Bond. The cleaner here thinks its hailarious. I said I bet he says the same thing to everyone in my room, and he acknowledged this with the famous indian head wobble, which I already can’t stop doing. Again spent the day lounging around, eating, and drinking. The food is so good and cheap I just don’t want to stop. Had plans to see the sitar player again, and he was to tell me about a famous tabla player who was doing a free concert that night, but I was too lazy… know what I mean. So instead spent the whole day just lounging around. At 7pm they whole hostel had gathered on the rooftop for the screening of James Bond: Octopussy, which is set in Udaipur, and the 7pm screening is a standard for every hostel in the city. Was worthwhile for a laugh. The power cut out half way through, and fireworks started going off behind us. This is another Udaipur specialty, they go off every single night, but these ones were especially impressive, especially on the backdrop of a blacked out holy city. The power resumed, the movie finished, Ash and I played backgammon for an hour or two, and went to bed.

Today is our last in Udaipur, catching the 10pm bus to Pushkar tonight. Went to an art shop to buy a traditional Udaipurian painting, after promising the shop owner I would in return for a favour he did for me. And now in the internet cafe to escape the hot sun.

Some random things I like about india:
Indians – indian men will often hold hands in the street as a sign of friendship, funny at first but also very cool.
Food – they’re called curry-munchers for a reason.
Children – the kids here a the cutest things I’ve ever seen, It is sad that often they are begging for: 5 rupee? 2 rupee? 1 rupee?
Asian tourists – Just like the ones in Australia. Need I say more?
Animals – donkeys, horses, monkeys, elephants, goats, cows, bulls, and little squirrel type things are literally everwhere.

Theres a lot more to add to this list but I’ve got to go. Looking forward to Pushkar, it is a tiny holy town, which has been commercialised by mass tourism from all the hippies around the world, but it is said to be beautiful, relaxing, and they specialise in a very special drink, bhang lassi.

Laters.

~ by shayolden on February 3, 2007.