Udaipur August 10-15 Flashback

The view from my hotel room, the Lake Palace

Okay, what happened over the past week will fill a few pages. The worst week I have spent in India was oddly in one of the most romantic and beautiful cities that I have ever visited. I foolishly met Benji before leaving Udaipur and he somehow convinced me to let him tag along. I think he convinced me so easily because I was a little shaken up from the New City Palace experience and the prospect of spending a week alone again was rather daunting. Benjamin’s landlords are very nice, kind people; the kind that I had hoped to find here. They are simple and friendly with an open curiosity that I love. I liked Mohit (Benjis roommate). He was mature, polite and did not talk much. Puru (Mohits best friend) seemed nice but I get the feeling he ahs less integrity. The landlord’s brother’s wife (little aunty) made me a sari free out of some red and gold fabric. I was really touched by her. I wish I could meet and spend more time with the women of India and the families here. The sari did not fit very well but the thought was very sweet. In an attempt to save money, Benji exchanged the first class ticket I bought for second class ticked (bad idea) and we were on our way that night at around 8pm. The train was horrible or rather; the men on the train were horrible. I seriously felt in danger just going to the bathroom. There were about six men in our compartment. When Benji asked for a seat by the window, two of the men (both very large and very Muslim) blew up. The gist of the conversation was “go back to own country”. They yelled at Benjamin for breaking their culture by talking to a foreigner and that foreigners were immoral with no idea of Indian culture and should all be wiped off the face of the planet. One actually grabbed Benjis face. It scared me to death. Before the attack, I was attempting to explain that the Hippie movement originally developed to encourage peace and to stop the Vietnam War as well as to gain equal rights for women and minorities. Many Indians hate hippies and many hippies in India give them good reason to. They take drugs; have sex and party, which is not a good way to represent our country abroad. Anyways, I was explaining all this to him and the men, being of limited English skills, seemed to get the idea that I thought sex and drugs were a good thing. After yelling for a few minutes, the bigger of the two men abruptly left. I cried for the next 20 minutes and then crawled on the top bunk (about 12inch from bed to roof) and curled up with my bad. The men were gone by the time I woke up. The next morning an old, decrepit, toothless man sat with us and restored some (not all) of my faith in the human race. From the looks of him, he was a beggar but he was not. The man had 2 degrees and knew English (which I could not understand because of his lack of teeth). He was a Muslim and one of the sanest and most good-natured people I have ever met. He was the way I had expected Muslims to be. The train had about 2in. of water on its floor and it rattled ominously but we finally made it to Udaipur around 5pm. We were greeted at the station by sheets and sheets of rain that stayed with us most of our stay there. Twenty rupees seems to be the price for just about anywhere in Udaipur so we got a rickshaw and were whisked away to the Lal Ghat Guest House which is where we spent the next 3 hellish days. The guesthouse was nice enough but the lack of a TV was a pain in the butt. I shed tears, sweat and blood in that room and I felt as if I was somewhere between the afterlife and earth the entire time I was there. Those nights were possibly the worst nights of my life. I do not want to talk about it. I hate being smothered. I hate being controlled. I hate not having any time alone. AHHHHH! Okay, that is all I will say about it. We walked around the city the next day. Udaipur is beautiful and peaceful.