Udaipur-Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India: 11June07

The City for Krishna

Jophur is dry and hot. My nose started to bleed almost immediately upon arrival.
The bus arrived in the late afternoon, so we didn't have much time to explore. We went to the market and shopped for fruits and 'looked' at different kind of spices.
The market or bazaar is nice. They sell fruits, vege, garments and spice. They are donkeys on the road.
We have get used to drink tea by the small stall at the road side. It even doesn't bother me as much now even if a bull shit is right in front of the stall.
i like this blue city. This is a place where people really lead a life and the shops or bazaars aren't just there to cater tourists. They are there to serve the needs of local people and may at the same time for tourists.
i think if one could find at least one partner, then coming to India during this hot summer is not that bad after all. May be provided both could stand the heat. It is hot, but you see more local than tourists and you almost get cheaper for everything. At least, in India, they don't have tourists menu like in Vietnam. You pay the same as local if you eat in restaurant.



Scene on the way from Udaipur to Jophur.



Jodhpur is at its bluest in the old city. Traditionally, blue signified the home of a Brahmin, but non-Brahmins have got in on the act too.



Clock Tower and Market, the old city's commercial heart.

Udaipur, Rajasthan, India: 10June07

The child beggar threw stones to me!

The weather at Udaiphur was nice. It was colder than any other places in India that i have been , so far, and yet drier. So we didn't perspiring like hell.
The town area or toursit area itself wasn't as large. We went to the palace, museum, hindu temple and put an end of the day by the very energetic Rajasthani dance and music.
The room we got was windy and facing to the lake. It was indeed really a nice good place for honeymoon.
The not so nice experience was probably that a young beggar snatched my mango drink empty tetra-pack, thinking that it was a full drink. When he found that it was just rubbish, he threw stones at me! i was shocked. He was just may be 3 or 4 years old and he already started to beg and snatch things. What would he do when he grows up?
For those kids from normal family, how do they feel and think to see young beggars around their age struggling for a living? How does the parents explain to their children?



Udaipur is said to be the "white" city.



Lake Pichola and the city centre.



The usual India scene, people washing openly. Not every house has their own water supply.

Bangalore-Chennai-Singapore: 24Aug07

End of my Holiday...

Good bye, India. i woke up in the morning feeling excited. i am going back to the modern, clean and real world today!

i took my breakfast and then called Mathieu. We didn't talk very long, as i thought the phone call will cost me a few hundred rupee and i need to keep some rupee for my subsequent transportation fees. However in the end, the call was merely 60 Rs, well, i think this is quite dirt cheap.

i did my final shopping to use up all my rupee. By noon, i took the auto rickshaw to the train station, boarded my train and arrived at Chennai 7 hours later at 9pm.

Obviously the auto-riskshaw drive knew that the tourist will have extra rupee to give away, so they were eager to take me to the airport. The fare was supposed to be 165 Rs, but i gave him 200 Rs to finish off my rupee. Unfortunately, the flight got a delay for more than one hour and i was hungry but i have no rupee to buy food. :) (They don't take US dollar, not to mention Singapore dollar.)

i would say that, it got one last "Incredible India" experience. i now reaslised that my arrival to India 3 months ago was at the basic domestic airport as the flight got a transit at Trichy. So i am pretty much surprised with this modern, clean and air-conditioned international airport. However this modern airport immigration needs more than 2 hours for immigration clearance! I think every depature tourists will remember the bureaucracy and inefficiency.

i am very happy to finally leave here. i don't see how myself will come back in the near future. May be, one day, i will go back to India again, but i would definitely don't want to come back to India alone. The country has much to offer, but dealing with the people here is just too much for me.

O Reeva, India! May be we will 'see' again!



My train from Bangalore to Chennai.
I don't like Chennai, so i don't want to stay a night there. That is why i purposely took the flight at 2am, so that i can leave Bangalore in the noon and get to Chennai airport as soon as i arrived at Chennai Central Railway Station at night.



Meter of long queue waiting for immigration clearance.
A young Indian lady trying to cut my queue and i politely asked her: "Madam, are you cutting my queue?" She then 'gracefully' go behind of me and cut the queue of the Indian man. The Indian man is normally kind of 'gentleman' to let lady first. :)