Udaipur- the city of . . . why did I go to Udaipur again?

Udaipur the city of lakes and . . . elephants.

I wanted to go to Udaipur because I had seen these amazing- beautiful pictures of the Lake Palace. It is- as it sounds a palace built in the middle of a lake. It takes up the entire island, so it looks like a palace just floating on the water. It’s a nice effect- when there’s not a drought- which of course there was when I was there so it was more like the foundation of a palace floating in the lake- it was still really nice- no really it was nice.

But the elephants make a more interesting story. I had a cab from the train station to the hotel. It was my first overnight train experience and although it was better than I thought it might be- I still hadn’t slept much. I was all blurry eyed and dazzled by the heat.

We came to the foot of a hill where we ran into what seemed to be a mob/traffic jam. There was a big temple, a big elephant, a lot of white people and a classic car. It’s always some kind of weird holiday or festival in India so I asked if it was a celebration.
My driver said no, they were filming for Bollywood. Awesome- I got out my camera.

As we inched closer to the center of the scene the white people started dispersing and the classic car drove away- the elephant stood and waited. I looked at the elephant- he was close enough for me to reach out the window of the tiny car I was sitting in and touch him. I decided against it- but I could have. The elephant looked at me. They have surprisingly small eyes for such large animals.
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
I took his picture.
He stuck the end of his trunk in my window.
I squealed.
The remaining white people looked at me and giggled.
The elephant giggled.
I giggled.
The driver shook his head and put it in first.

At the hotel I had a short love affair with the bathtub.

In the afternoon I went out sightseeing- “There’s the lake- there’s the palace in the lake.”
I was quite possibly the worst tourist ever- the guide was so disappointed with me.
He said, “Oh- you’ll want to walk through the spice market.”
I said, “No- I don’t want to- I’ve seen a spice market before.”
He said, “Do you want to go to the City Palace (different from the Lake Palace) and see the museum?”
I said, “No- I’ve seen palaces and museums before.”

He was a good guide he told me all about the intrigue regarding the rulers the Hindus against the Muslims- Sons against fathers- it was all over my head. Maharaja blah-blah-blah- Mogul Shah-blah-blah-blah 300 years old blah-blah-blah- who can keep up?

Next time- on the monkey who chased me through the ginormous graveyard- and mention of Laxmi the friendly neighborhood elephant.

Come back tomorrow for inserted pictures in this and following stories- I haven't quite got them uploaded yet-