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Other entries in Udaipur

I won the first one

for the record, hurrah! - I won the 'delhi belly' bet - peds got the sickness first! ...but in all fairness, he only lost by a couple hours :(  and ironically, mine hit *right* after chowing down on all the food I made in my cooking class... NOT right after drinking from the airport fountain, or from the sketchy restaurants, or from chugging part of a water bottle with mysterious crud floating on the bottom (noticed too late), or from accidentally chewing my fingernails..... unless more is yet to come...

we rolled into udaipur 7:30am. peds was waisted from the train and the as-yet-unknown stomache ailment. he went straight to bed and I roamed the city. what a switch from delhi! thank god we didn't judge the whole country by those first 2 days....here, all is tranquil. never mind there's still cows, people, beggars, rickshaws and noise everywhere. it's IN COMPARISON - and that's why I'm glad we spent some time in delhi. (sort of like how there's one good thing about tight shoes: it feels so good when you take them off)

I took the cooking class while peds was crashed out and SO glad I did. despite getting sick from it (!), I learned so much about spices and the different curries and how dishes are named. never mind I won't be near a kitchen anytime soon - this will help better understand restaurant menus and how to navigate street food.

next day I took an art class and painted an elephant using natural watercolors (from stones) and the tiniest brushes making the thinnest lines I've ever seen. madam, my teacher, showed a few tricks and prooved why he's the professor given how detailed he could work. more than a few times it was really hard, but based on my final elphant, he said (joked?) that in a year, I could make good money as an indian artist! even the guys on the street seemed impressed :) best part is now I have so much more understanding and appreciation of the local art we see everywhere.

at night, we got full-on immersion in devali celebrations. basically this means boat-loads of unregulated fireworks and firecrackers going off everywhere. (tho the worst were the israelis at our restaurant setting off poorly-aimed bottle rockets. thought for sure I'd be loosing an eye that night.)

it was marginally safer on the streets - never mind the local kids setting off crackers the size of D batteries... my ears are still messed up. and just like 'new' delhi, by the end of the 3rd night (as in 3 nights of ear-defeaning bombs going off on every corner), it really didn't feel like 'happy' devali. but I'm only joking - really it was wicked being in town for this - the main street was decked out in lights and street paintings and all these beautiful women is colorful, sparkly saris. we even saw a few cows with tinfoil on their horns and wearing marigold necklaces. all was spectacular! plus I finally started picking up garbage for collages :)

not wanting to get sucked into a town so soon tho, we packed up (bellies are feeling MUCH better) and it's off to pushkar in search of a camel festival. guess it doesn't start for a couple weeks but suposedly the setting-up bit is cool to see too (and less touristic and cheaper).

we also learned of a 4 day psy-trance festival (www.moondust.in) in jaipur in early nov. so we'll see if we're still around....sorting it out.....sorting it out...  damn this is a big country....no WAY we'll see it all.....   :(

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