I'm in love....

So first my first full day in Udaipur and it truly does live up to its reputation!
Am currently sitting in Internet cafe been periodically hit on the back by 2 adorable, but manic 4 year olds! Thank God for small miracles at least they have stopped biting me and their dad has confiscated the belts that they took off to hit me with!

Ok I digress: First thanks mum and midget for you messages...as always greatly appreciated.
In case anyone was wondering what happened to the SA couple....I kinda lost them at the the first port of call in Udaipur...I had made a booking at a hostel and they were going to come with me, but alas, they got suckered into going to another hotel. (they made the rookie mistake of looking at the pamphlet and the rickshaw that was meant to take us to to our booked hotel did a massive detour! Surprise! Surprise! )The hotel I have to admit was lovely and a really decent price, but being the seasoned traveller that I am, I knew that I would meet more travellers at the place the lonely planet had recommended. So I soldiered on alone! If I'm honest I wasn't too gutted to be separated from them, because as lovely as they were, there is only one thing worse than being stuck in a strange city by yourself: Being stuck in a strange city with two people you have absolutely nothing in common with! Once we got passed: "OH my God you're south African" the conversation pretty much dried up! Besides that they were both smokers and as a newly non-smokeeee (12 whole hours!) I felt it best to move along!
My hotel is really lovely and I even managed to score a room with a European toilet....paid RS100 extra fop the luxury!!! As of yet not met a single other traveller in the hotel;-)

That been said its been a great 2 days. I choose to not-mention yesterdays adventures last night for fear of giving my poor mother a heart attack, but I feel it is now safe to do so. On arriving in Udaipur yesterday I was absolutely exhausted and managed to shower, sit on my toilet ( I paid RS100 for that toilet!) and drag myself out for lunch. It took me all but 2 steps to realise why they call Udaipur the city of love. There are a kazillion Indian men looking for it..or for their next sale- the lines are so blurred!!....I thought Istanbul was bad.....it is completely overwhelming how many of the men approach you 'for a chat'. Today I had had to take the hard core approach and simply ignore them all. The standard question is: "Where you from?" To which I reply "Cape Town" (they know CT) and then simply keep walking. Sounds harsh.....but I do not have the time to make general chit chat with every single male in Uidapur! As a result I have had many men drive passed me today on scooters today shouting "Miss Cape Town!" Indeed!!

Anyway were was I?.....oh yeh....I decided to escape to a beautiful roof top cafe for a lunch when I was approached by what can only be described as Udaipurs version of Rhett Butler, with long hair! Good looking, charming, well spoken and an artist that owned the shop downstairs. We chatted briefly about the school he supports with his art (aaahhhh) his love of different religions (bless) and his great respect for foreign women that shamefully get hassled left right and centred in his beautiful city! He told me to stop off at his shop down stairs on my way out. Which I no doubt did, drank a couple of chai's with him while he painted this truly amazing miniature picture of an elephant on my finger nail.


( He said it was for protection! )After a while I said that I needed to leave as I had a massive headache ( I'm tempted to blame that blasted hooter but those that know me well, will see through my blatant lie!) He offered to take me me for a head massage at his friends place. I thought we would walk there but soon discovered I was going to be getting on a long haired strangers motorbike. (I probably should have said no, but it all happened so fast mum.) Next thing I know I am whizzing passed my hotel: with hotel owner sitting outside, who only 40 minutes before had warned me: "Many men make rides with foreign women, no riding with men" What could I do but smile an wave.

So was mildly panicked and yet also pretty certain he was a decent guy.....I like to think I have a good sense of people. Low and behold he took my to his friends barber shop were I was given the most amazing 'free' head massage. Back on the bike and dropped off at my hotel all in one piece. I have to admit the driving bit was probably more scary than anything else. As Raju put it: "In India you only need 3 things while driving: Good luck, good horn and good break!" (Dad I thought you would enjoy that!)

So arriving safe and sound at my hotel lovely Raju, said he "couldn't bare to be apart from me" (his words honestly) and that I had to have dinner with him. I said probably not as would have to see how my headache was. To which his reply was "Whisky cures all headaches" Yep not exactly what I had in mind so said no I would see him tomorrow. ( said he would take me to his school and also a local ashram that he knows)

Needless to say I woke up this morning with very mixed feelings about my new friend Raju. Wondering to myself, how do you truly know when you can trust someone, especially when traveling is all about meeting different people and experiencing new experiences? I decided to hold off visiting him and set off to do a little exploring by myself! Udaipur is truly beautiful, it is made up of loads of tiny one way streets coming off one square shaped main road. There are endless amounts of shops selling, bags, clothes, handmade leather bound books, perfumes, trinkets...you name it Udaipur has it. If I was going to buy you all presents this is were i would buy them....dam not coming home for 5months! What a shame! :-)

I ended up eating at a really lovely cafe called Maxim, and on my way out I started to chat to the really friendly owner called Raj (seems to be a good name for me) We hit it off immediately and I got loads of tips about were to go and were not to go. I wanted to go to a place called Mount Abu, which raj informed me is the place where lovers normally go. He mentioned that he might be going to a place called Sukar tomorrow on business and that he would drop me off for the day if I wanted and then bring me back. I also met his Business partner a lovely calm man called Yogi, who I chatted to for ages about his family and jewelry business! I remembered walking out there thinking I would trust both of those men in a heart beat, so maybe knowing when to trust is simply down to your gut. After I had spent pretty much most of the day walking around the city chatting to different people and ignoring all the boys, I decided to go and see how things were with lover-boy Raju. At first he was clearly annoyed that I hadn't come earlier, or the night before! We went upstairs to have some Chai and he almost seemed to be sulking. When I commented on this I was informed that he was busy making plans for our day together tomorrow. He was taking me in the car to Mount Abu! Enough said! Decided to follow my gut and say my goodbyes!

Now as any girl will well know after a particularly turbulent break up, the only recourse is to go shopping! And this is unfortunately what I did. I defended my actions with the excuse that I am in India and therefore need to look like the seasoned traveler that I am, so bought 3 pairs of tie stringy pants (am a sucker for punishment) that were all tailored for me, and 2 tops. Now I know as a budget traveler I don't really have the luxury of buying clothes....but in total I spent 16 pounds...which in the big scheme of things isn't really a lot of money! (oh and that included the very cool ethnic bag I bought, after carelessly putting my old bag down in what can only be described as urine... it stunk like hell for 3 hours!!! (a new one was definitely a necessity, wouldn't you say Midget?:-)

And so ends my magical day. Made loads of new friends including on old man called Hanif who has hundreds of photo's of him with different travelers and postcards that have been sent to him from all over the world. (and yes I had to LOOK at ALL of them). Have discovered that I now speak like a local Indian leaving out half my words so as to be understood better!
Finally stopped off at Raj and Yogis, drank more tea, gave them a really good laugh when I told them where Raju was planning on taking me. Raj is now not going to Sukar anymore...but has told me where/and how to get there on local bus tomorrow. And Yogi says he will take me to his little boys school the day after tomorrow, so all sorted!

I truly love been a lone traveler!!!:-)