22nd jan

arrived in Udaipur early in the monring, half asleep. got to a hotel...discovered this place is freeeezing cold...like 10 degrees...and we are in our mumbai clothes (where its 28 degrees). brrrr. showered (yes hot water but ummm...no cold?) and then passed out shivering in bed under 5 blankets.
so once we surfaced we headed to the lake to see this palace some rich bugger built like 500 years ago...its takes up a whole island on the lake. all very nice, but lots of touts and more tourists than we'd seen in mumbai. in the lil town, there were ghats...basically steps leading down to the water where people do their bathing and the woman do their washing...they do use soap but tend to whack the crap out of their clothes with these big paddles. cool to see, like something out of a documentary. so wandered around the town, avoiding the cows and their poo, the tuktuks, the scooters, the donkeys and just so many people.
very proud of myself, we went to the train station (again) to buy our next sleeping train ticket to Jaipur. no tourist queue here so filled out my form (they love forms in India)all by myself and all correct with train details and got our tickets no probs! another top bunk but know what to expect this time at least! walked back along the road past s a very very poor family, dirty children, so sad. they obvisouly lived on the side of the road. The young kids had a go at begging from us, but when the realised they weren't gonna get anything just wanted to shake our hands which I did and had to shake all of them, even the little toddler. dirty but lovely smiling faces and they were so excited about it. most kids just want to say hi or have a photo or shake your hand, most of them don't want anything else from you.
chilled out in the warm sun on the big communial balcony and enjoyed a nice chai (tea) as the sun set.