Jaisalmer

hello from Jaisalmer. i got back this evening from a 2 day 1 night camel safari. it was tons of fun but very touristy indeed!
i met 2 girls from Holland and 3 boys from France on the bus from Udaipur to here and we all ended up going to the same hotel together and signing up for the camel safari. despite our tour being overpriced i decided it was better to go with people that i already knew were nice. we had 5 guides for the 6 of us. we all got our own camels. mine was really slow so i was always at the end and behind other camels. they fart a lot so it was unpleasant at times.
the "mineral" water that they promised us tasted like dirt so i was glad i had brought my water bottle with a filter. it made the water taste so much better. we also had some pretty shitty food. we slept under the stars in the middle of a sand dune. it was pretty cool. the 5 of them all left today for Jodpur but i decided to stay since this city is really beautiful and has lots of musueums and temples to visit. i treated myself to a really good dinner and just went for an Aryuvedic oil massage. you wouldn't believe how freakin sore i am! riding a camel is similar to a riding a horse and i haven't used those muscles in ages. my whole body aches. i'm going to sleep good tonight.

puppets!

ive fallen in love with the puppets here. i went to a folk and puppet museum and saw a puppet show this afternoon. the puppeteer took a liking to me and let me behind the stage to play with his puppets. it was pretty fun and very inspiring. i ended up buying myself a wooden puppet this afternoon at one of the shops. i can go back to the store any time and get puppet dancing lessons.
ive also bought myself a pair of camel leather shoes that are extremely nice for $6.
I've also met a guy that does painting on pieces of cotton. i ended up buying some of his cards and a bigger piece. he says it takes three years to learn the artform. i can go watch him paint whenever also. he also speaks really good French. he travelled with a French-Canadian around India for a year. i'm very impressed.
i've decided i'll be leaving in a few days to go to Jaisalmer for the camel trek. if i don't leave soon i'll run out of time to get there and back.

Udaipur is lovely!

hello! ive made it to a nice city (finally!). unfortunately ive been in bed or the washroom most of the time that ive been here. seem to have got some food poisoning or something in Vadodara before i left. it has not been fun i tell you. my first day here i ventured out for a total of 2 hours. the place i'm staying at is a guest house and the whole extended family lives there too. the wife and the 2 daugthers took me to see a parade. it was pretty cool but so crowded. I saw an elephant!
the next day i ventured out for a max of 3.5 hours. i went to see a traditional indian dance performance in the evening. very cool. in one dance, this woman balanced 9 jugs that are used for carrying water on her head! in morning i had found a german bakery or so it said. it was run by Indians and my apple crumble (that i barfed up later) was soggy from the humidity. i also saw a marriage proposal. a guy dressed up, on a horse going through the town with music and a parade. how embarrasing!
oh yeah! Udaipur has been in a drought for the last 4 years. no monsoon here! which is good for me, bad for them.
today i went to the city palace (the palace on the lake) but there is no lake right now. it was very cool. it took forever to go through the entire thing. the whole time i was worried about where the washrooms might be located. it took away from the experience a bit. i met an american and a irish guy in the cafe this morning while forcing down breakfast. i chatted with them for a bit. its nice having conversations with people that arent trying to sell you somehting.
ok next message from me should be filled with more excitement as my appetite is returning and I have plans to go visit more palaces and do a horse trek in the countryside.