I think that Antoine is afraid of my driving. I drove the second half of our journey to Udaipur this morning and once we got off the highway and into the city, he kept telling me that I was too close to the left side of the road. After all, I did graze a motorcycle. However, when Antoine drives, he drives in the middle of the road, as if he is the only driver in the whole of India.
We decided to pick a 5-star hotel for our two-night stay in Udaipur, a Radisson Resort. We paid as much as we would any for a crappy hostel in Europe.
We dropped our stuff off in our room and went out into the town to explore. The first thing we did was Antoine dropped me off at one bridge and drove to a parallel bridge for a picture. Then I got a nice henna and Antoine gave money to a legless beggar on the side of the road. We got a late lunch at a rooftop restaurant and took a bunch of nice pictures, it was 3 pm so there was no one else up there. After lunch, we walked around the stores and bought some key chains and checked out the stuff we could buy in Camden Market for 4 times the price.
We drive around again and stop in front of a museum, a young man talks to us and tells us that he’s a painter and he wants to show us his school of painting. For some reason, we follow him and he leads to a shop with hand paintings of detailed animals and scenery. His teacher was the one selling the artwork. We bought three.
Afterward, we find a market that sells a bunch of clothes, we bought two wall tapestries and an elephant skirt. We need to stop spending money.
We go back to where the museum is and watch a nightly show of traditional dances, it was amazing. There was dancing, puppet shows, and a battle between gods. The last performance was of a lady who can dance and balance 8 jugs on her head. At the show, we met another American from New York. He’s a nomad who’s been in India for four months. He added us on Instagram, turns out he was a male model and has been in a few magazines. He sold all his belongings to travel through east Asia.
In about three days we will reach our finish line, every day feels so long, but now it seems like it’s all gone too fast. Still, it’s not over yet.
-Jamie