Udaipur to Pushkar, India

Laid-back Udaipur...all I did was walk around, take pictures, talk to people. I think it is funny that I only had to walk about 5 minutes away from the tourist area to be completely immersed in the local market, local people, no more signs in English, no more massage shops or internet rooms, and no other foreigners. This is way more fun and while I usually stay in the touristy district because of the choice of hotels and guesthouses, I am quick to step out of the hubbub of shopping and incessant badgering by touts and local travel agencies. I had fun photographing three girls on one of my walks and then took them to a little toy shop down the street to pick out some dolls- nothing fancy, just these cute plastic dolls that only cost about 20 rupees each, 50 rupees is roughly one US dollar. They were excited, but it created a little stir with some other kids down the street, so I had to bail quickly before having to buy the whole store for all of the kids that were all the sudden coming out of nowhere. One of the nights in Udaipur, I had a very yummy dinner at one of the many rooftop restaurants in town- I think I had chicken briyani, a rice dish- and the owner of the hotel/restaurant sat with me and told me all sorts of stories. He was so friendly and fun to talk to, I actually went back the next night for delicious chiken tikka, nan, and a banana lassi, a yogurt based drink. Rahil sat with me again and during our after-dinner chai, he read my palm, which he said is just a hobby. He wrote down my full name, date of birth and then after inspecting my palm and jotting down some numbers, making a grid, and doing a little math he came up with: 2007 was a memorable year for me, not necessarily in a positive light; I have 2 brothers(!); I have willpower, but can lack confidence; I am very guilty of unnecessary thinking- too much analyzing; I need to wear some kind of pearl, like a pearl pendant to "cool" my mind; I need to take a job abroad should the opportunity present itself; my calling is to work with people in some way, he said with handicapped or disadvantaged people (never told him my degree); I need to take what people say less with my heart and mind and just more with my ears; and lastly, my "diamond" years will be from 2012-2024. And all I could think was, "crap, just my luck, isn't the world supposed to end in 2012?"
Yesterday, Rahil spent the whole day with me getting a phone that will work in India, and he saved me soooooo much money compared to if I had gone to one of the tourist shops. While we were waiting for the phone guy to unlock my mobile and get the SIM card to work, Rahil took me on a little tour of the city on his motorcycle- up to a palace on a mountain and then to a botanic garden next to a lake. Sometimes there are people who do these things because they want money, but sometimes there are people like Rahil who kind of adopt me and take me under their wing and it turns into an experience that I would only have when traveling alone, and that is why traveling alone can be so very rewarding. I had dinner back at his restaurant and I missed my 1pm bus because of the phone fiasco, so he just made a 10 second phone call to the "bus people" and switched my ticket to 10pm, with no extra charge even though I basically never even canceled the reservation beforehand. What a great couple of days. Although there are some guys here who are relentless, like the owner of the hotel where I was staying. He just did not want me to leave. He would just beg me to stay one, two more nights-then it was: "please, you don't go. stay forever."
And I'm like, "I have to see more of India..."
and he's like "but you are such a nice girl, I show you lake and temples tomorrow." "Aww, that sounds nice, but I already have a bus ticket to Pushkar."
Then he says, "No problem. I change ticket for you. No extra cost."
"No, really, I will come back to Udaipur someday and see you."
"And then you can be my girlfriend?"
"Uhhhhhhh."
"You can live here and get job. You work with Seattle couple that have animal hospital by the lake."
"Dogs and monkeys scare me."
"No problem. You learn to love."
And by the look on his face, I had to ask if we were still talking about dogs and monkeys. So, anyway, I was finally able to pry the bill out of his hand, pay the man for the nights I stayed and then got a taxi cab to the local bus station. I took a sleeper bus about 7 hours north to Ajmer, hopped in a rickshaw at 5am, took that to another bus stop, bought a ticket for 10 rupees to Pushkar about 11 km up the road and found a nice hotel early this morning. Those sleeper buses are awful- bumpy, bumpy ride. I ended up sleeping this morning in the hotel from about 6am to noon. Fortunately, I think I have hot water here. Last night I took a cold shower, no towel, the room was freezing, my hair was soaking wet- I finally wrapped myself in the wool blanket on the bed and sat there chattering for about a half hour. I did forget to mention how cool the weather has gotten since I started heading north from Bombay. The days are still warm, but at night I have been wearing a fleece and will probably have to pair my sandals with some wool socks here in Pushkar. Always a cute look. Also had to bust out the down seeping bag, which has me wondering how cold it will be way up in Nepal if it is already getting to be this chilly here. Good thing there are little tea shops everywhere to warm me up. And they are a great place to meet other travelers, like in Udaipur, it looked like this: A German, an American and three Israelis sitting in a hookah-pastry-tea cafe made of bamboo, listening to Hindi pop, talking about world travels and important things like whether a tangerine and mandarin orange taste the same, watching as a dog, a cow and a baby goat wander past the front door and then just as we all left the shop, left-over new year's fireworks started exploding right over the lake...ahhhh so nice.