Hot Times

We turned travel soft and bought some plane tickets. After Hampi we knew we wanted to get up north as quickly as possible, but the state of Rajasthan was a 2 day train ride away and all the tickets were booked out anyways. After a quick look on the internet we discovered that one of the many of the cheap airlines in India had decently priced tickets to Udaipur(still way more than it would have cost to get there by train) and we decided to jump on it. In our fit of ticket buying we also purchased flights back from Nepal to catch our next RTW flight to Thailand at the end of July. No long days of train/bus riding for these legs of the trip and I was extremely happy about this!

After 2 quick flights we arrived in Udaipur and found the famed city side lake to be dry. The normally picturesque island containing the Palace Hotel (made famous in the Bond flick 'Octopussy') was no more than a hill in a cow pasture. None the less we found the city to be relatively charming and relaxed as we toured the centuries old palace of the Raja's (old colonial state governors) and spent a couple nights in a top floor room over looking the dry lake bed.

We continued our trend of avoiding the train tracks and headed out of town on our first Indian bus. Overnight Indian buses are different than anything we have seen yet. They actually have full sized beds for two on the second level above the normal chair seating. Unfortunately you could not sit straight up in the double bed, so we spent 16 hours (supposed to be 12) laying down. We headed to Agra where we arrived to heat like neither of us have ever experienced. Highs of 48 degrees C...that is over 115 degrees F! and no aircon in the guest houses

After touring a couple guest houses we settled on a roof top room with a circular bed and a toilet view of the Taj Mahal (Agra guest houses are kind of odd). We awoke early the next morning to catch the Taj at sunrise. We were some of the first visitors to enter and found the setting to be magical as the morning’s first rays cascaded off of the white marble. I was pretty much gasping with a huge grin the whole time and Chad stated he was even more impressed viewing the Taj for his second time. On our way out of Agra a shifty train ticket seller sold us 2nd class seats (although we had requested 1st class) telling us that we must upgrade on the train. Well the day arrived and 1st class was full so we spent a day long train ride in 2nd class sharing our seat with others who had not bought tickets, sweating and watching babies without diapers pee on the floor. After 140 days of traveling we are appreciating life on the road more and more, but India is definitely starting to wear on us and our thoughts are turning towards upcoming countries.