octopussy

I've spent the last few days in udaipur. the most beautiful place i've ever been, period. to think i almost skipped it. the city surrounds lake pichola and, around the city mountains, temples... in the middle of the lake is a palace. once used my the king of this area, now a very expensive hotel. many scenes from the film octopussy starring the infintely inadequate roger moore were filmed on the lake and around the palace.





several of the lakeside hotels screen the film nightly though my viewing attempt was interupted by a broken VCR. the place is the most beautiful i've seen in India. there are these little birds that fly around in packs over the lake, like airbourne schools of fish flying together. the sunsets, insane.





the crazy thing about the lake is that until 2 weeks ago it had been completely dried up on account of drought. it's really difficult to imagine this palace sitting in the middle of a dried up lakebed. the whole city is ecstatic because this huge deluge came in and refilled it in two days. so strange. all the kids are going crazy swimming and all the women are catching up on their laundry.



i've been laying pretty low here reading and swimming. i didn't really meet anyone here, though i did run into an art director from paris named philip. I knew he was in india but bumping into him on a small street near my hotel. well, a very small world indeed. I did make friends with the guy who owns my local internet cafe named bhupendra. he's helped me book onward travel to goa. he also invited me to his family's home for dinner last night. it was such a cool experience. his father is a cop here in udaipur. he works 7 days a week 8 hours a day. he looked really tired. his mother a housewife, as most women are here. the house was modest but, quite nice with a large open air section.



a lot of people here sleep on these cots outside. it's much cooler. i've been trying to work that out. it seems it would be great. bhupsa's mom has a pet parrot that speaks hindi. it's crazy. also this year i met a myna bird in china that spoke chinese. smart birds. so, the meal was great. dal, a kind of bean soup, rice, bread, this really spicy okra thing, and an amazing rice pudding. conversation was difficult. i was under the impression many indians spoke english as a second language, not so. even my friend bhupsa's english is patchy. they had many questions for me. one of the biggest points of discussion is always why i'm not married and they're always surprised i'm travelling alone. bhupsa's father asked me if i would like indian woman. why not i say, he'll get back to me. americans seem quite rare here as well.



indian people like america and americans for the most part but, of course always mention their disapproval of bush and, like the rest of the planet, can't understand why he was re-elected. they dislike him primarily for his support of pakistan. i guess we've been selling them weapons or something whick pisses these guys off. anyway the dinner was great and, being such a curiosity is mostly entertaining. it does get tiring at times saying hello to some 40-50 people a day. mostly kids. i also hear constantly, what country sir? depending on my mood i say canada, england or, the galapagos islands, rarely u.s.a. It's funny how quickly you can become aclimated to such a foreign place. i feel quite comfortable here now. noting like my first email right? i had a great haircut experience yesterday. i think the best haircut i've ever had. i have did a little video of it. he only charged me a dollar fifty. hell, i gave the guy 4 bucks. today i'm leaving udaipur for goa. it's going to take 2 days to get there but, i've heard some rave reviews from other travelers. i"ll be on a bus to mumbai for 12 hours, then a train to goa for another 12. i'll start my fourth book now about this welsh drug smuggler named howard marks, i recently learned from the dylan thomas biography, dylan is an ancient welsh word that means sea.

dylan