The last week and a half has seen many adventures, revealing to us the true India!
We had a near scare last weekend when in a rush to see the light and sound show at City Palace, the main palace in Udaipur, I left my purse at a restaurant in which we had just had dinner! Sarah and I then ran the kilometre back to retrieve my money, which thankfully was all there! We made it in time for the light show too! With 10 mins to go, it starts to rain. And by raining, i mean pouring. We were soaked within seconds and ran down to the covered area to watch the rest of the show. Skip ahead again and we needed to catch a private rickshaw to Bedla, the suburb we are in. It's still raining pretty heavily but Lauren, Sarah and I start walking towards the city centre, hoping we'll see one along the way. Finally we find one that offers a reasonable price (nothing is fixed price around this area) and hop in. Our driver then proceeds to nearly run over two girls, nearly crash into a motorcycle, try make us pay for petrol, has an arguement with the petrol-man about how much he has paid and finally tries to drop us off at the edge of the suburb, not near where we live. Finally, we got home, after paying him a little bit extra to take us that little bit further.
Sunday also presented a bit of drama. We went to The Whispering Teal for dinner, a nice ambient place that has both Indian and Western food. On the way home, we encountered two weddings (very cool!) and some heavy rain, doubling the time it took. When we did get home, we discovered a window had broken upstairs, meaning the top level had started to flood and dripped down to the other two levels. The terrace on level two also had a substantial amount of water on it. We had also lost all power. So what do four Australians do at 10pm, with no power and lots of water? A water fight of course! needless to say, we were drenched by the end. But lots of fun.
In terms of the rest of the week, Tuesday was the other highlight. There was a festival on for Lord Vishnu so we got the day off school for kite flying. There were heaps of kites about and the aim of the game was to cut the string of another person's kite using your own. Whoever retrieves the fallen kite first gets to keep it.
It was heaps of fun and definitely worth it.
This week has seen a lot more rain, as monsoon officially started on Thursday. Each night it has been pouring, and slowly the lakes are filling up. However, lots of rain means lots of power outages, frustrating when you're living in 38 degree heat with no fans.
On Monday, we had our last cooking class - we learnt how to make semolina! It's deliciously sweet and really easy to make. All in all, we have learnt to make chai, chappati, garlic naan, stuffed parantha, chickpeas and samosas. Monday also saw the arrival of three new volunteers from America - Allie, Ariana and Emily. They are all college students from Washington State and are truly lovely. It also happened to be Claire's (The British 2-weeker) last night, so we went to Happinezz, the greatest icecream parlour ever to celebrate the girls' arrival and her departure.
This week, we've shopped up a storm, checking out the local produce. On Thursday, we ventured into town and got some (more) genie pants. But the most exciting part - We got saris yesterday! We all got 2 each, in beautiful colours - pink, green, blue and fuschia. They are gorgeous! On Tuesday, we are going to the tailor to get our blouses made, so cool. We also went a little crazy in the bangle shop. I got 72 different bangles for just under $6 Australian. It was amazing. I now have blue, red, gold, purple, green and pink bangles.
Sunday presented a new adventure. We decided to frequent the rather famous City Palace that afternoon, to see it in daylight. We managed to fit 5 people in a 2 person rickshaw, with Sarah sitting crosslegged on top of Shelby and my legs out the side (a dangerous concept considering how close everyone gets, I nearly got hit by a cow)
When there, we took the services of a guide who showed us around, showering us with information, of which I remember little. It was interesting at the time though! We did get mobbed a few times by older people who heard we were from Australia - they get very excited! Our guide was so cool. Afterwards, he took us down these old alleyways to a little place for chai - his shout! We had a look around that area, and found some cool postcards and leather journals. At that point, it started to rain. Pour. Within 5 mins, the street was flooded and looked more like a river. Having no option but to catch a rickshaw, we flagged one down and stepped into the river/street, already soaked. The water was knee deep. Finally arrving at our destination, and even more wet, we hopped out and saw that some Indian guys were playing soccer in the rain by the lake. So the only thing we could do was join them! We played soccer for a good half hour, enjoying the pelting rain. Afterwards, we ran from restaurant to restaurant, trying to find a place that was open! Finally, the French bakery let us in and we tried to dry off (unsuccessfully). It was a good feed, with both Western and Indian food, though interestingly, no French food. Finally, the end of our adventure culminated in a private rickshaw ride back in which the puddles were so deep we got splashed everytime. All in all, a wet, but awesome Sunday night.
Today, there is a strike because of prices rising across the board. India is not open for 12 hours. School was therefore cancelled so we decided to have a cricket match with the locals. It started to sprinkle again but no fear! We played anyways.
India has started to reveal its true self to us and we love it!
Stay tuned :)
Emily
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