Octopussy

To spare some of you I kept my political ranting off of the blog, I think everyone knows how Natalie and I feel, and if I got into it here it wouldn’t be pretty. So I won’t.

If you would like a to get a good idea of where we are now rent the James Bond movie Octopussy. It takes place in the town we are in now, Udaipur, and was mostly filmed here. If you watch it, you will notice a beautiful lake, but that dried up two years ago. The lake palace is still there, but now you can walk instead of taking a boat.

A lot has happened since I last posted, so here is a quick run down.

Wrapping up our tour of the state of Rajasthan. Our favorite town was Jaisalmer (with Udaipur soon to overtake it). From Jaisalmer we took a two day camel safari into the desert. It was the highlight of the trip. Our guide was a crazy self proclaimed "Desert Man." Out there everything had desert in it's name. For meals they would set up their "desert restaurant" and make us food, and at night they sung us a combination of "desert songs," bollywood hits, and one fantastic piece by the one and only "Desert Man!" The guy was multi talented. His camel's name was Rocket and he would sing to him "Rrrrrroooocket! My Jonnie Walker Rrrrroooooooocket!" I could have hung out in that sand for days.

In a few days we are headed to Bombay. It is supposed to be one of the coolest of the cities here, and the most expensive. We will be there for Devali, the biggest Hindu festival of the year and it is said that Bombay is the best place to be for it (and even more expensive than usual.)

Since I brought it up, let me define expensive. Here are some average prices, anything higher than this is expensive:

double room with private bath: $4.40 - $5.50
meal for two: $2.20 - $4.40
rickshaw ride: $.20 - $1.50
a coke (300ml): $.30
pack of cigs (indian brands): $.50
pack of beedies: $.08
bottle of beer (indian brands)(650ml, almost the size of a wine bottle is the only size): $2.00 bottle of whisky (indian brands): $4.50 - up
someone to wipe your bottom for you, priceless. just kidding, haven't asked what the going rate is, but i bet it's about a buck.

And last but not least, I posted more photos and I will try to put more up soon at this link:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/marcandnatalie/album?.dir=/743b&.src=ph&.tok=phkYMACBnwlZ48bn

Comments on photos:
1. Natalie having her ears cleaned by a guy off the street while hiding from the police behind some cars.
2. Me on camel.
3. Rocket snacking before dinner
4. & 5. I think you can figure these out.