I've moved on from Upaipur. It happened very suddenly.
After all that I had experienced and learned from that place a few days earlier I had found myself quite upset, crying at Bubbel's side at the prospect of leaving. I knew that it was inevitable but I couldn't imagine how or when it would happen nor did I know where I would go. I was becoming aware over the past few days that the energy that I had found so incredibly inspiring was changing. It was about to change even more since my travel buddies Inga and Jacek (now including a Finnish fellow called Joonas that joined our little guesthouse utopia) were leaving for a beach area called Diu, not a place I was particularly interested in going. I was also not available to leave with them because I had ordered some clothes from a tailor and they were not going to be ready before the departure time. Or so I thought.
Two mornings ago I was up on the rooftop as always with my diary. No one was there except me and a couple of the staff cleaning up from the evening before, this was my routine every morning since we arrived there almost 4 weeks ago. I was looking blankly at my diary, for the first time in a long time I had nothing on my mind so I wrote "Today I have nothing to write". A little later in the morning I was sitting with a couple of fellow tourists from Croatia and the US just relaxing and all of a sudden the wind picked. I gave a solemn look in the direction and like a desperado said "the wind is coming from the South-West". My companions thought it was rather funny. Just after 11am I got a call from the tailor that I had to come in for a fitting. I go on to the tailor. To my amazement everything was perfect, except for a button placement on a jacket and a very small adjustment to the pants everything was done... I looked at the time... 11:30am... my friends were leaving around 2pm... I searched my mind quickly to assess what I needed to do if I were to leave. Time to run.
I went down to another shop where I was getting a backing installed to change a blanket into a duvet cover. I asked to get it back even though I was only suppose to pick it up at 5pm. It was 90% completed, they had run out of material... no problem, this can be done in Canada. They packed it up and off I went, done. It's just about 12pm, I call my friends and tell them I'm going with them, they were shocked. I stopped at a shop where I owed the guy 60 roupies for earrings, the shop was closed but the neighbor came over and knew I owed the money... no problem, he would give it to him, done. I get to the guesthouse around 12:15pm and tell Bubbel to see if he can get me on their bus... not an easy thing to do 2 hours before it leaves but I have faith. I went to pack, 30min later, done. I picked up all my purchases of Udaipur and off I went to get them shipped.
I get to the tailor with my stuff and check in to make sure that it's all still doable. With one of the boys from the tailor we bring everything to the shipper. Everything listed, weighed, packed and tracked... done. I go back to the tailor to pay for the clothes and the shipping, done. I say my goodbyes to the tailor, to the shop keeper who had sold me some pashminas, to the shop keeper where I would stop every other day for fresh juice, to the dogs that I said hello to everyday.... done. I get back to the guesthouse, it's 1:30pm. Bubbel paid an extra 50 roupies to travel agent to have a passenger change buses so I could get my spot on the bus with my friends, done... to everyone's amazement it was all arranged in perfect order. Considering that most plans here are subject to what is known as "Indian Time" or in western terms 3 to 4 times the amount of time things usually should take, it was a true Indian miracle!
I had 30 minutes to sit at the Island Tower with my friends and Bubbel before I left. I sat there sad but knowing that it right to leave right then and it could not have happened any other way. My time there was done and the sudden wind called me to leave, I was South-West bound.
After an overnight bus ride so bumpy that I can hardly move my neck at the moment I'm now in Diu, an old Portuguese colony with some similarities to Goa except that the tourist here are mostly Indian. Since the state surrounding this area is dry the Indian tourists (with consist of mostly Indian men) come to the beach areas for the cheap available alcohol, and as we have already unfortunately experienced, this can be a real annoyance for foreign women on the beaches since they have some really distorted ideas about us. Fortunately we are 2 women and 2 men travelling together, it's the best situation to deal with this. After surviving the festival of Holi (an experience that I have not shared yet) I'm also not very shy about telling Indian men where to go or even pushing/slapping/hitting/kicking them if they cross the line.... as crazy and unfathomable as that sounds imagine a bunch of 12 year/olds boys in a playground.... that is how India is sometimes.
That being said it is so beautiful here, super clean (very much like Goa) and very quiet within the town... we don't quite feel in India anymore. We are staying in a big old church that has been converted in part to a museum and in part to a guesthouse, it's amazing! Udaipur is a hard place to follow but it's not bad at all :)
After all that I had experienced and learned from that place a few days earlier I had found myself quite upset, crying at Bubbel's side at the prospect of leaving. I knew that it was inevitable but I couldn't imagine how or when it would happen nor did I know where I would go. I was becoming aware over the past few days that the energy that I had found so incredibly inspiring was changing. It was about to change even more since my travel buddies Inga and Jacek (now including a Finnish fellow called Joonas that joined our little guesthouse utopia) were leaving for a beach area called Diu, not a place I was particularly interested in going. I was also not available to leave with them because I had ordered some clothes from a tailor and they were not going to be ready before the departure time. Or so I thought.
Two mornings ago I was up on the rooftop as always with my diary. No one was there except me and a couple of the staff cleaning up from the evening before, this was my routine every morning since we arrived there almost 4 weeks ago. I was looking blankly at my diary, for the first time in a long time I had nothing on my mind so I wrote "Today I have nothing to write". A little later in the morning I was sitting with a couple of fellow tourists from Croatia and the US just relaxing and all of a sudden the wind picked. I gave a solemn look in the direction and like a desperado said "the wind is coming from the South-West". My companions thought it was rather funny. Just after 11am I got a call from the tailor that I had to come in for a fitting. I go on to the tailor. To my amazement everything was perfect, except for a button placement on a jacket and a very small adjustment to the pants everything was done... I looked at the time... 11:30am... my friends were leaving around 2pm... I searched my mind quickly to assess what I needed to do if I were to leave. Time to run.
I went down to another shop where I was getting a backing installed to change a blanket into a duvet cover. I asked to get it back even though I was only suppose to pick it up at 5pm. It was 90% completed, they had run out of material... no problem, this can be done in Canada. They packed it up and off I went, done. It's just about 12pm, I call my friends and tell them I'm going with them, they were shocked. I stopped at a shop where I owed the guy 60 roupies for earrings, the shop was closed but the neighbor came over and knew I owed the money... no problem, he would give it to him, done. I get to the guesthouse around 12:15pm and tell Bubbel to see if he can get me on their bus... not an easy thing to do 2 hours before it leaves but I have faith. I went to pack, 30min later, done. I picked up all my purchases of Udaipur and off I went to get them shipped.
I get to the tailor with my stuff and check in to make sure that it's all still doable. With one of the boys from the tailor we bring everything to the shipper. Everything listed, weighed, packed and tracked... done. I go back to the tailor to pay for the clothes and the shipping, done. I say my goodbyes to the tailor, to the shop keeper who had sold me some pashminas, to the shop keeper where I would stop every other day for fresh juice, to the dogs that I said hello to everyday.... done. I get back to the guesthouse, it's 1:30pm. Bubbel paid an extra 50 roupies to travel agent to have a passenger change buses so I could get my spot on the bus with my friends, done... to everyone's amazement it was all arranged in perfect order. Considering that most plans here are subject to what is known as "Indian Time" or in western terms 3 to 4 times the amount of time things usually should take, it was a true Indian miracle!
I had 30 minutes to sit at the Island Tower with my friends and Bubbel before I left. I sat there sad but knowing that it right to leave right then and it could not have happened any other way. My time there was done and the sudden wind called me to leave, I was South-West bound.
After an overnight bus ride so bumpy that I can hardly move my neck at the moment I'm now in Diu, an old Portuguese colony with some similarities to Goa except that the tourist here are mostly Indian. Since the state surrounding this area is dry the Indian tourists (with consist of mostly Indian men) come to the beach areas for the cheap available alcohol, and as we have already unfortunately experienced, this can be a real annoyance for foreign women on the beaches since they have some really distorted ideas about us. Fortunately we are 2 women and 2 men travelling together, it's the best situation to deal with this. After surviving the festival of Holi (an experience that I have not shared yet) I'm also not very shy about telling Indian men where to go or even pushing/slapping/hitting/kicking them if they cross the line.... as crazy and unfathomable as that sounds imagine a bunch of 12 year/olds boys in a playground.... that is how India is sometimes.
That being said it is so beautiful here, super clean (very much like Goa) and very quiet within the town... we don't quite feel in India anymore. We are staying in a big old church that has been converted in part to a museum and in part to a guesthouse, it's amazing! Udaipur is a hard place to follow but it's not bad at all :)
Annie: I love your writing, it really feels like a book is coming out of this :) and of course I will buy it ;PPP
ReplyDeleteLove you and miss you,
Stay well my buddy :)
Cheryl