Mike's 2009/2010 world tour: Jaipur, Udaipur, Bombay, and Goa

I don't want to sound like a megalomaniac, but if anyone happened to be looking closely at any pics of me, you may have noticed an increasingly shaggy appearance. It had been well over 100 days since my last hair cut (129 to be exact). I finally broke down and got a hair cut - and I lost by beard to a straight blade at the same time. I tell you - there's no feeling like allowing a total stranger to hold a razor to your throat.

before...

and after...

After Agra and the Taj Mahal we breezed through Jaipur. Although not high on the list for most tourists we did go, and I think the best part of it was its ancient observatory, “Jantar Mantar”. It looks more like an architectural playground than an observatory, but when you think about it, that fact shouldn't be too surprising. Hundreds of years ago there were no small instruments like telescopes, astrolabes, etc. The best most civilizations could manage was a sun dial. But here in India, they had built devices to calculate the dates for eclipses, zodiac astrology (one large device for each of the 12 signs), and other strange looking things, like the hollowed out inside of a sphere with all manner of paths inscribed inside it which describe the paths of many stars across the night sky.

The highlight of the observatory was their sun dial. But not just any ordinary sun dial – this one is accurate to within + - two seconds! Wow – that's impressive. How can they get it so accurate? It comes down to size. This monster is 27 meters high! The shadow it casts moves along its dial at four meters per hour. That's the secret to its accuracy.

Jaipur had some of the usual sights (temples, palaces, etc), but it had one surprise for us: rain – something we hadn't seen since the beginning of August – over 100 days ago, and we sure didn't mind the drop in temperature.

We boarded another night train, and headed a little further south to the very quaint little town Udaipur, famous for its “floating palace”. Of course the palace doesn't actually float – it's built on an island in the lake, but the palace takes up 100% of the island, so it looks like the palace is just floating out there.

It's a sight good enough to attract many tourists – and James Bond as well. This was the location where Bond's “Octopussy” film was made. Our guest house here shows the film every day at 7:30 at its outdoor rooftop restaurant, so we had to watch after having just visited the sights.

In Jaipur we bought train tickets to our next stop. Fortunately, along with the “special” foreigner prices we get to pay, we sometimes get a little better service, such as this special ticket window at the train station. And it looks like Freedom Fighters get this same special treatment...

And then we were in the very quaint little town of Udaipur...

Our method of transport while in most towns is by little three wheeled rickshaws...

One of the fun things we did in Udaipur was go on a horse ride through the countryside.

And then we were off to India's largest city, and unofficial capital, Mumbai (Bombay)...

and we witnessed a bit of India's favorite game – one of the lasting influences from the British colonial days.

We were in Bombay almost exactly one year after the terrorist attacks that held the country in chaos for three days last November. A favorite place where foreigners still congregate is Leopold's bar – just down the road from our hotel. The front window still shows its bullet holes from those attacks – and the owners refuse to replace it so it can bear stubborn witness to the violence they suffered from those gunmen.

By this time we had been in India for about three weeks, and I was pleased that my digestive system was still functioning normally, but that lucky streak came to an abrupt end in Bombay. I got it bad, and spent almost two days holed up in a hotel room. Ugh.

And then we were off to Goa – small towns, beaches, relaxing, and reading.

We had a bit of a reunion with a British couple we'd met in Amritsar, and spent some time with them. We also spent a few days in northern Goa and attended a bit of the International Film Festival of India...