So, now for the rest of the India trip. After Mumbai we went up to Udaipur, which is one of the tourist hotspots in Rajasthan. I had asked a few friends who lived or had traveled in India for recommendations, and the consensus was to visit Udaipur. This place is known as the city of lakes, because it has a lot of lakes. Very creative. This was more like the India I expected, much more chaotic and crazy, but still actually not so bad. And although it was super touristy and full of tourist shops, people were still super friendly. I did not feel like people were only helping me to get something out of me, or that people were trying to cheat me. So that was really wonderful.
We spent 3 days in this place, and I could have easily spent like 3 more. I woke up and did yoga every morning on the rooftop, looking down at the lake. And then we did day trips out of the town. We spent the morning of the first day touring the City Palace, which is exactly what it sounds like. It was super impressive and enormous and unlike any fort/palace I had seen, which I always enjoy. Plus we had great views of the lakes and city from it, and a really nice guy who was also super affordable and who we did not have to haggle with. Good start to the day! The second half of the day was spent going out to a place called Animal Aid, which takes in abandoned, inured animals and helps rehabilitate them. It was kind of heartbreaking, but also really great work that they're doing. And there's a million dogs, some of whom only have 2 legs, and they still can't help but drag themselves over to you and cuddle up against you for pets. It's the best. And then we went on to watch the sunset from this palace on a mountain, where my phone broke. That part was no fun. I actually just got it repaired last weekend, took like 3 weeks. Very annoying. But other than that, very good. And the next day we went out to this massive fort called Kumbhalgarh. It is an enormous palace on a mountain, with like 32km of walls around it, so they call it the Great Wall of India. It's one of the more famous hilltop fort/palaces in Rajasthan, and those are one of the highlights of Rajasthan. Plus this was my top thing to see after having done my homework. So we spent like 3 hours climbing all over it. It was super cool. But sadly we spent too long there, and our guides didn't tell us any better, so by the time we got to our next stop for the day, a really famous Jain temple called Ranakpur, we actually weren't allowed in. A couple of people in our group were really disappointed about it, especially cause we only missed it by like 5 minutes. It sucked that the guides didn't tell us anything. The temple is famous for stone carvings, and even from the outside it was impressive. So inside should have been amazing. But oh well.
So the best part of this was that both of our day tours were with awesome people. I rarely meet (or even talk to) people when I'm traveling, but we stayed in a hostel and ended up on these tours and the people were super cool and so we hung out together and had dinners and beers and stuff. And we were in a hostel in a backpackery kind of place, which I haven't done for a while. So it was really great. It was really invigorating to be sort of back out in the wild, rather than just wandering European cities, and meeting people who are out traveling and trying to see and experience new things. I wish I did that more. But I also like my comfort and hotels and generally hate people. It is a conundrum. This is why I need a good travel buddy. This never happens when I'm alone.
So yeah, we loved Udaipur. And then it was back to Mumbai to just hang out for one more day, where we did a slum tour. We had been recommended this tour by my friend Niki and some of her cousin's friends, and were concerned at first that it would be exploitative. But they ensured us it wasn't so we decided to try it out, and indeed it was not. It was really informative. First they took us to this outdoor laundry area, that was cool to see although we couldn't go in and explore or anything. But it's the largest outdoor laundry in the world and was still quite impressive. Plus it made a good pic for the Instagrams. And then it was on to the slum, where they took us walking through for about 2 hours, showing us how life is and how people live and what kind of work they do. It was super interesting, because it was not at all what I expected. It was just like another neighborhood. Granted, people live in small, cramped homes and probably do not have the best sanitation conditions, but it is not like they're living in a trash heap or a building that might as well be condemned. They just live normal lives. And they don't let you take photos, which is good from the exploitation angle, but bad from the Instagram angle. They do give you a link to download some professional photos afterwards, though. So yeah, it's super well done, and super informative, and I am very glad I did it. So if you find yourself in Mumbai (or Delhi) go take a slum tour with Reality Tours. That was pretty much it for India. Of course there was also tons of delicious food. We ate nothing but Indian food the entire time, and I did not get sick of it at all. I could have kept eating it for days. I also did not get sick from it. Julia had brought these pills that help your gut bacteria to strengthen your digestion, so maybe that's why. I think that's probably why, because Julia had to keep feeding them to me as I forgot to take them, and then she left 1 night before me and I, of course, didn't take them. And then I got sick on the flight back. That was not fun. Not a great way to end the trip, but a great trip and now I definitely want to go back to India. I used to really want to go, then I didn't want to for a long time, and now I really want to again. Lots to see there!
Then I came back and had a bit of new music catch up to do. And one of the things that I found turned out to be not so new. That thing was Boogarins, a Brazilian indie rock band. Their song Corredor Polones came onto a playlist of Latin bands that would be performing at Coachella, and I really liked it.
To me, this is the sound of latin indie rock. I'm sure there's plenty more sounds to such a big genre, but this is what I always think of. Anyway, so I really liked it and I went onto their Spotify to listen to the whole album, La Vem A Morte. And then I went and listened to their previous album, Manual. And when the first track came on (well, second track but first song after the intro) and I knew it. And it was really good. It was Avalanche. Which is, now that I've listened to their entire discography multiple times, probably still my favorite song by them. And I don't know why I heard this in the past and didn't feel the same way about it. Cause this song is awesome. So anyway, glad I found it now!
We spent 3 days in this place, and I could have easily spent like 3 more. I woke up and did yoga every morning on the rooftop, looking down at the lake. And then we did day trips out of the town. We spent the morning of the first day touring the City Palace, which is exactly what it sounds like. It was super impressive and enormous and unlike any fort/palace I had seen, which I always enjoy. Plus we had great views of the lakes and city from it, and a really nice guy who was also super affordable and who we did not have to haggle with. Good start to the day! The second half of the day was spent going out to a place called Animal Aid, which takes in abandoned, inured animals and helps rehabilitate them. It was kind of heartbreaking, but also really great work that they're doing. And there's a million dogs, some of whom only have 2 legs, and they still can't help but drag themselves over to you and cuddle up against you for pets. It's the best. And then we went on to watch the sunset from this palace on a mountain, where my phone broke. That part was no fun. I actually just got it repaired last weekend, took like 3 weeks. Very annoying. But other than that, very good. And the next day we went out to this massive fort called Kumbhalgarh. It is an enormous palace on a mountain, with like 32km of walls around it, so they call it the Great Wall of India. It's one of the more famous hilltop fort/palaces in Rajasthan, and those are one of the highlights of Rajasthan. Plus this was my top thing to see after having done my homework. So we spent like 3 hours climbing all over it. It was super cool. But sadly we spent too long there, and our guides didn't tell us any better, so by the time we got to our next stop for the day, a really famous Jain temple called Ranakpur, we actually weren't allowed in. A couple of people in our group were really disappointed about it, especially cause we only missed it by like 5 minutes. It sucked that the guides didn't tell us anything. The temple is famous for stone carvings, and even from the outside it was impressive. So inside should have been amazing. But oh well.
So the best part of this was that both of our day tours were with awesome people. I rarely meet (or even talk to) people when I'm traveling, but we stayed in a hostel and ended up on these tours and the people were super cool and so we hung out together and had dinners and beers and stuff. And we were in a hostel in a backpackery kind of place, which I haven't done for a while. So it was really great. It was really invigorating to be sort of back out in the wild, rather than just wandering European cities, and meeting people who are out traveling and trying to see and experience new things. I wish I did that more. But I also like my comfort and hotels and generally hate people. It is a conundrum. This is why I need a good travel buddy. This never happens when I'm alone.
So yeah, we loved Udaipur. And then it was back to Mumbai to just hang out for one more day, where we did a slum tour. We had been recommended this tour by my friend Niki and some of her cousin's friends, and were concerned at first that it would be exploitative. But they ensured us it wasn't so we decided to try it out, and indeed it was not. It was really informative. First they took us to this outdoor laundry area, that was cool to see although we couldn't go in and explore or anything. But it's the largest outdoor laundry in the world and was still quite impressive. Plus it made a good pic for the Instagrams. And then it was on to the slum, where they took us walking through for about 2 hours, showing us how life is and how people live and what kind of work they do. It was super interesting, because it was not at all what I expected. It was just like another neighborhood. Granted, people live in small, cramped homes and probably do not have the best sanitation conditions, but it is not like they're living in a trash heap or a building that might as well be condemned. They just live normal lives. And they don't let you take photos, which is good from the exploitation angle, but bad from the Instagram angle. They do give you a link to download some professional photos afterwards, though. So yeah, it's super well done, and super informative, and I am very glad I did it. So if you find yourself in Mumbai (or Delhi) go take a slum tour with Reality Tours. That was pretty much it for India. Of course there was also tons of delicious food. We ate nothing but Indian food the entire time, and I did not get sick of it at all. I could have kept eating it for days. I also did not get sick from it. Julia had brought these pills that help your gut bacteria to strengthen your digestion, so maybe that's why. I think that's probably why, because Julia had to keep feeding them to me as I forgot to take them, and then she left 1 night before me and I, of course, didn't take them. And then I got sick on the flight back. That was not fun. Not a great way to end the trip, but a great trip and now I definitely want to go back to India. I used to really want to go, then I didn't want to for a long time, and now I really want to again. Lots to see there!
Then I came back and had a bit of new music catch up to do. And one of the things that I found turned out to be not so new. That thing was Boogarins, a Brazilian indie rock band. Their song Corredor Polones came onto a playlist of Latin bands that would be performing at Coachella, and I really liked it.
To me, this is the sound of latin indie rock. I'm sure there's plenty more sounds to such a big genre, but this is what I always think of. Anyway, so I really liked it and I went onto their Spotify to listen to the whole album, La Vem A Morte. And then I went and listened to their previous album, Manual. And when the first track came on (well, second track but first song after the intro) and I knew it. And it was really good. It was Avalanche. Which is, now that I've listened to their entire discography multiple times, probably still my favorite song by them. And I don't know why I heard this in the past and didn't feel the same way about it. Cause this song is awesome. So anyway, glad I found it now!
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