Udaipur Octopusses

We are in Udaipur, the City of Lakes (though they are much more green and skinky than those in Minneapolis). People here are much more laid-back, the streets are cleaner, and the place is much more pleasant and the other cities we've been to. After some miserably cold nights on the night trains, we've opted towards bus for our future travels. They are pretty nice and have much fewer random people walking by and staring at you and sitting on your bed. We have a cooking class in hald an hour. We've joined up with a couple of med students from Holland/Spain and have been spending a lot time with them, as their schedule aligns with ours. Last night, we went up to a palace on a hill for a lovely sunset view over misty mountains and patchwork farm fields.

The last town was Jodhpur. We spent a lot of time there just reading and chilling out as Eman was struggling to get rid of the last vestiges of her head cold. The town's market area was really nice with a wide assortment of produce, spices, saris, shoes, fabric, and street food. There was also a nice fort where you could get a view of the old city with it's blue-washed buildings (apparently indigo was thought to repel insects) . We had a lovely experience with street food and t potato chaat (fried potato cakes with chickpea curry, spices and fresh onions), spinach pakora (deep fried with curd, and two relishes) and pani puri (little fried hollow balls willed with a sweet and sour liquid) . Now that our tummies have had some time to adjust, we'll probably try some more street food as we go. It's so much tastier than restaurants. I think a lot of them cater to tourists who have weak bellies and don't like spicy/tasty foods.