12 FEB 99

Hello from Kathmandu.

After I finally dragged myself away from Pushkar, I headed down to Udaipur. The bus took all day and then I found a very nice room on an island next to the old walled city. Udaipur has a nice palace and a very large tourist ghetto, the first I had seen since Kathmandu. Many restaurants show movies. The only problem was that the videos were filmed in movie theaters, so some times people get up in the middle. The James Bond movie, Octopussy, was filmed in Udaipur so about twenty different places show it every night.

I ran into my friend Gary there. He came down to Udaipur for drum lessons and was still there. It turned out that his favorite place to eat was the one next to my hotel. He was also staying at the hotel that I had originally looked for. Additionally, the place he stayed in Pushkar the year before, was the same one that I liked so much. What a bunch of coincidences. Gary and I went for a walk up to the Monsoon Palace. On the way, three Indian students from the Christian College stopped me and took my picture. They said something about me looking like Jesus.

According to the astrologers and the weather patterns, now is a very good time for Indians to marry. Everyday, many wedding processions march through the streets. They sing and dance. They even have a cart with the DJ. The groom sits on a horse and watches it all.

On the 26th of January, I took a bus to Abu Road, a train to Palanpur in the state of Gujarat and then an overnight train to Bhuj. On the first train, a Muslim man literally hand fed me bananas, oranges, and grapes. There was just no saying no. On the overnight train, I met a bunch of students from the technical school and they taught me a few words from the local language. The train conductor was a Sikh. He had a big beard and turban. He put his turban, jacket and tie on me and put my beard up in his religious way. I got some good pictures that night.

I got to Bhuj on India's Republic Day. I went to the parade and watched the Indians celebrate. I even bought a flag to wave. My favorite part of the parade was when the protesters threw rocks at the police and were then chased away and beaten and shot. I think it was a reenactment of some Indian history. The trained dogs jumping through rings of fire were also pretty good. That evening I went to a concert.

Bhuj does not get many tourists and is pretty laid back. There is really only one guesthouse for us, which makes it pretty easy. Whenever I got lost, which was often, all I had to do was ask any shopkeeper where my hotel was. He would then say "City Guest House" and point me in the right direction. There were about twenty tourists there and it was easy to meet each other around the table each night.

David, a Belgian, and I went to the port of Mandvi for the day. We walked for several hours on the beach, along the Arabian Sea. We eventually arrived at the Maharaja's summer palace. The ruler lost power in 1947, but he still spends one night per month at this oceanside palace. It was decorated in fading 1950's furniture.

The next day was spent getting permission from the police to go to some small local villages. This is another sensitive border region with Pakistan, so we had to fill out some forms and get a few signatures.

Bhuj is in the area known as the Kuch and is surrounded by the big and little Ranns. The Ranns flood every year and the Kuch becomes a large island. In the winter the water recedes and the area is used to evaporate sea water and make salt. I went to the far northern area of the Kuch to a town called Kudra. From there I went to a very small village and looked at some local handicrafts.

I left Bhuj by bus, crossed the Little Rann of Kuch by bus and went to Junagadh. Junagadh has an incredible fort with some of the deepest wells I have ever seen. They also have some very nice mosques and hills. The rickshaws there do not use electric horns. They all use big clown horns which need a good squeeze on the bulb to make a honk. It sounded like a circus to me.

From Junagadh, I took a train and then a horse drawn cart to the island of Diu. Diu was Portugese holding until 1961 when India took it. Now it is a very nice island. It is about three miles wide and seven miles long. It is a bit difficult to get to and out of the way for most tourists, so it is pretty mellow. Most of the shops in Diu Town were usually closed and nobody every hassled me there. I found a nice place to stay out on Nagoa beach and rented a bicycle for the five mile commute to town.

My stomach had bothered me a little up until this point, but after my first meal in Diu, I was really sick. I spent about four days sitting in the hammock and reading. With some more pills, my belly got completely better and it was time to go. I was 70 hours worth of travel time from Kathmandu.

I took an overnight train to Ahmadabaad. I spent the day with a crazy English guy who never shut up. Then I took a two-night, two-day, forty hour train ride to Gorakpur. From there is was a few hours by bus to the Nepal border.

It was great to get back to Nepal. I could feel the difference at the border. The touts were much more laid back and even if you did not give them any money, you could still joke around with them. I spent the next day on the bus to Kathmandu.

It is really nice to be back here. It was a mild winter and the weather is quite warm. I ate dinner in a nice Italian place last night and will spend several days enjoying the vast selection of food in the tourist area of the city. Also, the price of Internet access fell from $6/hour to $3/hour, so I can say all I want to and it does not cost too much.

On Sunday, my friend Fiona arrives from Australia. She will stay for one month and we will go trekking in the mountains. In mid-March my friend Julia will arrive from Germany and we will spend the next month trekking and rafting. In mid-April I hope to do a little more kayaking and am now planning to return to Florida on the 23rd of April.