The bumpy journey through Rajasthan begins...!

Hello all!
Sorry it's been a while, but my Dehli-belly got the better of me over the last few days :-(
On Thursday, we arrived in Udaipur after getting the horrific night train. All the air-con carriages were booked so we had to go normal sleeper class.... this meant NO bedding. With cockroaches and spiders thrown in for free!!! Urgggggh!!! I slept for approximately zero hours, and arrived in Udaipur feeling like I'd been on the Titanic for about 8 hours. Thankfully, a nice taxi driver called Harminder Singh rescued us and took us to our hotel. Despite catching a couple of hours shut eye, I woke up still feeling groggy and sea-sick. Anyhow, Harminder picked us up at noon to take us to a tradition al Rajasthani restaurant... you basically get a huge plate with lots of little bowls inside, and the waiters keep coming round and filling them up with rice, sauces, curries, breads etc. It was such a shame because I could only manage a few mouthfuls of it, as I felt truly horrific. Things were about to get worse. Harminder took us to a temple, and as he started explaining the history of it, I started to feel really light-headed... and was sick !
:-( Needless to say, we went straight back to the hotel where I slept for the rest of the day, and drank copious amounts of water, followed by a few banana lassis.
On Friday, Harminder took us around some of Udaipur's sights, as I was feeling a lot better. It is a beautiful city, which sits around four massive lakes. The most famous of which is Lake Pichola, where the famous Lake Palace Hotel is (this appeared in the James Bond film Octopussy.) Only problem with the city is that it's very similar to how I imagine Venice to be - very touristy. Everywhere you go, you get heckled basically, which gets a bit tiring. Anyhow, on Friday we visited a few royal gardens, went to see a traditional Rajasthani puppet show, and we also went up one of the mountains to see Monsoon Palace. From here we could see amazing views across Udaipur. For lunch, we tried out one of the zillion roof-top restaurants... but the food was simply horrific. To say they couldnt make Western food would be a mighty understatement. I ordered spaghetti bolognese (due to my poorly stomach), and it resembled orange worms and tasted like curry. Jake and Si ordered "chicken" burgers, which were basically chicken giblets in a breadcrumb coating within a bun. Never in my life have I paid for a meal, and only eaten one mouthful of it.
The thing is - the best option here, naturally, is to order Indian food. But when you have Dehli-belly like I had, you simply can't keep it down. So then you have to settle for their Western food which is nearly always atrocious. Mind you, they seem to be able to do a might good omlette which is quite welcome in the morning.
Anyway, yesterday, the three of us made our own way around the rest of Udaipur's tourist offerings. We visited the Hindu temple, where the people inside were in the middle of prayer. Then we visited the city palace, which is apparently the biggest in Rajasthan. At about 4pm we took a boat ride around Lake Pichola, and soaked in the views of the Lake Palace Hotel and the palace on the lake - beautiful. In the evening, we ate at the hotel and I had an edible tomato pasta, which was very welcome.
This morning Harminder picked us up at 6am to begin our long trip to Bundi... groooan! This was ALMOST as painful as the night train. The first leg of the journey was ok - the roads were pretty decent and flat. At about 8am we stopped off in a place called Chittogargh - a town with a massive fort built around it. The views across Rajasthan were pretty impressive, and you could see for miles across the desert in the hazy glow of the morning sun. After some breakfast (yep, you've guessed it- omlette), our bumpy journey to Bundi got underway. For a mile or two there the road would be fine and quite flat, and then quite suddenly it would turn into rubble and you'd be bouncing up and down in your seat, banging your head against the ceiling. This contined for about four hours.
Now we're in Bundi, we're very glad to be here. It feels like we're away from the hustle and bustle, and tourist traps. Rudyard Kipling came here and got inspiration to write jungle book - Simon quite rightly said that he couldnt understand why, as there's a deserted palace, palm trees and monkeys here. Those things dont appear in jungle book... do they?
Anyway, that's it from me for today - a very long but I hope not boring blog.
Hope you're still enjoying reading them......... miss you tonnes
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx emma xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx