I was in a very "anti-India" mood last night. Nothing was working out the way I wanted it to because of Diwali in October.

I couldn't get train tickets for the days I needed because they were all booked up. I wanted to tear my hair out. It was so stressful because I could get a train to one place I wanted, but then leaving to get somewhere else was near impossible. ARGH!!!

So I decided to call it quits for the night and went for a quiet solo dinner at a pseudo western restaurant here in Udaipur. Dinner was great and then afterwards, the owner came over and we chatted for a good 30-45 minutes. Rakesh (the owner) offered to give me a quick motorcycle tour around last night and I accepted. He was quite the upstanding guy, so I felt cool about it. It was a nice way to see the city at night. After 20-25 minutes, he dutifully drove me home and shook my hand. It was nice to see there are guys in India who aren't total shitheads.

This morning I went to the City Palace which was so kitsche (sorry about the spelling) that it almost seemed out of place. Also, a few of us girls also went to this tribal village thing outside of town and the ride itself was very relaxing because the scenery was really stunning.

When I arrived back at the travel agent he had great news!! He was able to book my tickets from Calcutta to Bhubaneswar and from there to Bangalore. For an almost cross country journey, it cost $39 in an air conditioned sleeper car. Not too bad I thought. The only other option was a $209 flight, which I wanted to avoid, and I would have missed stuff along the way.

Tonight I am being totally crazy and spending $20 (1000 rupees) for dinner at the Lake Palace Hotel, which is where Octopussy was filmed. I will fill everyone in on the decadence of it soon.