Udaipur II

Sunday, 9th November 2008 (Al)

AM: Slept like a baby last night. The fatigue from little sleep the night before followed by the mental torment of thinking we were going to crash into a truck or human or animal every 5 min for a 6 hr taxi journey from the day before had taken its toll. Flisk on the TV and its time for the cricket...ah, my kind of day. once Wend was up, we headed to a place called Sunrise for a western breakfast of french toast, fruit salad (peeled) and mint tea. The paratha, curd and pickles breakfast is great... but not every day. A walk down our street and we book ourselves in for an afternoon avuyredic full body massage, head massage and facial (1 hr 10 min for about 12 pounds). This travelling is hard work and I need it. I tried saving money and getting Wend to give me a head and neck massage yesterday but she was having none of it (a tad inconsiderate I thought), so now I have to pay for it.

PM: After lunch we head to the massage clinic. I had thoughts of a Bollywood actress surrounded by incense and meditative tunes in the background. Instead, Wend gets a female masseur and I get this short fat swaety man who may have been a masseur on the weekends, but judging from the condition of his hands, worked as a bricklayer during the week. He gave me a facial that I thought was going to leave me with 3rd degree burns. Instead of lovely Indian sitar music, there was just an open window with the constant tooting of car horns. So relaxing. Nevertheless the fumes from the oil that he used still managed to knock me about and I ended up dribbling half asleep by the end.

An afternoon read of our books in the open air hotel resturant overlooking the lake and then a nice dinner at the Whistling Teal restaurant later in the night made for an easy day.