Category Archives: Asia

Udaipur Trip Report Continues!

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I am in love with Udaipur.  I really wish I could spend all day walking around and taking in its beauty.  But work calls and without it, I wouldn’t be here at all.

Last night I got trapped “at” work until 8 pm, which was about 5:30 am my time? India time is off by 30 minutes in addition to the hour difference so I can’t keep track of time.

I went out on my balcony to smoke before sleep. I heard a very low hum that sounded like a call to prayer was about to start. Can’t tell you if I was right because the dogs started going off immediately. Aw.

The video sucks for visual, but it is the audio you want.

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Dear Diary: Hello From Udaipur, India!

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As the title says, I am currently on another adventure, coming at you live from Udaipur, India!  I started planning this one last October.  As always, so many things got changed from my original plans.  Most notable was the length of the trip.  I had initially planned to be gone for five months.  So many real life obstacles came up and eventually I had to settle on just 47 days. Oh no, only a 47 day trip?  How truly tragic.

I am working for 2 weeks and then I am free.

I am currently in Udaipur, which is where this trip is starting.  Udaipur was never on the original itinerary.  Ladakh, India was at the top.  When I pulled out my Lonely Planet India, I saw all the pages I had put post its on when I traveled to India back in 2016.  All were on the pages of the Rajathstan section.  Suddenly I now wanted to go to Rajathstan.  When I first planned the five month itinerary, a full month was to be spent here. As time went on, it got chopped down to two weeks, with 3 cities (Udaipur, Pushkar and Jaipur.)

I flew from JFK to Delhi, by way of Paris.  And unexpectedly, I really went through Paris.  My flight from NYC was so delayed that I missed my connection.  It took off as I was walking through CDG airport looking for my gate in hopes it too was delayed. It was not.  Since Air France only has one flight to Delhi from Paris a day, this meant I got stuck in Paris for 24 hours.

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Deep Thoughts on an Overnight Train from Yangon to Bagan, Myanmar

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Taking this train in Myanmar was one of the top reasons for my visit.  Seventeen hours on a train is a very long time.  So is 20.  When I took the 24 hour trip to Lhasa a few years ago, I documented what I did during that ride.  What I did not document though, was the amount of thoughts that went through my head.  Ever wonder what goes through someone’s head when they are on public transport for an insane amount of hours?  Well I can tell you.

The overnight train from Yangon to Bagan is supposed to be 17 hours, it ended up being 20 hours.

I knew I had to do this trip before I even finished reading this post that introduced it to me.  Oh man.  This looks FANTASTIC.  The whole idea of your commute being this insane experience you would never forget.  The second I finished reading that post, I had to email the author to tell her about the irony of stumbling across it on the same day I read a post on a Las Vegas message board where someone had cancelled a reservation for a Strip hotel because she saw photos online where you could see the toilet when you opened the bathroom door.  It was right out there and not tucked behind a wall.  The horror!

I booked a ticket going from Yangon to Bagan.  I knew that the sleeper car is a separate car that is only attached if they sell tickets for it.  I ran the risk of being trapped in here with other people.  It is not internally connected to the other cars on the train.  You cannot walk through to get to anywhere.  How many beds had to sell to attach the car?  The booking agent I used stated on their website that if you wanted to guarantee a sleeper car would be attached, you could book all four beds for yourself.  I am not sure why I did not do this.  But I didn’t.  And then spent time wondering who would be in the car with me.  I was hoping to not spend the entire 17 hours being paid attention to for being a Westerner.

I arrived at the train station and took the obligatory photo of the “Warmly Welcome & Take Care of Tourists” sign.

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Lijiang, China: Round Bed, Choking on Altitude and Getting Westernered

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Upon arrival in Lijiang, I was picked up by a driver my hotel set up for free, and I was brought to my hotel.  I am staying at Xi Tang Exquisite Hotel.  When I had booked it, I picked it because it had round beds and I had always wanted to sleep in a round bed.

Shortly after booking, I got an email letting me know that there is going to be construction going on during the day…my heart sank as I thought this was going to continue to tell me that the room is now not available.  But it was!  I had a reduced rate because of the construction. YAY ROUND BED!

round bed

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Escape From Ganzi to Dege, Tibet: Hotel Horrors and Hotel Highs

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So when we last left off, I had just had a complete nervous breakdown in the middle of Tibet and was told that I would be leaving Ganzi in a shared minivan at 8:00 the next morning.  You can read all about that here.

Well that morning was this morning and I should probably start off by telling you that I did indeed get out of Ganzi (YAY) but the story is a bit more complicated than that.

I knew I was supposed to be leaving at 8:00 so I planned to leave my hotel at 7:30.  The shared minivans gather about ten feet from the door.  I woke up at 6:00 am and was just about to eat a Cliff Bar and drink some milk tea when someone began knocking on my door.  What the hell.  I open it and it is a dude standing there who says “Dege” to me.  I say “I thought we were leaving at 8:00” which he does not understand, as if it mattered anyway.  He does a driving motion and says “Dege” and points down, meaning “come on, let’s go.”

If I wasn’t such a maniac, I would not have even been awake yet.  I could in theory have set my alarm for 7:30 and still have been outside by 8:00.  As it was, I was only awake for maybe five minutes.  So now I have to rush like even more of a maniac and pack and get out now.  I am ready in five minutes, but I am all shaky from doing too much when I was only awake for five minutes in high altitude. Plus, I had consumed zero calories.  But hey, I am getting out of Ganzi so let’s go!

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Ganzi, Tibet: A Nice Place to Visit, But I Don’t Want to Live Here.

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I am sitting here on my hotel bed typing this out.  My laptop is the only thing warm in this room and I am using it as a heater on my feet as I sit Indian style.  To my right is the sound of thunder and lightning shaking my windows, to my left is the sound of the shower dripping as a reminder that I now have not showered in two days.  Or maybe the five or six flies buzzing all around me are the reminder.  I don’t really know anymore. I do know that I am putting off showering today because I want to wait until the very last minute to discover that once again I do not have hot water.  I have already verified I have no heat.  I did not expect to.  Actually, if we are going to list things I was not expecting, let us put “spending yet ANOTHER night in Ganzi” at the top of the list.

See, I am an independent woman who travels solo.  I speak online with a lot of women who are scared to take the leap.  My signature stance is that:  if you are temporarily lost, just get in a taxi back to your hotel.  Problem solved.  No one has ever had to relocate and live in a city they traveled to because they got lost and could not get out.   But I now live in Ganzi.  Because I cannot get out.

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Cost of Traveling in China: Dali, China

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How much does it cost to visit Dali, China?  Let’s find out.

I spent two nights in Dali.  I arrived early morning on day one and left early morning on day three.

How did I travel to Dali?  I flew from Kunming.  There are bus and train options which are way cheaper.  But one of the benefits of being employed full time is that you can justify these splurges in order to get a few more hours in a destination.

While here, I stayed at the Dragonfly Inn (Hi Lorelai and Sookie!)  in a private room with private bathroom.

dragonfly

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Train Ride from Dali, China to Lijiang, China

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To get from Dali to Lijiang, you can take a train or a bus. I took a train, because it was only two hours compared to five.  But it ended up feeling like seventeen hours, so maybe the bus is a better option after all.

Arrival at Dali train station.  Look at those stairs you need to get your luggage up. I pitied myself for only the ten seconds it took before I saw a woman with two full sized suitcases navigate the steps without any help.

Dali China train station

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Dali, China: Beautiful Movie Set-Like Setting and Cangshan Mountain Cable Car

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One thing you never realize while growing up American is that all the things you are exposed to are just replica of real things thousands of miles away.  So when you arrive in a place like Dali, China, it takes a while for your mind to comprehend that this is the real deal.  This is all authentic China.  This is not an amusement park, not a theme park, not a Hollywood movie set, this is an actual true town that looks like this:

Dali ChinaPretty, right?

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