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.

Air France business class seat.  Fancy.

Pre flight snacks at Air France lounge at JFK.

When I had gone through security back at JFK, I attempted to take out my liquids and discovered I didn’t have them.  I wasn’t sure if I had absent mindedly put them in my carry on bag or just simply left them at home.

Since I am now trapped in Paris, this is an issue.  Not too much of an issue.  More like an annoyance.  The last thing I was going to do was buy more shit to lug around so I made do with the shitty products I got from the Air France amenity kit and the hotel lotion.

Ah yes, the hotel.  Air France put me up at the Sheraton inside the CDG airport.  I cursed myself walking to it.  It felt like I walked 19 miles.  Coming off a long trip where I had been planning to go to my next flight and lay down and sleep for many hours. Carrying my heavy backpack through the airport, even heavier than it should be since for some reason I decided to go book shopping at JFK even though I have a Kindle app on my phone with dozens of unread books.  When I walked back the next morning, I was surprised at how short the walk actually was.

The room was kind of warm, even with the air conditioning on at full blast.  It was uncomfortable and made it difficult to sleep.

Bed photo:
I could have went out and seen Paris, lord knows I had enough time.  But I honestly didn’t want to. I have already seen Paris and I have the nerve to be over it.  Plus, exhausted with a side of it probably would have cost me the price of staying in India for a month just to see Paris again in one night.

First stop once through security in the airport was a cigarette, second was the Kiehl’s store where I slathered a ridiculous amount of stuff on my face.  Multiple serums, facial creams.  I had such a thick layer of goop on my face and it felt so good after using shitty airplane toiletries for a whole 24 hours. Oh no, life is so hard.

Killed time in the Air France lounge eating cheese and bread before boarding my nine hour flight to Delhi. Of course it left late today.  Of course it didn’t have the courtesy to do this yesterday, which would have actually been helpful.

Air France second leg business class seat, still fancy, but not as fancy as the JFK – CDG seat.

I was nervous about my luggage making it since Air France kept it overnight.  It did make it, whew. I had bought new luggage before leaving.  I bought a new pink suitcase and then a second new pink suitcase. The first was too small for this trip and the second was just the right size.  When waiting for my luggage, I thought the second bag I brought was black.  When a pink bag came around the carousel I thought “I love that color, I wish I could have brought my new pink luggage” and then realized that WAS my new luggage.  I can tell a million anecdotes on how exhausted I was and still never explain it properly.

At Delhi, I had a 13 hour layover before boarding a flight to Udaipur.  Changing the flight as I am a day late cost me $50, which I will get back from my travel insurance.  When I went to rebook my hotel to arrive a day late, I was genuinely shocked to see my hotel in Udaipur wasn’t booked.  I had apparently cancelled the reservation and never changed it when I changed my initial plans. Whoops?  Score one for being trapped in Paris for a day.

I got a cheap hotel for my 13 hour Delhi layover.  They lied both about accepting credit cards and having an elevator.  I had no rupees to pay for it.  He told me I could go to the ATM in the morning.  But I wanted to get the hell out of this hotel before sunrise and back to the airport.   The taxi to the hotel took over an hour, which is ridiculous for a hotel that is literally pretty much at the airport.  There were street closings due to roadwork.  I didn’t want an issue on my way back.

Delhi layover hotel.  $22, includes breakfast.  Still shitty.

I showered, and went out to find an ATM in the dark, at around 4:00 AM in Delhi.  Found a few with various problems.  One was offline, two were unplugged?  And the others would not give me cash.  The hotel dude finally let me pay in USD.

When I left to begin my ATM run, there was a couple checking out of the hotel and it seemed they had an issue getting a taxi.  They were compulsively checking their phones, which made me think they ordered an Uber.  They were STILL there when I got back.  Paranoia really crept in and even though the Uber app showed dozens of cars within a few blocks, I got scared of once again missing my flight.  The hotel is down a dark alleyway and I wondered if maybe their Uber just couldn’t find them.  I checked out without ever sleeping, in hopes of making it to the airport on time.  For a flight that was still six hours away.

Stepping outside the hotel, I pulled out my phone to call an Uber and a taxi pulled up before I even entered my destination.  The driver stopped and offered me a ride to the airport.  He was there to pick someone else up at a neighboring hotel.  He also let me pay in USD and completely ripped me off, charging me $10 when it would have been about $2 via Uber.  But I was happy to pay for the security of just being there.

My new concern is that I no longer have $1 bills which I will need for later in the trip, but I will deal with it later.

Delhi airport was burning hot outside and I was soaked in sweat pretty quickly.  You cannot smoke anywhere outside at the airport and I mean NOWHERE outside the airport.  Since you can actually smoke inside the airport, I went in early.  There are smoking rooms, you cannot just smoke freely in there.

I walked around outside with my clothes getting wetter from sweat, trying every ATM and not being successful.  FINALLY I found one that let me take out money but it would only let me take 10,000 rupees, which is about $124.  I needed more since my hotel would only take cash.  I got two withdrawals and then the ATM died.

Not sure what is it about me and India, but the last time I was here, was during demonetization.  Where one morning as a surprise to everyone, the Prime Minister announced all currency was no longer any good and you had to exchange for new bills.  The banks were not prepared at all and getting cash ended up being a forever standing on lines for empty ATMs to be refilled with new bills.  Since the new cash was not yet available, you could only get about $20 a try and you were only allowed to go twice. The lines were hours long.  I am now flashing back.

I gave up and went inside. My entire body hurt.  I am exhausted and the backpack turned bookbag didn’t weight any less the day after.

I chilled in the Air India lounge and wanted to shower so badly.  I had plenty of time to kill.  But the shower rooms were locked and I was too tired to ask if someone was in them, or if you need to ask for a key.  So I just sat there smelling bad while drinking 5 bottles of water, that some nice lounge worked opened for me because I was so tired I didn’t have the strength to get them open myself.  This sounds ridiculous and made up in hindsight, but it really happened. I was just THAT tired.

Finally landed in Udaipur, 61 hours after I left my home for Udaipur.  I had hired an overpriced driver to pick me up.  It was worth the cost as the ATMs at the Udaipur airport were offline and he stopped at one that actually worked. I had to step around some cows when getting out of the car.  And then finally, for the first time since arriving in India, I had enough rupees on me.

I got to my hotel and it is up many steps.  I knew this when booking it and decided I would just have to deal with it.  Elevators are just not common in places I love traveling to.  But I am exhausted and in pain and now want to throw my luggage out and travel with nothing.  Thankfully, some guy met me less than halfway up and took it the rest of the way for me.

My room is nice, but the balcony is nicer.  Look at the fucking view, totally worth the steps.

Since I am arriving a full day later than planned, I now have to work in a few hours instead of having a full day to recover from traveling.  I don’t know if I can do this because I am about to drop dead from exhaustion.

I did have to go out and get some things like water and cigarettes. Somehow I ended up buying a pair of pants I probably definitely don’t need but they are way more comfortable for this heat than what I packed and again I wished I had packing nothing and just bought an entire new wardrobe here for less than $50.

During my short walk around, I had people yelling “NAMASTE” at me and asking me to come into their store.  The people who won got to sell me Diet Coke and ice cold water.

Back to the hotel where I washed so much filth and sweat off myself.  Then a two hour nap before ordering dinner from my hotel.  The way it works here is you send the guy a WhatsApp message with your order and it appears at your choice of your room or the rooftop.  I chose the rooftop and had this view while eating breakfast for dinner.

Work was painful.  I don’t want to work.  I don’t think I would do this ever again. It seemed like a wonderful thing at first, I get to travel while working.  But the working thing, I am over.  I’ll do it again in December just because I am already booked for a trip working one week.  But that’s the end of it forever for me.

There was live music coming from down below, with stray dogs singing along loudly.  Fucking adorable BUT my work days are filled with video calls so I just kept myself on mute the entire time so no one would hear it.  I didn’t tell my job I would be working from here.  The last time I did, it was such a big deal.  My manager announcing in every single meeting “where in the world is Carmen Santiago, where in the world is Jennifer” and it pushed me so close to my patience level with humans.

I woke up this morning still tired despite sleeping like a brick last night.  This is the first time I had slept in cold air conditioning since leaving my home 3 days ago. God that felt fucking amazing.  Even more amazing than the shower washing off all that sweat.

I decided to go out for breakfast, rather than having it at the hotel.  I know I am not doing any sightseeing today but at a bare minimum, I need to go down all the stairs to get cigarettes and water so I may as well walk outside a bit.

The woman next to my hotel who sells cigarettes waved me over and had someone translate for me that she would have Marlboro Lights for me tomorrow.  I love her.

I walked 2 minutes to a highly rated restaurant and had toast and iced coffee for breakfast.   This cute dog joined me.  I love India.

I didn’t get much further than that. I did walk a little bit along Gangour Ghat but my body is still broken and it is time to get a massage to fix it.

I have gotten many massages in my life and this was probably the best one ever.  She fixed everything that had been killing me.

Total cost for an hour of bliss?  1200 rupees – $14.46 USD.

I saw this huge cow outside my hotel.  He is HUGE.  Look at his size compared to the scooters!

Back up to my room where I planned to shower and nap and instead, found myself wide awake after showering so I decided to stay awake and type up this post while waiting for dinner on the roof.  Tonight’s dinner?  Omelette, garlic bread and potatoes.  Also known as “America woman travels to India and only eats and drinks breakfast foods and iced coffee.”

The internet gets so mad at people like me, but I care about as much about that as I care about nothing at all ever.

Due to the kerfuffle of arriving a day late, I cancelled the Pushkar portion of this trip and added one day each to Udaipur and Jaipur.  This means I have a full Saturday to see Udaipur in one shot.  Although I have every intention of seeing something tomorrow.

The dude who keeps feeding me here, the son of the owners, is concerned because today is day 2 I didn’t finish the potato portion of my breakfast.  No no no no no.  It is absolutely fucking delicious, I just ordered too much food.  I had to over assure him I love his cooking. And I do.  I am so fortunate to be able to have good food conveniently located right above my room.

During my travels here, I knew for a fact I would absolutely never in my life fly to India again.  I would never enter this country until I retired and could do so while traveling to many places overland.  I probably would have turned down a million dollars if offered a million dollars to fly here again.  However, while sitting and eating breakfast this morning (not to be confused with eating breakfast last night or tonight) the feeling of pure excitement LOOK AT ME, I AM IN INDIA overtook me and I would do that commute again in a heartbeat just to be here again.

Now off to work in my room.  YAY.

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