2 Jan, 2005 - Udaipur time 9.06 pm

Already 10 days in colourful India.

Udaipur is colder than I expected, ie. when the sun is out it warm and nice but as soon as the night falls temperature does as well and we end up with around 8°C in houses and beds that are not heated. Socks and pullovers come in very handy.

It looks as if I have to move to another hotel. Rang Niwas is very nice but a bit too remote to enjoy the evenings. And remote as it is, there are 4-5 "playgrounds" in the area one of which is just behind the hotel. These open areas are used for football in daytime and in the evening they shelter wedding parties. It looks as if Indians love music - the louder the better. The loudspeakers are enormous and so are the decibel.

The guests are running away from the hotel and so will I - because the wedding season has just started and is to go on for a couple of months. Indians believe in happy horoscopes. Last year there were not many "matchings" whereas this year, there seems to be no end to the number of celebrations.