the transition: gujurat.

india has a way of sucking you in. removing your want of all things electronic and most forms of contact. the hiatus in bryndia's writing won't happen again.

from goa, bryndia wanted to head north.

turns out, india is a very large country. so the journey took some time.

bryndia broke up their journey to rajasthan with a brief stop in mumbai where they shared french fries dipped in spicy curry before boarding a train to vadodara; a self described 'college town' halfway to their desired destination of udaipur. their splurge on first class tickets assisted in making the seven hour ride more comfortable. the two sat between a malaysian father visiting for a friends wedding and an ancient indian woman who, throughout the trip, continued to remove her dentures and scrape at one large tooth with a rough stick. in broken english, she inquired whether bryndia were married, and when they politely said no, her shock showed. well, she said to bryn, you must be very rich then, for her to be kissing you. she smiled and wrote down her home address and phone number, insisting that bryndia come and visit. you are most welcome! most welcome in my home!

bryndia wandered throughout the busy center of vadodara as night set in. arriving the same weekend as a ambiguous 'conference', the two found the first ten hotels they passed to be completely full. after what seemed like hours, bryndia finally found a place. they opened the door to their room and watched cockroaches flee from the light.

the next day, bryndia decided to stick it out and spend a day exploring the city. they visited the one museum, a mixture of asian art and natural history, ancient ivory statues next to stuffed ostriches and owls. in the cool basement, they saw a gigantic whale skeleton and plaster copies of the venus di milo, michelangelo's slave. too sticky to enjoy the surrounding park, bryndia caught a rickshaw to the city palace where they were given a private tour by a quiet man and admired the grand ballroom and the sparking fountains, all original, and over 125 years old. that night, the two returned to a air conditioned hotel with an international menu where they ate mexican and italian.

the next day, the two wandered throughout the downtown area and found a large bookstore. here, they hid from the heat for hours. bryn read freakanomics and listened to india read his numerolgy. india purchased copies of indian vogue. in the evening, they returned to the center of the city and waited for hours for their bus bound for udaipur to arrive. finally, sleepily, they boarded, and slept, and awoke in rajasthan.