Udaipur and the Great Train Rumble

Took a train to Udaipur. Decided to skip most of Rajasthan - as I imagine most places to just be another city with hooting and pollution and auto-rickshaws and shops and cowshit, with some or other temple or fort that makes people go there. Personally I have no interest in Hindu temples, and even less interest in some old fort with a depressing and dusty museum attached to it.

Anyway, in Udaipur (which is in Rajasthan) at the moment. Did the castle thing. Can't do the arguably-the-world's-most-romantic-restaurant at the palace on the lake, as Sarita is in Johannesburg, and I only have sandals and shorts to wear anyway. And going with the Turkish guy I met at the hotel is just going to be a bit weird.

This evening I am looking forward to watching a James Bond film Octopussy, which has scenes and auto-rickshaw chases from Udaipur.

The train ride was very uncomfortable. The sleeper carriage normally takes six people in each compartment, but we were twelve, as it doubled as a local train as well. Plus the passages were full. Then someguy suddenly gets up, pulls his belt out of his trousers and attacks someotherguy. A very curious move. So there was this big clumsy punchup, and torn t-shirts, and squashed people trying to break it up. It fizzled out, and then started again, fizzled out and started again. Remarkably no blood or bruises, nobody got in a good punch. For the rest of the trip I was going through what I would have done in one of their places. I still can't figure out whether I would be an excellent fighter, or justlikethem.