The train ride last night was ok. It was nice to get here early in the morning. After a little confusion at the guesthouse, I was able to get checked in a little early which was nice. I then spent more time than I’d like to recall trying to figure out how to get the internet to work on my phone. I made no progress, but find myself frustrated. It’s nearly impossible to figure out how to get through to an actual person and when I would finally make it to the option that brings me to a customer service rep I’d just sit on hold for a long period. One time I was on hold for 17 minutes before the system – not my phone, dropped the call. Another time I made it to a rep, but he said I had to call another number. I asked to speak with his supervisor and found myself listening to a woman speak in Hindi. She put me on hold when I asked for an English person and then kept coming back on the line, saying something in Hindi and then putting me on hold again. I finally sent a tweet at them which got someone to call me back. The only problem was she couldn’t even answer a simple question – whether or not there is a data network in this area that I could even use. All in all it was terrible. I’m not sure I gained anything by relaying so much of it here. I still haven’t found a resolution with my phone, but I got by without it today. It would have been easier to have it, though.

I went to the city palace today which was cool. I love palaces and this one had many neat designs everywhere. There were a lot of people there, but I still enjoyed it. After the palace I went on a sunset boat ride. It wasn’t worth the money as it was quite expensive. It wasn’t bad or anything, but I wouldn’t do that again.

I rented a taxi for the day tomorrow that is going to take me to a Jain Temple and a fort that are a little outside the city. The driver is supposed to be here at 8:30 am. I need to get to bed so I can get up in the morning and write and get some breakfast before going. I’m excited. The temple is the number 1 thing to see in this area. I paid 1900 rupees for it which is quite a bit for one day. It’s really not much to pay for a taxi driver to take me around from 8:30 am until 5 pm, but it’s more than I anticipated spending on anything while here. I had hoped everything would be pretty close and I wouldn’t have to spend much on transportation. That’s ok though.

Just down the street from where I’m staying there is an art place that has classes. The guy said it’s only 150 rupees an hour. I’m hoping to stop in after I get back tomorrow and sit there for 2-3 hours. It looks really neat!

I also failed to find an atm today. I really need one though since I only have a few rupees left. I do have some US dollars and I exchanged a $20 today so I’d have enough money tomorrow. I still don’t have very much, but that should be enough for lunch and the admission to the places. I’d really like to avoid exchanging any more of the US dollars I have. It would be nice to keep the money for emergencies. The first atm I went to tonight was out of order and the second went through the motions like it was going to give me some money, but then it said ‘invalid card’ and didn’t give me any. I was concerned it would still charge my card, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Tomorrow I’m sure I can find an atm and get a little more cash.

Gratitude List:
Making it to and around Udaipur without access to the internet on my phone
A full day ahead of me tomorrow
Remaining pretty cool about the problems with my cell service