Udaipur tidbits

Random thoughts that have been floating through my head recently during our trip:

--Women can really carry amazing loads on their heads! Without holding on!

--Alison, my mom, and I thought that split pants for babies in China were bad...but with much warmer climate, why have any pants on children below the age of 5 at all?!  Most of the little children I've seen here run around with only shirts.

--The fruit and vegetable vendors here all sell on little carts or tables in the street, as opposed to in China, where they sell actually on the sidewalk/road. At first I was puzzled by this but then realized that with all the cows walking around and the consequent cow poo everywhere, plus the open sewers, noone would want to eat anything that had been on the ground!

--Speaking of cows, there are seriously a lot of them! They are EVERYWHERE....and its completely fine for them to wander wherever they please, although Max and I did note that we didn't see any at the maharaja's private palace (is it against the law to 'steer' (haha) them away from somewhere?)

--Every single non-indian person I've seen has been driven in some sort of vehicle that says 'Tourist' on it in big letters.  I asked our driver if that was mandatory to be in labeled cars like that but he didn't understand my question.

--Trucks on the other hand, all say 'Registered in Such-and-such State' for 'x transportation'.  Other than that, they are decorated much more lavishly than trucks at home - colorful geometric and swirfly designs, bright orange and purple lettering, bright peacocks and tigers...you name it.  Just what I want to see barrelling down on me when we're on the wrong side of the highway passing a cow. ;)

--And really, there are no rules on the road.  The first person to do something has the right of way, including driving on the wrong side of the road and expecting the other person to move.  As a tourist bus did to us earlier - luckily there was a shoulder!

--And just for the record, the countryside around Udaipur is truly beautiful, with rolling hills, mountains in the distance, occasional palm trees, terraced levels of verdant crops...amazing.