Train Troubles and Bar Training Grounds

Apparently every ticket on the Indian railway is booked at the moment. I have one last ditch hope of getting on board anything and that is the tourist office in the train station. Apparently there are a specific number of tickets in first class set aside for foreign tourists. You have to go to the actual tourist office and show your passport to get in. There's apparently still no guarantee according to the concierge who was helping me book the tickets originally but I'm going to try. If I can't do that it looks like I have to do a hire car which is going to be significantly more expensive but more convenient for sure. I still hope I can get some time on Indian trains too. That was a big part of what I imagined India to be. Lots of train travel. Here's hoping.

Yesterday we went to a party of one of Peter's acquaintances who is a British ex pat and one of the gays. So the party crowd was mixed up of people who work at various (mostly the British) consulates and the Indian boy toys they have. Everyone was very nice and I took the opportunity to try and get better at engaging strangers as Peter was up and running working the room as soon as we got there. I'm pretty terrible in bars and I figured I had no chance of ever really seeing these people again so this was a good training ground.

I ended up getting a ton of great travel advice and suggestions of some cheap and clean places to stay in Udaipur and Agra. Hooray! I also got to come across as far more interesting than I actually am because just by being white and from the US I was fascinating. So baby steps in the right direction.