Udaipur

Day 1 – It was only matter of time!!

We headed off from Jodphur at 9.00 with another long drive in front of us.  Babu was still not conversing with Shelley, even when she directed a question at him he responded to me! Completely fed up now she decided not to bother with him anymore, we don’t think he even noticed!. 

Anyway about 10 minutes into our journey, another last minute hard braking from Babu led to our car being rear ended by another car (You couldn’t make this up!!).  Babu went out to sort this out, which I found out later meant everyone paying for their own damage as it took too much time and effort to sort this out at the local police station.  Not once did he enquire whether Shelley or I were injured or OK.  (Shelley’s really hating on him now!!). 

Anyway the net result of this accident meant that we were yet again delayed and now in a bad mood,  Babu drove in an even worse manner than before which we didn’t think possible!

Eventually after 3 hours he calmed down a bit and we were driving through a Jungle/National park with lots of monkeys knocking around and apparently leopards too!  We stopped around here for a spot of lunch before carrying on, taking in some ancient temples on the way. Unfortunately we couldn’t go inside the temple, see Rules below:  (It was my shorts not Shelley - Rule No. 11!)

Finally we arrived in Udaipur which lays on shores of Lake Pichola and backdropped by a ring of craggy green hills (thanks rough guide!!).  

We went into our hotel which was pretty close to the lake but when Shelley asked for a room with a lake view we were told it was not possible, for the first time Babu stepped up to the mark and asked the receptionist to put us in a room with a lakeside view and suddenly it was possible (Babu may now get a tip!!).  The room had a great view over the lake looking at the Ghatt on the other side of the lake.

After checking in and ditching our gear we had a look around taking a beer in a posh hotel directly opposite the Lake Palace which was very pretty (Although the beer was very expensive!).

In the evening we found a lovely restaurant on the edge of lake, a low down cross your legs jobby which was OK for Mrs Flexible but not so much for Mr Un-Flexible (My knee’s really don’t like me on this trip).  Another very nice vegetable curry later we decided to have an early night for a change and do some proper sightseeing the next day.

Day 2

We actually had a bit of a lie in today – 8.00!!  Before taking breakfast on our rooftop restaurant overlooking the lake and watching eagle fly by overhead (not a bad way to start your day).

A couple eggs &  toast later we were heading off in search of a boat trip around the lake (as advised to do in our guide).  We passed on the hotel receptionist offer to get up a boat outside the hotel as we realised that this would involve commission and a very expensive private boat!!  So we went in search of the tourist boat having been given very vague directions – as usual!!

Eventually weaving in and about small streets on the other side of the lake we found it (More luck than judgement), however this entailed a more expensive ticket than expected as you had to pass through the City Palace.  We decided to spend an hour, the palace which was quite pretty and interesting, but as usual you had to pay extra for an audio commentary which we did not bother with (we are on a budget!!).  Preferring instead to eaves drop on the groups with paid guides instead! Apparently the guy who built the Taj Mahal visited this palace in his younger years and this is what he based the Taj on, we couldn’t see it ourselves.

Heading down to the jetty we then boarded a boat for the trip around the lake, having to wear lifejackets that had seen better days, I think mine had ‘The Mary Celeste’ and Shelley’s ‘The Bismark’ printed on them!! Anyway the lake was as flat as a pancake so we were not too worried.  The boat took us around the Lake Palace and on to the Jag Mandir (Another Island Palace) where we disembarked for some expensive refreshments.  After wandering round for a while we got another boat that took us back to the City Palace where the trip ended.

On the way back we decided to explore the area where we then got a bit lost in before spotting a rooftop bar where we could have a beer & work out how to get back to where our hotel was.  Finding our bearings we then headed back to the hotel and had another quick beer in a real ramshackle café right on the river where we sat and watched a couple of the locals washing their clothes in the lake (glad we did not use a laundry in this town!).

I successfully avoided a massage despite a number of offers and Shelley being keen and instead opted to go for dinner instead, again another cross-legged jobby and yet again a fairly reasonable veggie curry (Shelley is going to start to look like a mushroom soon if she eats many more!).

We then thought it would be a good idea to go back to the hotel and chill out and watch a movie before bed to help up prepared for yet another 7-8gr white knuckle drive to Jaipur the next morning. (Fingers crossed incident free!).