Udaipur

Bats Galore!
On the Jagmandir island
Billy with his fig and honey milkshake (without the fig)
In the Jagmandir gardens
The elephants guarding Jagmandir island
At the bathing and washing ghat
The cute baby tortoise at our hotel (we've been out buying tomatoes to feed them today!)
The entrance to the waterfront (no idea why its gone all sidewards)
Inside the palace
Views over Udaipur
Enjoying our audio guide
Doing some construction work at the palace
Floating Palace
Billy leaning out of the door..
Tired Billy on the train

Hello!

We're in Udaipur now. We managed to catch the train up here without too much trouble - thankfully only Billy noticed the mouse that was running around my feet at one stage of the trip. Our AC2 overnight train was pretty comfy, not the cleanest but not so scary, and we were sharing with a nice Physics lecturer which was good. We arrived into Udaipur at 8am rather weary and after much confusion over our pick up made it to our hotel, which is in a really pretty old house on the quieter side of the river. As its the off season everywhere is pretty quiet - according to the people we met today there's only 20 guests at the posh lake palace hotel which has 80 rooms. They seem to be doing quite a bit of decorating work at our hotel which is being carried out in typical Indian style - liberal application of plaster and white paint to both the room and the decorators - its surprising that the rooms look so neat after the process! After a well deserved cold shower we headed out to the City Palace. We got a rather amusing audio tour and spent several hours wandering around and taking hundreds of photos of the amazing interiors and views. We gave up on finding anywhere clean to have lunch (everywhere seemed to be either dirty, dodgy or closed) so returned to eat the rest of the pack up Nicki had made us the day before and to have a nap (we thought we better get into the habit :P). In the evening we managed to find a yummy local restaurant on recommendation of our hotel. We walked down to the nearby bathing and washing ghats for some interesting photo opportunities. Even Billy found the thought of swimming in the rather green river unappealing, though the colour didn't seem to put off the local boys at all.

Today we took a boat tour of the lake which was good fun. We talked to some nice Australians on the way and enjoyed the gardens as well as a yummy milkshake and lychee juice in the posh restaurant on Jagmandir Island. On the way back we stopped at the supposedly fixed price Government Emporium - it turned out to be rather a rip off and not fixed price at all, though we managed to escape with just a couple of miniature paintings. We ate lunch and drank chai (which I like, surprisingly - that's how little it tastes like tea!) by the riverfront. Now we're back at the hotel for a rest before we head out to the Jagdish Temple and the Monsoon Palace, which had a starring role in 'Octopussy', for sunset. Should be good!

I'll upload some more pictures of Billy looking far too neat to be true (only real scruff bags wear t-shirts and shorts here so Billy has been forced to smarten up!) and some of the things we've seen so far.

Off to have a nap now!

Lots of love,

Rosie and Billy

xxx