Deep Palace Hotel Udaipur

... somehow find them easier to ignore. Now I'm able to focus on the better things about India. For instance, some of the cityscapes I find incredibly beautiful in their simplicity. And rather than being only irritating, many of the people we have met so far have been downright helpful, friendly and charming. If things continue like this, I just might have to reassess my opinion of this country! (Okay, I'm only at my first real stop of the trip and I'm only three days ...

... climbed higher in the sky, and another day began.
we toured round varanasi over the next couple of days, visited the monkey temple, so called for the same reason as always: it is home to hundreds of monkeys, some with rather violent temperament to each other, and we also visited the bharat mata temple, which contains a huge marble relief map of the indian subcontinent. it was all quite impressive, but i found myself wishing that i hadnt seen the taj mahal two days before. varanasi ...

... bright and lavish when it came to their interiors. In other words, they liked to throw their money around!

Udaipur is also rich in the world of the arts; famed for its schools of miniture paintings and metalwork. We scoured such shops and hunted down an elusive market not far from the central clock tower which was adorned with silver tinsel to celebrate the coming of a festival day for Ganesh (multi-armed elephant deity of good fortune). Here we saw iconic ...

... and her family were fasting. It was a festival day celebrating good karma, where you give to the poor and your rewards are multiplied ten fold. It was a little intimidating for us as the poor or the lower caste in society line the streets and basically do some hardcore begging. The higher castes walk past and give money, food, grain (it seemed mostly grain) and walk off happy awaiting their reward. We ...

... this seems like a simple thing to do, however, simple it is not. The difficulty derives from the makeup and location of the local shops. To start with, at the purely local level not many shopkeepers speak English. Their local language in this part of India (and the official language of India) is Hindi. Second, the streets have no sidewalks or areas where shoppers can walk safely. Just walking along the store fronts you ...

... them to quiet down. I lay there for about 10 more minutes before getting up, showering (trying to wake up) and getting myself and all my personal belongings downstairs to the lobby, then into a cab to the International Airport. To the end, the hotel staff said repeatedly to give the driver 400 rupees. He asked for 500. I basically said sorry and walked away. Besides, I gave him a tip, whatever remained after the 11 rupee airport toll...

... which I hope to replicate when I return home. So, be warned, there are many more dinner parties to come! I feel that we have maybe seen one of Rajasthan's finest cities, trying to imagine how this place could possibly be bettered. From what I have been told by close friends and other travelers, there is still much on offer which is a very exciting prospect. We are also looking forward to hooking up with old friends here, to exchange tales and enjoy new adventures. XXX

... of trees. That night we ate at the Ambrai, one of my favorite restaurants ever, and another recommendation from Carol at Hibiscus. (Hibiscus hopes to have it's own restaurant eventually). It's located at the nearby Amet Hotel, sitting outside under huge trees next to the water, directly in front of the Lake Palace Hotel that's in the middle of the lake, and with wonderful views of the lit up city on the other side. (Okay, I said the Lake Palace Hotel ...

... so Jess left me to guard the bags and valiently went off to try and first negotiate with the bus driver and then to figure out what the hell we were going to do!!!! It seemed that the company had overbooked several bus's and others had broken down somewhere nobody knew what was going on and worse we could not find a single other person who was supposed to be on our bus. Jess discovered that the bus was delayed and would arrive at 9 but 9 came and went as did ...

... family was of the Brahmen caste - the highest in India - but that he wasn't keen on having an arranged marriage as he didn't like Indian girls. Just before the food was served, Mukeesh's wife invited us to take a seat in the lounge and wait for the food, whilst she showed us the imitation jewellery that she made whiling away the long hours as a housewife. She had stated earlier that this was a hobby of hers, and I had asked whether she sold ...