Hotel Krishna Niwas Udaipur

... and claims to 'need 'filling up again'. I watched this film lots as a kid at my grandparents house and i'm pretty sure this line went over my head) features none other than Udaipur's Lake palace as the hide out for it's feisty female villain. To celebrate it's claim to fame every cafe worth it's salt plays this film at about 7pm every night. Our waiter reckoned he had watched it over 1000 times. India for Bond was a very interesting ...

... Hurley had her wedding there and Madonna has been by as well. The place was very amazing to see and definitely worth visiting. For lunch we found this little hole-in-the-wall where we had two samosas for RS$10. They were fabulous. Man, I LOVE Indian food and am so content right now...you have no idea. A place could be beautiful and spectacular...but if it doesn't have good food...I couldn't care less. I've had many paneer dishes and gulab jamun (sugar balls soaked in rose syrop ...

A short five hour bus journey and we arrive at Udaipur Bus Stand and quickly negotiate a price to take us to Panorama Guest house, luckily they had one room available but only for one night, so we would have to move tomorrow. It was a large triple room but we were charged the same as the room we'll be having tomorrow (400r/6 pounds). The guest house is spread over several floors and after starting out with just two rooms in 1996 now has eighteen with a restaurant on ...

... which continues to be so, so good. And we've got a camera...and its working....and it doesnt seem to be out of the question to upload photos in this continent so that's all quite good. After visiting Udaipur and being quite chilled, we decided to walk off the curries we had been gulping down, and organised a walk between Daulatabad, a beautiful fort with stunning views of the surrounding hills, and Ranakpur, a ...

... guy: [blank stare] Me: We are going to have a drink at the bar. We are going to pay money. Hotel guy: Lake Palace for hotel guests only. Me: Yeah, I know. We are going to pay hotel.  Hotel guy: [blank stare] Me: I intend to have a blue martini at the bar like Anthony Bourdain. Hotel guy: Lake Palace closed. Only for hotel guests. Me: WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE LAKE PALACE IS CLOSED!!!! And that's about how it went. I came to ...

... too, apart from the fact that they are surrounded by a huge hunting party driving their prey towards the Maharaja's safe vantage point. They don't shoot cows though. That'd be bad for the karma. I wonder what the Jains made of this? To be honest, Udaipur has inspired a kind of annoyance in me for "the Palace" in general. I'm starting to find the phoney elegance of palaces and such annoying hard up against the poverty and filth. The entry fees for the City Palace ...

... people. It's a custom for which I'd happily be a peasant but, alas, it's no longer practised.


Less impressive in design but even more stunning in location is the evocatively named 'Monsoon Palace', perched high on a wooded hill overlooking the city, lakes and hills rolling away to the horizon. Renu, an ex-lecturer of Indian architecture and art history, was an ideal companion for the jaunt, guiding me through the details as we ...