Hotel Krishnalila Regency Udaipur

After Jodhpur it was eastwards again to allegedly the most romantic city in India.

Unfortunately we didn't have the best of starts in Udaipur, this time it was Paul’s time to feel under the weather. We’re not sure whether it was the pollution in Jodhpur or the general unhygienic conditions that sent him to bed for the first day. Recovered a little the next day we decided to explore the city but first we needed to organise ...

... pashminas). 'Ah! Australian! Ricky Ponting!', they’d call. When my companion Toss told them I was Ricky’s cousin – well I am Tasmanian, so he could’ve been right – we collectively became ‘The Ricky Pontings’ to the whole neighbourhood.

The Kashmiris' ploy worked. Peta and Lyn bought delicate pashminas that could slide through the smallest wedding ring, and Toss and I bought enough shirts to last us a lifetime of Canberra summers.

... and kept walking.
"arent we going to get it?" i asked.
"we stop for lunch in ten minutes, then i will walk to the camel." he said.
feeling a little guilty, i asked him to teach me how to use the reins and set off to retrieve the camel myself.
just as we finished our lunch, a jeep pulled up next to us, ready to take us back to town. we left the guide in the desert with his three camels looking slightly folorn (probably because he hadnt sold them to us), and started to ...

... like royalty then. I liked the royal marble squat loo.

Our driver, Happy Singh, took us to Shilpgram village, a cultural centre set up by Rajiv Gandhi to promote & preserve the music, architecture & crafts of the people of western India. The original concept was good but it is not well supported & looks a bit sad today. Most of the stalls which should have had weavers & ...

... are in the car and driving through really 'local' villages we are seeing some truly wonderful sights and what the crazy Indians get up to on every day life. my eyes see so much I'm knackered every day and i hardly do owt. Where ever we go recently there aren't many tourists so people are totally loving our white skin, I've had to pose for zillions of photos with kids that get way over-excited about speaking to a Yorkshire man (or probably just a whitey), the kids also ...

... We finally arrived in Rajasthan a few days ago and my first impression wasn't a positive one. Being so used to the palm fringed roads and fertile paddy fields of the south the sight that greeted us from our coach window was very grim. Dry, dusty and barren, it looked more like an uninhabitable wasteland. When we arrived in Udaipur, however, I found myself smiling again. You cannot resist it's charm, the narrow lanes that snake through the city, it's lake and ...

... me, "We stop when you say stop. We not like Mumbai." I had noticed that, Babu, one of the Indian men running the B & B, had a motorcycle, so I asked him if he'd be willing to give Miles a ride thru the city streets. Miles loved it! The picture here is when they came upon me as I was searching for an internet cafe. Later, when they were safely away from my sight, Miles got a turn at driving it as well. Miles got dropped off at one end of the city where ...

... for the less crowded but more expensive Mambos down the hill for a couple of nights. So yes Baga consisted of rather drunken late nights followed by the classic english breakfast (indian style)... the diet will start in Rajasthan..... all in all it was good fun. we had to move hotels for two nights due to the fact that it was the bank holiday and we had not booked but we found somewhere nice after about 20 mins of panic of "oh god what will we do" Another ...

... the most part peacefully, although it was obvious that tensions on occasion boiled over. At 5pm that evening, we sat on the temple steps and waited for Mukeesh's motorbike to pull up. When it eventually did, the three of us curved the streets to his house, in a respectable neighbourhood - of doctors and lawyers he proudly stated. Mukeesh's house was surrounded by children and was a typical Indian residence, in that it housed brothers, sisters ...

...