Paras Mahal Udaipur

... as the only foreigner in the room I was un-ignorable. <br><br>However, my parcel was clearly not quite acceptable for mailing as it needed "seals". The man gave me a bunch of poorly photocopied not even slightly official looking forms in FRENCH of all things to fill out. I dutifully filled them out and the he tried to send me to another counter to get my "seals". I pretended not to understand and finally he agreed to do it for me after a long conversation with another ...

... old world charm and rich cultural heritage. Apparently the ad gurus were looking for exotic locations for their shoot and they got their locale right but not the attire!<br><br>Other places of interest include the Jagmandir, an island palace located on Lake Pichola. A flower decked ferry takes you to the steps of this unique party venue ...

... lief.<br><br><br>Gestern wollte ich zu airindia...die sind umgezogen....ich wurde 4 stunden lang in verschiedenste richtungen geschickt.....obwohl es kein air india office gibt, die also keine ahnung haben<br><br>dann heute beim neuem office gewesen, wollte flug mit airindia bombai tokyo buchen, da ichs uebers internet nicht kann da meine kreditkarte nicht auf meinen namen lautet<br><br>die koennen den flug nicht buchen, auch nicht kalkutta bangkok ...

... down. The band started playing and the girls performed a very impressive traditional dance that included all the acrobatics and theatrics you'd expect. I couldn't help but notice how strained the atmosphere was though, and call me cynical or typically western, but I couldn't help noticing the mother who kept shouting at her daughters throughout the dance - probably urging them to try harder and concentrate. I felt like an aristocratic, imperialist monster - watching ...

... started earlier in the temples. We visited a temple in the middle of the old part of Udaipur. The women were singing and dancing and spreading colored dust on each others faces and hair. The festival is both a transition between winter and spring and a celebration of the triumph of their gods over demons. Holi is a celebration of life, and we were lucky to be here to celebrate early. They also put silver tinsel and decorations over the streets in preparation.

... reclining one of the girls infront. I at least had a reclining seat but when the man next to me decided that my shoulder was the most comfortable place to sleep i put it up ... ugh...... possibly the least fun experience ever. MUMBAI We arrived in Mumbai around 11 and went sraight to our hotel where i left Jess to sleep. The main purpose of our return was to see the Family friend Patrick (and to buy mum some silk) so off i went to the silk shop to buy some ...

... medium to paint on, such as camel bone, rice paper, silk and marble. The typical paintings have all natural paint; using different plants and even some gold, ground up and made into paint. There are two types of brushes; the little ones use squirrel fur and the bigger ones uses camel fur. (By the way, there are "squirrels" everywhere which we would call chipmunks). The style they use is pretty amazing, all small dots to make up the larger picture which means the artist can ...

... collect a price worth almost 10 British pounds. I told them I couldn't afford that much, but Mukeesh was keen on bargaining. The situation was incredibly uncomfortable as I felt trapped between a rock and a hard place - I was sitting in a nice house with an Indian family I did not want to offend and whose hospitality I certainly did not want to reject, but they had without doubt seen that we were middle class white girls to whom £8 wasn't ...

... style. They put us in our backpacker threads to shame. I tried on some horrendous silk dresses and we bought produce from a guy with a shop the size of a closet. The sign on the shop says "Small shop, many things". Nice one. We ran into Micheal from Australia who we had first met at the Shamanism Conference in Iquitos in Peru, small world. I had my palm read by one of the Rajput-Moghul style miniature painting artists that Udaipur is famous for. Apparently i ...