Rupi Hotel Udaipur

... with only 5 raviolis on the plate. And Tony found his pasta to be so bad as to be a complete waste of time and money. He is a good judge of pasta because his father was one of the biggest pasta manufacturers in his home country of Malta when he was growing up.

We tried to fill the void left by the inadequate lunch by having dessert at the Edelweiss Café, an establishment owned by the same people who own the Savage Garden. Tony had the Apfel Strudel and I had ...

... of the river, made into a series of stone stairways which lead into the water. these staiways stretch about four or five miles along the banks. indians climb down the steps every day to bathe in the water, while at the same time, further upstream, from dawn to dusk cremations are held on specially built 'burning ghats'.
the ganges is extremely dirty, and even indians advise tourists not to bathe in it. the water is brown and for the most part, opaque. the ghats themselves are ...

... outlines of conical domes. From the lake's opposite side, the collosal but equally beautiful City Palace stretches along the north east; and on a distant peak, the Monsoon Palace looks down on the city's spleandour with rightful appreciation.

We arrived at night time, making the bazaar-like, straight out of aladdin, winding streets feel even more alien to us. On our third try we found a place to stay. Like many others in the area, the building is a ...

... insight into Indian family life and before we left Lydia was on the recieving end of some interesting ( have I used that word already ? ) henna designs on her hands.

My last minute appealls for maybe one more day in the lovely Mahendra Prakesh fell on deaf ears, thankfully in hindsight, and we were off on another spendid bus journey that would encompass more skullduggery, hours of utter discomfort but ultimately a successful scoot to Jaisalmar.

... in UCD with Sarah and she had been to a house party in his house 8 years ago -- small world!! After chilling out for the morning we went and booked our Indian cooking class for that afternoon in Hotel Krishna Niwas. The cooking course was excellent we learned how to make Chapatti and nan,

... wake-up calls (one of those coming from the USA!), I woke to people screaming and arguing in the hall just outside my room. It sounded as if whoever it was, was going to come to blows, so I called the reception desk and told them about the disturbance. I don't know if they did anything or not about it (it sounded like someone's friend was trying to quiet them down, being aware it was midnight) but it eventually stopped enough ...

... I finally managed to get my self on a cooking course. Shashi, the lady that runs the four hour lesson has an inspiring life-story which makes her even more of an amazing woman. She put us three lads through our paces and was a stickler for detail. It was more than just the learning for me, it was being in a working Indian kitchen and watching a talented Indian woman weave her magic in such an effortless way. I leaned many new dishes and some great ...

... was an aerial tramway, "The Karni Mata Ropeway", to an overlook. It's a popular place to go to watch sunset over the lakes and palaces, so we met him over there in time to take advantage of that. Cost was $1.20/person for the four minute ride. At the top of the mountain there was also a Hindu temple, but we were not allowed admission. Apparently we don't look Hindu enough. But Miles spotted lots of interesting wildlife, including wild peacocks in the ...

... intelligent decicion on our part was to leave Goa for Mumbai on the monday of the bank holiday when the thousands of locals would also be going home..... genius. Our bus (at 7.30pm) supposedly arrived (involving a run from one side of the complex to another) but when we tried to get on it the 'nice' man refused saying that it was over booked and we would have to wait for the next one. the concept of being stranded in Mapusa for the evening was not ...

... husbands, children and grandparents. We entered and struck up nervous but friendly conversation with each family member, before Mukeesh's wife took us to the kitchen for a lesson in Indian cooking. To watch her cook was fascinating, a way totally unknown to me previously. As we chatted and dipped flour balls into boiling oil, Mukeesh's handsome brother-in-law joined us and told us about his attempts to become a Bollywood star. We found out ...