Shikarbadi Hotel Udaipur

... travelling to places in the vicinity of the town. Having said that, Udaipur’s the kind of place where you enjoy lazing about or aimlessly wandering the streets of the old quarter, and few people regret staying an extra couple of days.

City Palace complex
The City Palace, which stretches along the eastern bank of Lake Pichola, was ...

... more importantly has significantly less tourists here and makes the whole experience for me, so much better. The locals settle down to their own lives for a few months and also take holidays themselves (to say nothing of the cheaper prices 'off season’ and the ability to book trains so much easier!), so I was delighted to be here now! And being a town used to many tourists, it was nice to have the place to yourself!!

I took some digs at Hanuman Ghat, with ...

... day before that the area around the temple housed interesting shops, so we arranged with Rampal to pick us up again after a few hours. So, for only the second time on the trip we had a few hours to just wander around and visit shops. I had the idea, before arriving in India, of purchasing some pants and shirts from here that I could wear back in Mexico. That plan also turned out to me more complicated than we realized. Most of ...

... how it was to be worn. It was truly beautiful and I felt like an Indian princess in my mehndi and my saree. I came downstairs to the lobby (carefully) where everyone was meeting for dinner and made quite the scene in my splendor. Felt like a celebrity for a few minutes... until we left the lobby and I just tried not to trip all over myself in the streets. :) Indira had told me that we would sneak out at dinner to get the ...

... experience in Udaipur (surprise surprise) was food related. We finally had some more really excellent food. We went to a Gujarati thali restaurant, well away from the touristy area. The food was fantastic and not at all cheesy! The main problem with the food here has been trying to find restaurants which look fairly reliable but aren't primarily catering towards Westerners. 

... paint for a few hours a day due to the stress it puts on his/her eyes. This means paintings can take up to 6 months for a painting that's about 2 feet long. This town is also famous for it's fabrics that have little mirrors woven into them but we just got some less elaborate bed sheets.   Overall Udaipur is a very low key town that is just gorgeous and great for walking around and chilling out. Due to all the terrorist activities pretty much all NYE celebrations were ...

... 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 ...

... century and sits on the waters edge overlooking the lake palace. We were allowed to run around peeping into some of the 138 rooms without a guide. Just us and the precious treasures in a great big house. There were some cool rooms like the musical instrument room, the utensil room, an art gallery and a strange room filled with world famous monuments carved from white polystyrene. The highlight for us was the room that contained the world's biggest turban and we had ...

... el viaje no ha acabado! By Pato I couldn't start writing about Udaipur without mention the bus trip from Jaisalmer. What a freaky experience! 14 hours in a coffin, a sleeper berth for Lorraine and me. We jumped with the road, had to hear the crazy horn all night long and the window was opening all the time. But we had a funny time and laugh a lot... and had a very nice room in our arrival to the city (welcome by the pujas at the sunrise). We ...

... a seat at the side. There seems to be no injury apart from a rapidly developing large lump on her head and the onset of a headache. We abandon the visit and go straight back to the hotel. After a short rest, shower, change and paracetamol, she insists she is able to continue the tour. Back on the lakeside we board a boat for a lake tour. The old buildings around the lake are interesting but the main attractions are the two palaces. One 'Jag Niwas', was built as a summer palace ...