James Bond's Handbags

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Well here we are in Udaipur, at the end of our tour of Rajasthan. After today, we are heading down to Mumbai on a train, which will be our first experience of Indian railways.... Apparently they're an unmissable part of the authentic Indian experience, although I'd probably be more excited about the prospect if we didn't have to do 8 hours on one train, get off at 4am, then onto another train for the rest of the day at 7am. I'm sure it will be character-building anyway....

Udaipur has been quite nice, although everyone is dying to tell you how the James Bond film, Octapussy, was filmed here. Naturally, everyone you speak to was pivotal to the film and had some kind of starring role. My favourite example of this is the owner of a bag shop (where we may have caved in to pretty bag temptation) who was telling us that Roger Moore leaps out of a rickshaw right in front of his shop. Of course, in true Indian storytelling style, Roger Moore couldn't help himself and simply HAD to buy a sparkly handbag or 50... Somehow, I don't see Roger Moore dining out with his 'handmade', 'original' slightly falling apart bag from Udaipur, but being in India is turning me into a complete cynic, so perhaps that is unfair!

We have seen a couple of sights here, notably the City Palace. Although we were probably in a slightly hard to please mood that morning, we concluded that this was pretty rubbish, in need of a paint job and had some pretty ugly exhibits in it.

In an incredible coincidence, we bumped into the friends of Sarah's parents we had dinner with in Delhi in a temple here in Udaipur yesterday!! Very strange indeed. They had been staying at the Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur and were very kind in asking us if we'd like to come over and see their hotel / have a shower. Despite some anxiety over how not to look like a couple of unsophisticated yoooths in need of a good wash, we went along. It was nice to be in a slightly more glamorous environment!

The hotel we have been staying in is fine, but pretty noisy, with last night's sleep being interrupted by a 5.30am call from another guest, trying to order two cups of coffee. Although we have sensed that we're usually put in the less desirable rooms in the hotels we've been staying in, there had been no mention that we were expected to provide room service too...

Today we are wondering around Udaipur for a few hours and buying a picnic to take on our epic train journey. I don't remember James Bond ever having to do any 20-hour train journeys, but at least I have got the same handbag as him...

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