"Life is like an ice-cream, you must eat it before it melts..."

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These were the wise words of our friendly Udaipur rickshaw driver and right he is! We arrived in this magical city last Tuesday after a flying stop in Ahmedabad and yet another early morning bus and soon decided that this would not be our only visit here.

After settling into our hotel and having our first HOT and powerful shower in weeks (in fact, since we left!), we ambled around this beautiful old city set around peaceful Lake Pichola and got distracted by its many glitzy jewellery shops - two true magpies! "A quick look" quickly turned into two hours sat with our new friend Prereena buying too many pretty things and drinking chai... Shopping for a simple pair of trousers to replace Julia's falling to pieces pair also turned out to be pretty interesting - trying on the trousers clearly wasn't enough, we both had to be dressed up as maharajas, gipsy girls, belly dancers - you name it. As you can imagine, we were both in fits of laughter until our friend started to get a little more touchy feely than necessary at which point we thought it wise to escape!

Being the city in which parts of Octopussy were filmed, Katrina was very excited and we ended up watching the film one and a half times - once on our own on a very dark rooftop after having run up the many stairs to catch the beginning but only in part as the film just stopped and then in its entirety on a much nicer rooftop with a stunning backdrop of the lit up City Palace and fireworks over the Lake Palace and Jagmandir Island.

Going on a boat trip on the lake was a recommended activity by the Lonely Planet but this ended up being a little more complicated than expected. After a long (though nice) walk in the sun we found some boat jetties but we were told that these were only for customers of the very fancy hotels. We then found some guards who told us to go left, left and up - directions we followed only to find more guards who told us down, right and right. Needless to say, we were loosing our patience! Finally, we ended up back near our hotel where we found a longer and cheaper boat ride at sunset - a wonderful experience!

We also visited the City Palace and the adjoining museum - a truly unmissable site. We didn't hire a guide but got enough of a feel of the place from just walking around - absolutely beautiful, incredibly detailed and ornate work and gorgeous views over the city!

Finally, we hired a rickshaw for a few hours in order to discover Udaipur's more hidden secrets - a great way to see real India as well as tourist sites. We were taken to a great point from which there were fab views of the city, to a place with cenothaphs of all the Udaipur maharanis, a bustly fruit veg and spice market and a smaller quieter lake.

All in all, we were pretty busy in Udaipur but there is still so much more to do and see!

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Comments

[susan knapp]

udaipur
Wow, looks so beautiful, a must for next year! Enjoy Jaipur, maybe avoid the jewellery bazars!!!!