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Published: January 21st 2012
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The first thing I did this morning was check my email. I am now a homeowner. My friend signed the closing documents for me yesterday and I am now the proud owner of a super fabulous little house in Tucson, Arizona. This trip is exciting and great and amazing, but I am way more excited about my house than I am about this trip. I am very weary of all the people and pollution and rubbish in the streets of India. But, I am still in India, so on with the show!
After a celebratory breakfast across the street at Cafe Edelweiss, which was excellent and cheap, we went back to the room for a while and took care of some things as we were in no particular hurry today, and then we ventured off to City Palace (75Rs/200Rs for camera and they are strict about it), everyone's reason for visiting Udaipur. It isn't the most impressive monument we've seen but it contains some impressive paintings, if you're in to that sort of thing. It is Rajasthan's largest palace and was built in the early 1600's. The main part of the palace is open as the City Palace Museum and
contains an impressive collection of paintings and artifacts and you can see some of the rooms decked out in mirrors and glass and period furniture. We managed to spend two hours wandering around and taking photos, and then, we were done. Two hours seems to be my limit, as well Annette's, so that's convenient for us both.
We decided to splurge and eat at the City Palace cafe in the courtyard. I was feeling the need for something besides Indian food, so I ordered a pizza, which was pretty good, but not as good as the cold coffee. If you're not worried about sugar, order cold coffee in India. I had cold coffee many times and was never disappointed. It is simple, refreshing, and delicious! After we ate we wandered into the gift shop and I heard a family speaking Turkish! I had a long conversation with them, in English, and it was really interesting to get their perspective on India.
We decided to walk around a bit and went to an Ayurvedic Body Care Shop recommended in Lonely Planet. We bought a couple of products, but I was not impressed enough to get a massage. Because it
was Christmas Eve and we wanted to celebrate, we went back to City Palace and paid 25Rs to go to the Shiv Niwas Palace Hotel to their lovely Panera Bar, also in Lonely Planet. No one was there. They were preparing for the big celebration outside and inside we sitting in comfy chairs enjoying a drink and watching the sunset. Lovely. Not cheap, but worth it. The waiter who took care of us has been working at this hotel for 30 years and he was so elegant and professional. He got a very, very good tip. The bar was actually closed due to the celebration, but he volunteered to wait on us in addtion to his other duties that evening. The celebration hadn't started yet, but he will still busy.
After our drink, we ended up buying more shoes, checked our email at the hotel, picked up our clean laundry, and went to bed. It was indeed a good day. Off to Jaipur tomorrow.
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