Udaipur R&R

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Udaipur is known as the romantic city of Rajasthan- so me and Jo were just a little out of place!! We spent our time here just really relaxing. We didnt managae to book a hotel before arriving- so when we stepped off the bus we took our chances and let a tuk tuk driver take us to one he knew. By coincidence it was next door to the hotel we'd been trying to stay at and we ended up moving there the following day. We literally did nothing all day just sat out in the garden in the sun!
One our second day in Udaipur we booked up for a cookery course, I had been really looking forward to this- adding more dishes to my own delia stylee reportoire!! Our teacher was called Shelley and spoke really good English- which seems to be some what of a rarity lately. We learnt how to make 2 different types of Pakoras, a delicious pakora dip, chai (tea)(not ginger this time but Masala- what is wrong with these people!!!) Vegetable Biriyani, Aloo Bengan, Palak Paneer (which is spinach with cottage cheese, dont worry i wont be making this one again) and finally chipattis! After we made everything we then had to sit down and eat it. Got yet another grilling for not drinking my Chai masala- trust me, its as bad as it sounds! But the food was actually really lovely, and we're both so excited about coming home to test them out ourselves!
The following day we booked our full body ayurvedic massages - which was absolutely amazing. I wish i had a photo of what the room looked like, it was pure bliss. Basically there was this huge white room, with a big white cushion/matress in the middle. All around the edges they had sprinkled rose petals, there were big fluffy white towels and bathrobes, the room was lit by candle light and there was really relaxing meditation type music on. The time absolutely flew by, and was near sleeping by the time the hour was up!
After we were both done we decided to extend the self indulgence and blew our budgets on having lunch in a really expensive gorgeous hotel nearby. There were huge four poster style beds out in a plush garden, all had fabrics draping down from the top- we could have laid there all day!!
On Friday we had to vacate our rooms by 10am, so we packed up our bags and left them behind reception, as we thought we'd better actually explore Udaipur as we'd barely moved since we arrived! We took a walk down to the lake and found a place where they did boat trips, and hired a boat called a Shakira, which was quite a long narrow boat just for two people and had curtains that you could pull around the sides. There was also a little man sat at the back who rowed it for you- come on you didnt really think that i would exert myself! We had a half hour trip around the lake, and in the centre is two islandswith huge gorgeous hotels on, that you can only reach by boat- and are not allowed to visit unless you are staying there (it was about US$1000 a night so that counted us out). Both 'palaces' as they were referred to were featured in James Bond Octopussy, i've never seen a James Bond movie in my life so I didnt recognise them but cool all the same!! All the local restaurants and hotels tried to cash in on this by playing James Bond movies every night- we only found this out before we left otherwise i might have actualy seen it!
We then got ready to leave to head towards Ahmednegar where the orphanage we're visiting is, i think if i'd actually realised quite how far it was i would've tried to get a flight, but there's hindsight for you!

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Photos

There appears to be a colour malfunction...
i think my camera makes brown skin look red