Udaipur: shaken not stirred

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Udaipur is fantastic. I could leave it there but I've done almost nothing for the past 3 days so I'll add some more! I arrived in the early morning (5ish) weary but ready for the necessary battle with the rickshaw driver to take me to guest house I weant to go to, not the one he wants to take me to! So what a nice surpirse Mustafa was - took me straight there, no hassles, polite, good english - in fact all he gave me was a little book full of reccomendations of his tour of Udaipur from previous backpackers and explained that if I was interested to let him know, and that was that! I actually considered doing it if I could find someone else to split the cost with (it was reasonably priced anyway) and arranged to meet him at 10 the next day in case I did. So I rocked up at Lal Ghat Guest House in a surprisingly good mood for the hour of the morning! Unfortunately for poor Mustafa I slept til 11 the next day having completely forgotten but I'm sure he's over it already...

Udaipur, for those of you that don't know, is a town situatred on the edge of a large lake in the desert state of Rajasthan. From the middle of this lake rises the gleaming white Lake Palace, built on an island right up to edges so that nothing is visible apart from it's magical fairytale self. It's the palace used in the Bond film 'Octopussy' - as no-one let's you forget, half the roof-top restaurants have nightly screenings of it! However it's not the only palace here, no Udaipur's full of them, there's also the massive City Palace (biggest in Rajasthan) and another one I can't remeber the name of that's also built on an island in the lake though it hasn't got the shining impressiveness of the Lake Palace. The whole town is generally chilled out too, for an Indian tourist town at least; you still get people trying to sell you stuff everywhere - they just prefer to do it sitting down and don't shout so much or follow you down the street trying to sweet-talk you!

I couldn't have picked a better guest house either. It's on Lal Ghat (a ghat is a place on the edge or a river/lake with steps leading down to the water where people do washing etc, you've probably seen them in pictures of India on the news) where a lot of guest houses are and has everything you could possibly need; internet, a shop for snacks & toiletries, a large book selection, cheap and comfortable dorm beds, and a fairly decent menu if you can't be arsed to walk around looking for somewhere to eat. Some of the older rooms have their own cushioned alcoves with stained glass windows though I'm in the more modern (and cheap) dorm! By far the best feature though, is the roof-top terrace and alcove balcony overlooking the Lake Palace in all it's splendour and Hanuman Ghat just across the lake. The building itself is an old haveli (a decorative villa-type house built by rich merchants long ago) with a large courtyard, a roof-top terrace, and a first-floor courtyard with an attached arched alcove with all the usual Rajasthani decorative stonework. This is a great place to just chill out and meet people which is pretty much all I've done a few excursions aside...

The first night here I went with Brett (ozzie) and a french girl to the Hindu Jagdish Temple where there was a big Vishnu celebration going on, we sat in an watched as the beat the drums, chanted and shared out the holy offerings, it was such a different atmosphere to churches back home, and everyone was really friendly wanting us to get as involved as possible. The next day I went to the City Palace with Aaron (a manc but I'll forgive him as he plays guitar pretty well) and two Danish girls (Sophie and Senna I think...) which despite the extortionate entry fee was very impressive with rooms of coloured glass, white marble fountains, walls of mirrors and beautiful glasswork all over the place. Also helps that it's pretty much right next door to the guest house. Oh and besides generally wandering through the bazaars I've also put the effort in to go to 'sunset point' with a few others to see the sunset - surprisingly enough! There was great views back across the lake towards the city and all the palaces.

As I said though, Udaipur is very conducive to just lazing about and taking in the sight of the lake palace from a shaded alcove whilst sipping lassis (yoghurt drinks), reading and chatting with other travelers who are having the same troubles leaving as you! In fact this is actually all I did on Friday; chatting with two cool English girls (one who goes to Chad's college at Durham and was quick to reassure me just how drunk I would need to be in freshers week!), Brett, Aaron and Agnes the german girl, in fact I only left the guest house once all day to buy some mangoes for lunch! 'Tis a tough life...

However, none have had the same troubles trying to leave as me, oh what a tale! I had a bus booked to Jodphur for Saturday night so I'm all checked out, packed up and ready to go... I rickshaw it up with Aaron to the bus stand only to have a gut feeling that something's not quite right, so I check my bag and there's absolutely no sight of my money belt (containing traveller's cheques, passport, camera memor card, a few thousand rupees, documents I need to leave the country and debit card), fan-bloody-tastic! Normally when something is missing you have at least an idea of where/when you possibly misplaced it but for the first time I didn't... so I rushed back to guest house and checked everywhere, but to no avail. At this time Brett and I had the idea that maybe Aaron had picked mine up as he had the same type and colour as me and was often taking his off and had had the bed next to mine in the dorm. Cue the next rattling rickshaw race back to the bus stand, only to arrive too late to see the bus go. Tired and more than a bit pissed off I make my way back to Lal Ghat thinking I'll email Aaron and tell him to wait in Jodphur. However, upon my return Brett informs me that the bus stand has called to say they have my money belt!?! Once more into the rickshaw dear friend... It later turns out that Aaron had found it but only because it had fallen off him when he got out the rickshaw (he'd been wearing mine having forgotten that his was already packed, bloody mancs) so he'd handed it over having counted everything in there to make sure I got it all - at least he has some sense!

All's well that ends well and I planned to leave the next day instead, but I ended up staying again due to a slightly dodgy stomach which is mostly better so I shall leave tonight instead! And it's hardly been a bad place to be stuck....

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