UDAIPUR

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Lovely lovely Udaipur. We decided to pick ourselves up a little after our disaster trip to Ahmedabad and treated ourselves to a stay in a 200 year old lakeside converted haveli - a residence of 'someone quite important' with a beautiful courtyard in its centre and views over to the Lake Palace. Ah sigh! The town was very tourist friendly and easy to get around on foot. The main bother came from persistent shop keepers trying to make some easy cash, but we were mostly uninterested as they sold much of the same stuff as each other. We used our stay to relax, get some reading in and enjoy the food and drink on offer. It was hard to think of going anywhere else when overlooking the lake with a beer and some indian snacks during each days magnificent sunset.

The city palace was our first look into historic Indian architecture and decoration (ie not british). Covering a huge piece of the lakeside, right next to our hotel. The vast royal residence took a good number of hours to explore. Like many places we've seen in our travels it was a challenge to try and imagine what peoples lives were like in such a place and what many of its functions were, but we were later taken through a separate royal residence where a lot was explained to us.

One of the most special experiences during our time in Udaipur and all of India was a great day learning to cook with a beautiful local lady. Shashi taught us how simple many of the dishes we'd been eating were to cook ourselves, using just a few spices. We were lucky to find such a great place to learn as many places were with large groups in uninteresting environment. But we were in a lovely little home with family and 'pets'. Kate enjoyed the chance to speak with a local female after so far being mostly ignored. As well as learning to cook we found out a lot about Indian culture, customs, religion and their caste systems.

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Photos

Caught her
A fantastic dance display

From our hotel
We've since seen this view in countless books, postcards etc.

These were just a normal part of life.
Along with the cows, the elephants, donkeys, dogs, cats and the rest of the animals wandering the streets!

No way we're were getting on that!
Quote – Katie Collins

Wow woman wear bright colours here
And its strange that they dont want to be noticed!

Graffiti Indian Style
Well sot of.

One of the friends we made
Its best not to show any interest. They think you might have food for them or as we liked to put it - you were food for them!

Our Indian cooking class
Done the proper way – on the floor

We were a hit with the locals
These guys had to have me in a photo – and I had to get one of them too

A brilliant sunset
This might be hard to top.