Hello again everyone,
Hope all is mostly very well with all of you - sorry we've been a bit tardy with keeping up with this blog. Tut tut, must do better Gracie and Ginger Silk... no gold stars...
Now, we are sure you'll all be vastly overjoyed to hear that we are still have a rootting tootting kinda time out here (currently in the rather fine city of Delhi - we'll tell you about it soon) and weirdly for us we haven't lost our minds....!!
So we arrived in to the lovely city of Udaipur (the taxi driver who took us had the best sequined/flared jeans I've ever seen) from the very grand confines of the airport (feeling very good about wimping out of the second train journey, thank you very much!) Kingfisher flights are the best - 1 hour long and they still managed to feed us - get in!
Udiapur is 100% our most favourite and best place so far - the guide books speak the truth. It's absolutely stunning and really does take your breath away, especially the old winding streets around lake Piccohla. Even the newer parts are lovely, less congested, more space and a bit less hectic in terms of noise and people stopping you. We felt proper relaxed as soon as we got there.
We stayed 'on piste' i.e did what the rough guide told us to and went to hotel Jaiwana Haveli. Slightly over budget..... ahem.... but the naughty boys showed me the rooftop restaurant with views over the lake and the palaces and also the cold bottles of Kingsfisher. What are you going to do??! What an introduction, sun setting, birds singing and all the towns fairylights twinkling... sold!! Oh and the owner loved football... and Man Utd were playing AC Milan.... so there were no arguments from there.
We went and hung out with the Marharana (well we paid to look around his gaff) I LOVE the kitsch-ness of this country. The main mans home is covered in sparkly mosaics, jewelled peacocks and elephants and every spare space is either painted bright bright pink or teal. Beats a plain black door... we also popped to see the Maraharanas car collection (as you do) Cars right from his Great Grandfather to the current day. We saw the Rolls Royce used in Octopussy (the James Bond film sniggerers at the back), the only Rolls Royce Jeep in the world, some 1930's mercedes benz's and some morris minors.. (I know...)
We also bumped into our first carnival like Indian Wedding, a huge and very loud cart and procession winding through the teeny tiny streets. Needless to say I loved it and got in the way ever so slightly in all my exuberance. The Mother of the bride, a feirce old matriach seemed to like us though.... from the safety of the high seat in her 4X4 that is. I can't imagine how nervous the poor bride must have been - it seemed everyone and their cousin was there waving and peeking.
Friends - I'm sad to say that we back-packered it up and watched the James Bond film Octopussy at one of the rooftop cafes - we entered the dragon den!. A must really as lots of the filming was done around the city. No I couldn't remember the film or the plot or even who played bond either.... tried to drag memories of Christmas pasts up! What a very silly & cringe inducing film, that weirdly I very much enjoyed. Pill liked it A) Circus acts (say no more) and B) all the scantily clad women in the world on screen! Our German friend from the train popped up again, we had a great time taking the P**s when the stereotypical Germans turned up in the film, you could tell he was thrilled!
We took a lovely and gentle boat trip across the lake - stopping at the lake palace that isn't a 700 pound a night hotel... one day maybe... We saw one of the resident hawk birdies dive out of the sky just next to the boat and swipe an eel out of the water. Amazing. Unfortunately my trigger finger wasn't fast enough to catch it on film, grrrr.
We spent most of our time wandering and getting silly lost and discovering odd nooks and crannies of the city, which was a joy. The people were lovely and we felt super welcome and not just in a walking wallet kind of way.
I think Ladies and Gents that's about it for this installment. Udaipur is done here! We took away lovely views burned into our retinas and a feeling of relaxedness. Pill took insect bites (about 40 no less) and me a full belly (the food was tasty tasty).
Onto Jodhpur - Pill has got this one down I think, 2 for 1 today you lucky lot you!
Much love. G&P XX
