Friday 7th December
I woke up feeling refreshed but with little compulsion to do a great deal having rushed about Rajasthan for the last two weeks, feeling well and truly 'forted-out'. I went for breakfast in the hotel restaurant and got speaking to Freddie from Malmo and Kathryn from Vancouver, who had been travelling together in Nepal and India for the past few weeks. After a few hours chatting, Freddie and I headed out for a walk about town, and I was pleasantly surprised by the scenery within the town, the lake and the hills. I was also happy to see that the lake was pretty clean, in comparison to some of the infested waters I had witnessed on my trip.
Later in the evening, the three of us took a boat trip around the lake, which included a stop-off at the Jag Mandir Palace, and it was stunning as the sunset over the lake. There was a touch of class about the place that set it apart from all of the other places I had been to. After this, we went to a short concert, a showcase for some of the traditional music and dance of the local area. It was brilliant, each dance was so different from the other. Girls danced and twirled with flaming jars balanced on their heads; women beat rhythms on bells that were attached to their arms, legs and feet, along to the harmonium and tabla accompaniment.
After dinner, I got an early night, very happy that the day had turned out to be much better than expected. I could see why James Bond might have liked Udaipur himself, although in Octopussy he did land on an island populated exclusively by hot women in red jumpsuits and bikinis. Didn't manage to find the place myself, much to my disappointment.
