Udaipur

We arrived early in Udaipur, about 6:30am, too early it seemed for the pre-paid rickshaw office, which was closed. So we had to haggle with the rickshaw drivers as usual, but it was easy enough. 15 minutes later we had checked out the Panorama Hotel, and we got a lovely room for a great price.

After settling in and having a couple of hours sleep (neither of us slept very well on the overnight train) I went out to explore the town while Sarah relaxed in the fantastically located roof-top restaurant and read her book. That evening we caught the cultural show in the ''. Normally I'd avoid should a 'show' at all costs, but the books recommended it, it was less than an hour long (a major boon!), and it was in a lovely building so I thought I'd give it a go.

It turned out to be a really good show. Each act was short and very professionally done. I think it's important to keep the acts of these shows short, since obviously foreign tourists can't understand the lyrics of the songs, or the meaning of many of the intricate dance moves. So these acts were great in that they were short and of course all the dancers and musicans were mad colourful. The last act was a bit circus-y, an 'auld wan balancing big dishes on her head, but even that dance had a ring of authenticity to it.

Udaipur is a famous tourist destination, and much more understandably so than Jaipur in my opinion. It's centrepiece is a large lake with a couple of small islands, one having a world-famous hotel (The Lake Palace) and the other a temple and old palace. The town is built up on hillsides around the lake, with all the hotels and restaurants trying to build higher and higher to provide views of the lake. It gives the town a kinda crazy, haphazard appearance, but it all works and is very impressive, especially at sunset, and from the great viewpoint of our hotel's restaurant.

The town is also 'famous' for being the setting for the first half of the James Bond movie Octopussy, and therefore many of the restaurants show the movie every night. We watched it our first night, but of the course the DVD was desperately poor quality, and juddered to a halt about 45-minutes before the end (just as you're well and truly into the story).

I was keen to try the restaurant in the famous Lake Palace hotel on the island but our hotel owner told us they no longer accept non-residents at the restaurant. But the town has plenty of other fine restaurants, and that first night we ate really well at the Whistling Teal, where I'd had a great coffee earlier that day.

The next day we rented bicycles (no problem finding the bike hire place here!), and our first stop was the City Palace. This is a very impressive museum set inside the old Royal Palace, and it took a very pleasant couple of hours to stroll around checking out the murals, mosaics, courtyards and artworks. Then back on the bikes we checked out the bus station to see about getting a bus to Jodhpur (there is no train service between the towns).

After riding around a good bit looking for a famous local restaurant (and failing, and then later reading the other guidebook which gave proper directions to the 'fiendishly difficult to find' Natraj), I had a great lunch in Parkview. Poor Sarah was feeling a bit dicky (first time in nearly 2 months in India), so she just picked at my curry after ordering soup.

Then it was back on the bikes and exploring around the surrounding lakes for a couple of hours, as it was lovely day. Then we rode out to try and find another famous hotel to check it out, like I always do with the mad fancy places, but it was a gated resort place that wouldn't let us in without a reservation.

The plan had been to leave the following morning on the bus, but after I'd booked it Sarah reckoned she'd really rather wait another day in Udiapur to allow her tummy recover a bit more. It was a trivial phone call to change the bus booking, and so we had the whole next day to relax. This was spent by Sarah reading her book in bed, while I read in the restaurant, then rented a bike to head out for lunch at Natraj, the place I couldn't find a couple of days earlier.

Again the guidebooks were spot-on in describing a fantastically characterful local eatery. This place had no menu at all, and as soon as I sat at a table (the only one available during the lunch-hour rush), the waiters approached from all sides with trays of thali dishes, chappatis, curd, rice, pakoras, etc. It was certainly one of the best thali's I've had in India I reckon (although the number of times I've said 'this is the best place yet!' to myself just keeps on increasing...). So stuffed after my enormous delicious lunch I explored the town a bit more on the bike, sorted out more money, and headed back to the hotel. I just spent the rest of the afternoon reading and chilling on the roof-top again, and then went for a big stroll that evening to catch the sunset at a hilltop facing the lake (and on the way back I tried to get into the Sunset Terrace bar in another very fancy hotel, but they had a silly cover-charge thing, so I didn't bother).

Next morning Sarah was feeling tip-top again (in fact, she'd been fine the whole previous day too, but it was better to be on the safe side, and it was nice to relax in our lovely hotel for another day anyway). We got a rickshaw to the bus stand and boarded our super-comfy bus (which was the first proper sleeper-class bus I've ever been on, although we didn't have berths we just had normal big seats (3-abreast)). The bus left spot on time and we arrived in Jodhpur an effortless 7 hours later.