For those of you uninitiated in James Bond, Octopussy was extensively filmed in Udaipur's palaces and forts and every single hotel plays the film every night. We took it as a sign to stick around. Udaipur is situated on a large, serene lake, with a beautiful white lake palace, a lakeside city palace and it's small, windy streets are surrounded by picturesque mountains. The local folk are very proud of their town and a huge effort is made to sweep the streets daily, discourage beggars and generally keep the place clean and relatively hassle free.
Once the illness wore off we both decided that Udaipur is by far the nicest place we've been in India. Full stop. We've dabbled in sight-seeing: boat trip on lake, city palace and museum, and a trip to the Monsoon Palace on a nearby hillside. In between we've been getting measured up for some tailor-made suits, chilling out on the roof-top cafes and generally having a really lovely time.
We've managed to re-arrange our flights out of India so this first leg of our journey is drawing to a close. It has been a relief though to come somewhere that is a pleasure to stay. We haven't travelled very far away from our hotel but we have made friends with many locals and it is really nice to say hello to people as you walk down the road!
The Royal throne at the City Palace
Kieran has been shopping like mad and has bought, among other things, a wally hat (you'll have to see our flickr photo website to understand this unless you're a Hayes) which he promises to wear tomorrow as we're going horse riding in the local countryside.
I'm sure that the similarities to Geneva have got nothing to do with how much we like it (lake, mountains, clean, friendly, lots of German bakeries(?)) but it certainly is a little taste of my second home from home.
This
No comments:
Post a Comment