Udaipur

Called the City of Romance Udaipur is easily my favourite city yet. Our hotel in Udaipur overlooked the lake and provided some spectacular views at night of the city skyline. On day 1 we looked at the city palace home to the Maharajas which was used in the James Bond film Octopussy. This is the towns claim to fame and is repeated by just about every tour guide and passer by. We wanted to go on the sunset lake boat ride however another wedding party meant the lake palace was being used and there were no boat rides so we had to settle for some temples and a walk around the city instead. So far we have encountered a wedding party in every city and they are fast becoming the bane of our travels. We fell asleep to the heavy techno rave Indian music coming from the other side of the lake. No noise control here. Day 2 we went and ate at a little cafe we found in lonely planet which served very nice Italian food and had fantastic smoothies. They served chocolate chilli cheese pizza which was an interesting experience. An Australian lady next to us was complaining how the food was not up to standard as her porridge was not what she expected. We thought you've got to be joking this is India. We didn't know how she would survive the rest of her travels. Anyway after this we went and did the boat ride we had wanted to do the day before. It was very cool and provided some fantastic views of the ghats and lake palaces. The smell of the boats petrol engine and the feel of being on the water made me ever so slightly homesick and reminded me of going out fishing early in the morning back in NZ.