Udaipur has a lake!

Udaipur's charm lies in its lakeside setting and magical floating palaces. What a blow to it's tourist trade then, when for the last three years it has been dry as a bone. Water replaced by sand, boat rides replaced by camel treks, and romantic reflections replaced by a brown slime. With this in mind, how happy I was to arrive just after a particularly heavy monsoon to find the lake full to the brim and back to it's former glory.

I have to agree with the general consensus that Udaipur is a very lovely place indeed. Not only is it quite beautiful, but it also exudes a peaceful and serene atmosphere which is a world apart from any other place I have visited so far in India (which granted, isn't all that many). I only wish my arrival had born similar qualities...

After sweating the night away in my "Air Conditioned" coach, I had eventually fallen into a light, but far from comfortable, slumber. Upon opening my eyes again I noticed that we had just made a drop off and were begining to move once more. Without knowing where I was, with no visible sign to aid me, and with the horrible realisation that the man I had been speaking to earlier about Udaipur had now departed the coach, I began a mild panic! Rolling from the top bunk I began scrambling together my belongings and saying 'Udaipur, Udaipur' to bewildered onlookers. When I finally located the coach conductor and uttered the word 'Udaipur' to him the brakes came on abruptly and the coach slid to a halt. The door slid open and I was directed to leave the coach, which I did, to find myself in the middle of nowhere, at 4:30am, fair game to the first lucky Rikshaw-Wallah who happened to find me.

It took less than a minute for me to be completely surrounded on all sides. The numbers however worked in my favour as I instigated a bidding war for my fair. The winner netted himself a still useful sum of 40Rs but to his credit he earned it by waking an entire street of hotel and haveli owners in order to find me a room. I ended up with a fairly decent room with a balcony and a lake view for 175Rs which wasn't too bad although I'm sure I could have got better if I really wanted to. However, the lure of a nice comfortable bed got the better of me and I drifted off at around 5am to recoup a little sleep.

Waking at around 10:00am I decided to check out the hotel restaurant up on the roof, and found it to have a lovely view to all sides. After grabbing a bite to eat I used the height advantage of the building to click a few photos and generally take in the view. A sudden onset of wind proceeded by a torrent of rain drove me back inside the covered restaurant where I met 'Memu', a French girl who had spent an entire month in Rajastan learning about textiles and the various techniques employed in their creation. We had a good chat and spent the rest of the day walking around the lake, avoiding scattered showers and taking tea at every opportunity. The night finished atop another rooftop restaurant with a nice meal acompanied by a showing of the Bond film 'Octopussy'. This is a nightly fixture in almost every rooftop in Udaipur as half the film was shot here. It features such sights as the Lake Palace, Monsoon Palace and the infamous 'Rikshaw chase' through the city streets. It may have been a cliche but a spot of James Bond was exactly what I needed after 2 and a half months away from home. It was quite exciting also to see them point to the Monsoon Palace in the film and then to turn my head to the left and see it sitting resplendant on the distant hill. And similarly with the Lake Palace which was just below me on the water.

When the film finished it was time for Memu to grab her bags and run for the station, onward to her next destination, whilst I decided it was time for an early night.