An early start for what turned into a long days travel. We caught our ‘deluxe’ bus at 8am, (leaves at 7:30 be there for 7:15) luckily we got on quick enough to grab the last seats in the row of two. And settled back – this bus at least had a load of leg room for the 6 hour journey. Which ended up being about 7 ½ by the time we got into Udaipur. The delay mainly caused by a torrential downpour for about 30 minutes, which also conspired to get our backpacks wet which were stowed under the bus as we crashed through some very large puddles. We sorted out our accommodation, this time at Sajjan Villa – a new place, that we took a punt on as it wasn’t really recommended anywhere. But its a nice clean, (think white) and modern, unlike our last couple of quirky places.
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The next day we had a look around the quite small historic centre of Udaipur, Once that was out the way we headed up to a place called sunset point – sadly at 11 am there would not be a sunset but good views were promised from its summit. We dropped into the local tibetian market just before the climb up, 30 something stalls all selling excactly the same stuff mainly winter hats and jewellery – more bangles than Ashling could shake a stick at. It was a very hot day and a sweaty climb, but throughly worth it for the views over the lakes and the city. Luckily we didnt have our hopes up regardng the advertised ‘Telescope’ at the top, it would have been a let down….see images for visual proof. We then took our life in our hands and got into what must be one of a very few cable cars in India to take us down to the gardens, with Udaipur’s famous Musical fountaiin within it. It turned out to be really nice although there was no water or music in the fountain the gardens were really pretty and relaxed (5 Rps entry fee). We had a cooking class with Shashi that evening (more about this here Cooking with Shashi) so we headed back via a tailors, to pick up two made to measure shirts that were purchased the evening before – after going in to have a look at the bedding! Mark also got stung on the his little finger by a hornet – athough it could have been a bee.
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Our last day in Udaipur was spent watching a lot of rain fall, as Udaipur like most over places we had been to in the north, got hit by some unseasonalbe storms. From inside a dry vantage point it was quite fun to watch the traffic chaos and general confusion that ensued. Once the rain stopped we headed out for a walk along the lake shore, of what was by then our favourite place in Rajasthan. At 18:15 we were onboard the Menwar Express travelling again through a thunderstorn towards the the capital – Delhi
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