Udaipur

A beautiful city, reminiscent of a Mediterranean village (Indian style), and a relief from the craziness of the big cities we've spent time in...less pollution and far less honking. It is filled with roof top restaurants, candle lit dinners, medieval palaces, lakes and bhang. We spent a day on our own wandering around the narrow alleyways of the most romantic city in India. The city surrounds two lakes, one dotted with floating palaces (the Lake Palace Hotel inhabits an old royal palace, complete with lotus ponds and infinity pools...slightly out of our price range). After exploring a few temples and eating tandoori vegetable kebabs (yes, we are learning all sorts of great ways to live meat free) we had a drink on our hotel's rooftop terrace. A nice place to relax on oversized pillows, listen to good music, or watch the nightly showing of Octopussy - a James Bond movie filmed in the many palaces of Udaipur which shows in nearly every cafe and bar.

7:30AM sharp we met Steve and our travel companion Moin, who will be our driver/guide/friend for the next 12 days. We knew it was going to be fabulous when he took us to a deserted palace a few hours away that was a hidden gem. Once the guard started opening padlocked doors, we realized the whole palace was intricately painted and tiled, as if it hadn'et been touched in 200 years - 7 stories later we had a great view of the surrounding town. The palace chambers had detailed mosaics, ornate carvings, and secret kama sutra cabinets with sexual cartoons.

Back in Udaipur, we toured the city palace, a fortress and museum of Udaipur's royal past. A great end to a long day. After our best veg. thali yet and instructions of proper etiquette on having a personal driver (something we have no experience with), we said goodbye to Steve, and got ready to start our journey through Rajasthan.