Udaipur

After Christmas I met up with Liz (a SALTER cum Service Worker) and Laura (a SALTER) to start are adventures in Rajasthan. We took an overnight train to our first stop, Udaipur, which is known as the "Venice of India," "the Lake Palace City" and some even say "the most beautiful city in India." In any case it lived up to our expectations and some of us may have even had the best days of our lives.

View from the rooftop of our guest house.

Groggy and tired from the cold night in sleeper class on the train we recuperated on the rooftop with a cup of chai and the sunrise before exploring the city.

Our guest house also offered an amazing view of the Lake Palace that Udaipur is famous for.

This is Liz doing one of the things she is usually doing (buying bananas, thinking about buying bananas, eating bananas or carrying large bunches of bananas).

And here is Laura doing one of the things she enjoys (Drinking tea or coffee)

We spent the next two days exploring the city and admiring the miniature paintings that Udaipur is also known for. View from the City Palace

Basically every hotel has a rooftop restaurant and most show the James Bond movie Octopusy every night. (Apparently part of the movie was filmed in Udaipur)

After heading over to the Ghat to shanti-out and accidentally making some friends...

...we attended a cultural program at the museum where we enjoined Rajasthani dancing, puppetering and even a woman dancing with 14 pots balanced her head.

Then off to yet another rooftop restaurant for dinner.

Lake Palace at night.

The next day we took an Auto-rickshaw all the way up the mountain to the Monsoon Palace built on a cliff overlooking the city.

We watched the sunset from the Monsoon Palace before catching our overnight bus to Jodhpur "the Blue city."

Thanks to Liz and Laura for the photo contributions.