Udaipur

The train to Udaipur was 3hrs late which got us in about 12.45am. We found a cheap and not so cheery place which opened their shutters and let us in for the night and in the morning we went to the place we wanted to stay at. Its lovely here, as is the whole town although it doesn't quite justify its tag as the Venice of the East. There is very little rubbish here and its a quiet town. The lake is stunning and we splashed out to get a couple of drinks on the terrace of the city palace to watch the sun go down over the lake and the lake palace (of Octopussy fame). Nicola had her first glass of wine in over a month here - they had Jacobs Creek Chardonnay which seemed to go down well. Thats the funny thing with alcohol here - it doesn't appear on any menus. Instead the waiter will sneak up behind you and offer, in a hushed tone, "a lager beer". Bottles usually get brought to your table wrapped in a cloth or in some cases the beer is poured into a tea pot to keep it hidden.

I got a hair cut today...the first one since we left 78 days ago. I say a haircut but actually this involved an hour and a half of sitting in the chair. I got a head massage, a haircut, a face massage, a shave, arm massages and a back massage (all using oil) at the end of it all the old barber took a handful of detol and rubbed it all round my freshly shaved face. This hour and a half (during which elephants were trooping past the window) set me back one pound twenty (we gave the guy double what he asked for) and was certainly an experience. We have really enjoyed it here and splashing out on top accommodation and other stuff has definately recharged us a bit...We're off to get another bottle of wine now....