23rd January 2005 - Mumbai to Udipur 18hrs

OK no more cracks in my emails to anybody about it being cold at home at home, it was bloody freezing at night it is the Indian winter after all. I have read that Udipur is a romantic location and I can't help but agree, it's simply charming. The buildings are so decorative with narrow ornate doorways and staircases and arched windows with coloured glass and slated timber shutters. The wall paintings on the outside of the buildings, often Hindu artwork, are beautiful This is how I imagined the buildings to be in Rjasthan. The main attraction in Udipur was the view of the Picolo lake that runs through the center of the town. Nearly all of the restaurants are on the rooftops overlooking it with a former palace, now an exclusive hotel, known as the floating palace in the centre this being one of the most exclusive places to stay in Udipur. Sadly Rajasthan has had poor monsoons for the past 4 years or so, which means that the majority of the lake has dried up which has meant that the area has lost some of its beauty. Upipur features in the James Bond's Octopussy, which was filmed in some of the palaces. This means that quite a few of the restaurants are still playing on it and show it every night. Sad as it was we couldn't refuse and watched it on our first night, cheesarama!
It was easy to sit around relaxing udipur has that effect on people apparently. The main crafts in Upipur are miniature paintings on silk and leather bound books with hand made paper. I want to buy everything but the rucksack space is tight.
We bumped into crazy Glaswegian Pat who we met in Goa so we dumped all of our sightseeing plans for our last day and caught up with her. I was motivated to get a yoga class in during our stay. I loved Upidpur.