A Christmas Message from Udaipur
For our last stop in Rajhastan, Fabien and I chose Udaipur to spend Christmas this year. Udaipur has a reputation for being very romantic because it has several palaces situated between two big lakes. There is a palace (now a hotel) on the island in the middle of the lake, and at night it is lit up in bright white lights. The city is surrounded by hills, so the setting is fantastic.
We decided to treat ourselves to a more luxurious 3-star hotel, Lake Pichola hotel. We had a cozy little room with a balcony right on the lake, where we ate a late room service breakfast every morning and drank beer at night when the town was lit up in white lights (and fireworks.) We forgot about our shoestring budget for 3 days and sampled some of the excellent local restaurants. Another good reason for spending Christmas here was that Josh and Marisa (along with some other new backpacker friends) decided to spend Christmas here as well. So on Christmas Eve we went to a local guesthouse for a cozy little Christmas party with rum punch, spice cake, decorations and a White Elephant gift exchange. For a few hours it really felt like Christmas. After the party, Fabien and I had our own gift exchange. We decided that we had a limit of 200 rupees each (that’s 4 euros) and that we couldn’t buy anything too large because our backpacks are already loaded down with souvenirs. I bought him camel pajamas and he bought me two miniature paintings of a camel and an elephant. We even had stockings, a pair of red and white striped wool socks someone had given us in the mountains 🙂
On Christmas morning, I went to the “French” bakery for “croissants” (they are good, but not exactly what we expected), then to the juice stand where I bought fresh squeezed orange juice and a whole pineapple which we ate on the balcony. Then around 3:30 we met up with 6 other travelers (3 aussies, 3 canadians) for a nice dinner on a terrace next to the lake. Our menu: Tandoori chicken, mutton sikh kabab (mashed lamb mixed with spices and bbqed), green salad and butter naan. Banana fritters and custard for dessert. Though not very traditional, we had a really nice Christmas with some new friends. It’s not the same though…being away from the family, so we are really looking forward to next year in Jacksonville. For Fabien , this was his warmest Christmas ever, it’s been sunny and beautiful for days (20’s/high 70’sF) We’ll see if we beat that next year in Florida 🙂
Now we are back to our budget, but still living it up. Today we rented bikes and biked up to an old palace on top of a hill, then we went to a local village for a craft exhibition. Tomorrow we are going to take a 4-hour Indian cooking class. 8 weeks ago, the food had us in agony, now we are addicts. We promise lots of Parisian dinner parties a la indienne.
Tomorrow we are leaving Udaipur; we’ve changed our plans a bit, and we’re going to spend the New Year in Mumbai (Bombay.) It should be a good party, as will celebrate with 16 million other people. After that we hope to see Eddy and Marketa in Goa.
To everyone following our blog: We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Tags: BIG TRIP 2005-2006, In English 2005-2006, India
Administrator
It was great to hear from you on Christmas! I can’t wait until next year when you guys are here. Have a fun, safe, and Happy New Year! I look forward to reading about it and seeing pictures. Love ya, Pete