We had a long drive down to Udaipur, along basically a secondary road. They are doing lots of upgrades and we were on a highway at one point, and a Tollway on another, but it was hard to tell the difference.
On the way we saw the first “bad” car accident we have seen in India. Well really, it was the results of an accident. There were two cars and a bus on the side of the road and it looked like it must have been a head on. The front right of the cars and the bus were all smashed in, we hoped that no one was seriously hurt. It didn’t surprise us, the drivers on this stretch of road were particularly crazy, overtaking on blind corners and approaching the crest of hills. Together with a large number of cows wandering all over the road and large numbers of buses (the bus drivers are REALLY crazy) and trucks as well.
We got into Udaipur at about 2pm and the roads in this city were jammed packed, even worse than Delhi peak hour!!! With Diwali on, and the adjoining State of Gandhinagar (Gandhi’s home state) having a long weekend the city was packed. Gandhinagar is a “Dry State”, so the residents there often come over the border into Rajasthan to party.
We got to the entrance wharf for our hotel after a struggle driving through the traffic, and passed through the now normal security checks (bags x-rayed and us through a metal detector) and got on a launch to take us over to Taj Lake Palace on Lake Pichola in Udaipur. It was a short ride (with life jackets on!), when we got off and were walking to the hotel entrance a Doorman held a fancy umbrella over our heads and then just as we entered the hotel they showered us in rose petals. Inside we both received the manditory tikka, to wish us happiness and prospertity, (Red this time, I swear I am going to go home with a permanent stain between my eyebrows 🙂 ), and a welcoming cool drink.
We were then taken to our room, which was a Lake View room, and a smoking room as well! I rang reception and asked if we could be moved to a City Palace View Non-smoking room, and they obliged without a fuss. I think they were a little surprised we prefered this room as it is a bit (quite a bit) than the other, but the view and lack of cigarette smell was worth it. We settled in, Deb got some roomservice lunch and we went on a tour of the Palace at 4pm.
We had dinner in the main Indian Restaurant, and the food and our waiter were very good. We have an early start on Friday morning, plane leaves for Mumbai at 6:50am, so are having a few early nights so the long day of travel on Friday will be easier.
Our internet connection is a bit weak at the moment and we are struggling to get photos uploaded, but when we have a good connection we will put more up.
We explore Udaipur tomorrow. 🙂
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