Retirement The Final Frontier: Udaipur

This morning we're up at 5:15 a.m. We meet at 5:40 a.m. to go to the bus station by auto ricksaws. We have a newer style bus and has assigned seats. It is an eight hour/300 km journey. We enjoy a masala chai tea then it's all aboard. Connor is sick. Delhi belly!

On the bus

Sunrise on the way to Udaipur.

We enjoy a stop along the way for breakfast?

Monkeys along the way

Once we arrive in Udaipur we're met by tuc tucs and taken to our hotel. We settle in and we're meeting with the group at 4:30 p.m. for our walking tour. I am sharing a room with Pauline this time.

Our room...plain but functional. We seem to be missing top sheets and duvet???

The bathroom however is disgusting...worst one we've had!

We go next door to another hotel (a little more upscale than ours) and order a drink. The views are lovely. Udaipur is known as the "Venice of the East".

This town is a little more touristy. Lots of shopping.

Udaipur is on a lovely lake. Lake Pichola. It's a very nice change.

It's so nice here I could almost forget about our horrible bathroom!!

We go to an artist's Co-Op where we learn about miniature paintings.

This work is so intricate...I don't know how they do it. They spend hours/days working on a single piece. It takes a very steady hand and good eyesight.

Several people buy paintings and then it's off to the fabric store Lord & Tailor to order clothes. I order a royal blue tunic and brown patterned pants. 2900 rupees or $60.00. The pants are silk and the tunic is cotton. I should have bargained more...I paid too much but I'm happy with the products. While we are there the power goes off so it's a little difficult to complete our order.

We walk around town. Here is one of the temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

We then head off to the Rainbow Restaurant for dinner.

Rooftop with great view. Food was okay. I had fish with lemon sauce.

Back to the hotel and in to bed.

We didn't sleep well. Bed is very hard and blankets rough and dusty. It appears that we are missing sheets and a duvet which everyone else has. We didn't realize we were missing them and just thought everyone else just had these rough blankets! We go for breakfast at Café Namaste. Real coffee! Oh, it's wonderful! Great food and again it's rooftop. Most of the group are participating in painting at the Co-Op but Pauline and I decide to wander about. We meet Ali who is a tuc tuc driver and he offers to take us to several places for 100 rupee. We start at a local market.

Making baskets.

Bracelets anyone...any color...any size!

So many things. We really notice a difference at this market as it is a market for the locals. We are not bombarded with people trying to sell to us.

Ali takes us to the spice market and also to a tailor. Pauline buys tablecloths and I arrange to have two pairs of pants made. (Pauline and I are sooooo....bad!) We go to Ali's home town and visit his art school.

A demonstration of block printing

I buy three paintings all hand painted. Off to lunch to another rooftop restaurant.

Food is good but service is very slow. At 5:30 we meet and go to a cultural dance show.

It's well done. This woman is 73 years old! Pays to stay active.

The next day we walk to the Palace.

This rider and horse are just returning from wedding celebrations...gorgeous costume on the horse!

Leanne trying her hand at driving a tuc tuc!

We arrive at the gates of Monsoon Palace and it costs 300 rupees to see the palace and 90 rupees for the ride up. Packed in like sardines!

Great views once we are up there but the palace is a disappointment. Very run down and not much to see. We head back and the tailor has dropped my pants off at our hotel. Great service!

We visit the other tailors and pick up our orders. We're all happy with what we have ordered. We then go for a boat ride for the sunset and it's very calm and pleasant.