Another early start today, all up at 4:45 am, shower and dress, then outside to the villa courtyard. Tuk Tuks to the bus station then off to Udiapur.. The bus is modern, our big bags are all under and not on top of the bus, and the seats are very comfortable. We quickly left urban Jodhpur and have been travelling through countryside. It’s dry and dusty. We have passed through some villages, the houses are narrow and made of brick, often with a roller door out the front. We pass small shops with glassed shelves full of the many sweet snacks the Indians love such as Nutella flavoured chips! Other treats in plastic bags hang in chains from the ceiling till only a narrow space is free for dealing with the vendor behind the counter. Bottles of water are at his feet or crammed into shelves behind him. I say him as I have not seen any female vendors until,today in fact!

I will take up the story later today.
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We are staying at Udai Niwas Hotel in Udaipur. We arrived at lunchtime. After checking in everybody, we met for lunch on the rooftop of the hotel. The sky is hazy but the views in all directions are terrific. Below us are the houses of Old Udaipur, there is a large temple in one direction, and looking north are the foothills of the Himalayas sweeping down to the Great Lake of Udaipur. On its banks are Hotels, temples and ghats on the city side and forest on its northern and western limits. The call to prayer comes from the nearby mosque as we sip lime sodas, beers or coffees. We had vegetable and paneer pokhoras which were delicious. Some of the younger members of the group had full on meals of curry, rice and chapattis.
The streets here in Udaipur are not as crowded as Delhi or Jodhpur, but busy enough. There are plenty of shops with goods to tempt the tourist rupee. There is artwork, that Mughal style painting in the same style we saw in Delhi; leatherwork, bags and belts of all sizes, clothing of a relaxed, somewhat hippy design which I have little doubt will not be colour fast when washed and there are 24 hour a suit tailors but their products look unbelievably garish, with purple and blue fabrics you’d only want to be seen dead in. There is an excellent spice and tea shop. There is a small but well stocked bookshop where I bought a paperback coffee table book about Rajasthan. I noticed ( Jennifer didn’t!) that one whole wall in the shop was devoted to translations and manuals on the Kama Sutra; I approximate roughly one in five of the books in the store! Amazing. There were lots of good novels to purchase, however, though tempted, I must admit I am simply too tired in the evenings to read much at all.

When taking a photo I felt something flutter into my left eye, there is lots of ash and dust in the town air. Jennifer flushed it out for me back at the hotel. We purchased some eye drops from a pharmacist but when I went to use them, the seal was not intact. So I opted for our trusty bottled water; no problems. Poor Jen, knocked a bottle of water off a vendors counter and if fell down and into the drain below the shop front. I was not going to fish it out, so we paid her the twenty rupees it cost. The vendor must have been rattled because that is way too low a price for tourists.

Tonight we are going to the Lake for a sunset cruises, so more details will follow below.
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The evening cruise is simply wonderful. The boat is a flat bottomed barge that provides a perfect platform for photography. It is certainly not crowded and everyone can easily take the photos they want. We leave the mooring and travel to the City Palace, now a museum but still an impressive piece of architecture. Then past one of the many built up islands. Other boars motor around, coots in their hundreds bob and sup in the water of the lake as the sun quickly sets. I took some photos to show off the range after range appearance to the north. All the hills are silhouettes, one falling behind the next.

After returning to shore, we met Api for dinner, we shared a large table, some delicious Sula Sauvignon Blanc, a delightful chicken marg, a desert bean dish and a lentil curry as well. At our end of the table we talked about whiskeys as there was a brandy on the liquor list, called Honey Bee. Ray ordered a glass, not bad at all. But Jen and I proudly stood up for Spey whisky and Cognac as representing vastly better beverages. After dinner we braved the traffic yet again. Jennifer and some of the others are doing a cooking class. I am not sure what I will do, but I will think of something. A visit to City Palace is on the agenda for when Jennifer finishes her class.