NOVEMBER 18TH Octopussy in Udaipur

 

 

 

 

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 18TH

Octopussy in Udaipur

Today we had a six hour drive to the city of Udaipur, our first stop in Rajasthan. On the way we stopped for a brief pit stop (somehow we didn’t have lunch planned that day) and as I walked into the rest stop I spied a huge cooler of KINGFISHER BEER. So my lunch today was a tall Kingfisher and a package of cookies. Super nutritious. Eventually we arrived in Udaipur which was a surprise for me because it looked almost exactly like all the other cities we’ve seen in India which is to say congested, crumbling and stained with black soot, and generally in sad state of decay. I suppose I had expected something glamorous and shining and sparking. Perhaps that’s to come? But the city has a pretty lake and in the center of the lake are a couple of palaces. So that makes for some beautiful scenery.

We went on a tour of the City Palace and Museum which was build by a maharani centuries ago and his descendant lives there today. I’m sure the part of the palace that he lives in is glorious; I can tell you that part the public walks through is not. But the place gives a few nice views of the city of Udaipur and when you can manage to look around for a brief moment when the space is not crowded with visitors, the place does recall those Raj glory days.

The title of today’s entry come from the fact that we had dinner at one of the two palaces in the lake, Jagmandir, which was the site of the filming of part of an horrifically bad James Bond movie called Octopussy. I confess to having seen the movie more times than I care to admit. The setting for the dinner was lovely; first we took a small boat to the island where all the buildings were beautifully lit. Our multi-course dinner was in a private room fit for a maharaja. Gorgeous!

We are staying at an elegant hotel called the Trident – and I’ll never forget arriving and being showered by rose petals as we entered (yes, there was a person sitting on the roof whose job it is to toss rose petals upon the newly arriving guests). The luxury just began there. The hotel had a beautiful pool and extensive garden that we never had time to see except through the window was we ran back and forth to our rooms.

I must mention that India has the most incredible bougainvillea plants I’ve ever seen. As you ride along any highway or through dingy towns, yellow, pink and red bougainvillea trees are hanging heavy with massive bunches of flowers.