Day 145, Udaipur, Rajasthan [Sunday 25th April 2008]
Previous day: Day 144, Udaipur, Rajasthan [Thursday 24th April 2008]
Next day: Day 146, Lake Palace, Udaipur [Saturday 26th April 2008]
We have a delicious, healthy breakfast of filter coffee and muesli at Cafe Edelweiss. On the way to the jetty to get a boat over to the Lake Palace I slip and fall in some wet mud, covering my hands and rucksack in sticky dirt. The hotels staff, trussed up in extravagant uniforms, run over and hose me down, and show me to a room where I can clean up and change my shirt. Kate is horrified and embarrassed. While we wait for the boat the staff bring us chilled towels!
Our bags are taken from us and we get the boat over, the bags following separately. Arriving at the Palace, we are greeted by a handful of staff — the doorman, the duty manager, the operations manager and two nice ladies who putt a red tikka on our foreheads.
Our room is huge, with an incredibly comfy bed, the mattress of which must be about 3 feet thick. Two big windows look out over the water to the City Palace. There's a 40 inch plasma screen, two sofas, a table, a bowl full of fruit and lots of other little details — fresh slippers, shoe horns, 'happy gowns', mini-bar, dhoop sticks etc.
For lunch we have smoked salmon bagels, french fries, caesar salad, watermelon and mint juice and passionfruit cheesecake. In addition, the chef sends out two small cups of cream of mushroom soup, fresh baked multigrain bread and a white bean dip for us to taste. The chef and the restaurant manager both come over to say hello.
We sit in the courtyard and drink cocktails (Manhattans and peach Bellinis), and watch two girls perform some excellent Rajasthani dancing, accompanied by a harmonium and singing.
Kate doesn't feel very well, so we have to skip dinner and instead watch the cricket in our room (Punjab versus Mumbai). I order a lamb burger from room service and drink beer from the fridge. We also get a couple of Bollywood DVDs from the hotel's library, but fall asleep in luxury before we get around to watching them.
Next day: Day 146, Lake Palace, Udaipur [Saturday 26th April 2008]
Previous day: Day 144, Udaipur, Rajasthan [Thursday 24th April 2008]