Octopussy
From Bombay I took another train to Ahmedabad, the capital of the state of Gujarat. This was nothing special. The train ran on time, more or less, and Ahmedabad was a normal Indian city with no tourists in it, except for us. Now this was nowhere near as bad as Hefei in China (see previous) but it was not that enjoyable. We only had one day here as our connecting train to Udaipur was in the evening so Matt and I spent the day watching another Bollywood flick called "Masti" and watch as one of our taxi drivers thump a "beggar" who was pestering us as we exited his taxi. This impressed me so much that I tipped him heavily.
So on to Udaipur. We had to take a special narrow-gauge train to this place as it is somewhat isolated from the railways. This turned out to be nicer that I had expected as there were fewer berths on the carriages and as a result the journey was much quieter. Again the scenery was superb coming into Udaipur in the early morning. I arrived feeling grimy but optimistic.
Udaipur is an old city founded by one of the local dynasty of Maharashas and they created a couple fo lakes and a bunch of palaces around them. There is even a palace on the lake itself where you have to take a small boat to. Since Indira Gandhi stopped the government of India supporting the Maharashas through the "privy purse" system in the late 1970s they have had to survive by themselves; most of them making the best of their real-estate by renting it out. In this case in Udaipur they have turned most of the palaces into luxury hotels. In fact the son of the present Maharasha is working in Australia as a hotelier. Needless to say these hotels are plush and at one point I was lucky enough to be taken to dinner there.
Udaipur is also the city where they filmed most of the Bond flick, "Octopussy". Now this is a bond film that I cannot remember much of. I know that it's Roger Moore's second to last Bond film, Stephen Berkhoff is the baddie, but that's it. I argued to Matt that this bond film is immemorable because the theme tune is crap. Goldfinger, Live And Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, Dr. No; now those are Bond films we all remember because we can sing the theme tunes. Can anyone recall the theme tune to Octopussy? Or even (ack, God forbid) Die Another Day? I insisted that the success of a Bond film depends entirely on its theme. Anyway, I digress.
I was lucky to meet up with a colleague and friend of my Dad's who lives and works here and he took it upon himself to drive us around all the local places of interest like monuments and some of the palaces that I have mentioned. All this was done in a nice air-conditioned Toyota and, against mine and Matt's wishes, everything was paid for by him and the company he works for (Lipi Data Systems - free plug). As a result in the evening we were in the Lake Palace Hotel which is a five star joint with very expensive rooms. The meal was excellent, if a little pricey, but you pay for the service and opulent surroundings. I was nervous at first though managed to pull through by remembering not to lick my knife, slurp from the bowl, or even expel wind at the table. All in all, it was a great evening.
From the hotel front you can see, through the moustache of the man acting as doorman, the Monsoon Palace. This is one of the Maharasha's old summer getaways high up on one of the tallest hills that surround the town. Art night they light it up for a few hours and if you see it, it looks as if it is floating in space. I just thought it looked very pretty. I managed to get up that hill, again by Toyota power, one day and look around it. Unlike the other buildings I had been in this one was in disrepair as it had been a military radio post for many years. Now they have opened it up and you can walk through the empty rooms with their glassless windows looking out into a deep valley of brown grass and green trees. The wind howls through the whole building and it makes a very atmospheric and peaceful jaunt out of the town. They are planning a big renovation of the place, restoring some of it and turning the rest into a restaurant/hotel probably. This would be a prime location for one but I felt it would be a shame to lose the eeriness of empty building with its marble carvings, graffiti, and echoes. I was told that come the rains in June the whole place explodes with green colour and the air cools. This would make it a seriously nice hotel. They can add it to their collection of hotels, I guess.
Overall Udaipur was a restful stay. We spent 5 days here and getting to see everywhere the place has to offer with kind and trustworthy people showing us around. It was lovely not to have the colossal ball-ache of having to squeeze taxi-drivers and grease ticket sellers (pardon the metaphors) as well as meeting a couple of really decent people. I'll name them here: Vijay Singh and his family, and Manesh his colleague at Lipi.
Tomorrow we are onwards to Jodhpur. This takes us into the Rajasthani desert even further. The temperatures are higher and the air drier. I've also lost my sun hat so this should be interesting. Since getting here I have been looking for a decent pith helmet to wear, but they don't even sell cloth sun-hats! Maybe I just had an image of me on the back of a camel wearing a monocle and pith helmet, drinking tea by the gallon in the daytime and getting arseholed on G&T in the evening. Actually, if it's as hot as they say I'll probably just ditch the camel and stick with the gin. It's for the best.
So on to Udaipur. We had to take a special narrow-gauge train to this place as it is somewhat isolated from the railways. This turned out to be nicer that I had expected as there were fewer berths on the carriages and as a result the journey was much quieter. Again the scenery was superb coming into Udaipur in the early morning. I arrived feeling grimy but optimistic.
Udaipur is an old city founded by one of the local dynasty of Maharashas and they created a couple fo lakes and a bunch of palaces around them. There is even a palace on the lake itself where you have to take a small boat to. Since Indira Gandhi stopped the government of India supporting the Maharashas through the "privy purse" system in the late 1970s they have had to survive by themselves; most of them making the best of their real-estate by renting it out. In this case in Udaipur they have turned most of the palaces into luxury hotels. In fact the son of the present Maharasha is working in Australia as a hotelier. Needless to say these hotels are plush and at one point I was lucky enough to be taken to dinner there.
Udaipur is also the city where they filmed most of the Bond flick, "Octopussy". Now this is a bond film that I cannot remember much of. I know that it's Roger Moore's second to last Bond film, Stephen Berkhoff is the baddie, but that's it. I argued to Matt that this bond film is immemorable because the theme tune is crap. Goldfinger, Live And Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, Dr. No; now those are Bond films we all remember because we can sing the theme tunes. Can anyone recall the theme tune to Octopussy? Or even (ack, God forbid) Die Another Day? I insisted that the success of a Bond film depends entirely on its theme. Anyway, I digress.
I was lucky to meet up with a colleague and friend of my Dad's who lives and works here and he took it upon himself to drive us around all the local places of interest like monuments and some of the palaces that I have mentioned. All this was done in a nice air-conditioned Toyota and, against mine and Matt's wishes, everything was paid for by him and the company he works for (Lipi Data Systems - free plug). As a result in the evening we were in the Lake Palace Hotel which is a five star joint with very expensive rooms. The meal was excellent, if a little pricey, but you pay for the service and opulent surroundings. I was nervous at first though managed to pull through by remembering not to lick my knife, slurp from the bowl, or even expel wind at the table. All in all, it was a great evening.
From the hotel front you can see, through the moustache of the man acting as doorman, the Monsoon Palace. This is one of the Maharasha's old summer getaways high up on one of the tallest hills that surround the town. Art night they light it up for a few hours and if you see it, it looks as if it is floating in space. I just thought it looked very pretty. I managed to get up that hill, again by Toyota power, one day and look around it. Unlike the other buildings I had been in this one was in disrepair as it had been a military radio post for many years. Now they have opened it up and you can walk through the empty rooms with their glassless windows looking out into a deep valley of brown grass and green trees. The wind howls through the whole building and it makes a very atmospheric and peaceful jaunt out of the town. They are planning a big renovation of the place, restoring some of it and turning the rest into a restaurant/hotel probably. This would be a prime location for one but I felt it would be a shame to lose the eeriness of empty building with its marble carvings, graffiti, and echoes. I was told that come the rains in June the whole place explodes with green colour and the air cools. This would make it a seriously nice hotel. They can add it to their collection of hotels, I guess.
Overall Udaipur was a restful stay. We spent 5 days here and getting to see everywhere the place has to offer with kind and trustworthy people showing us around. It was lovely not to have the colossal ball-ache of having to squeeze taxi-drivers and grease ticket sellers (pardon the metaphors) as well as meeting a couple of really decent people. I'll name them here: Vijay Singh and his family, and Manesh his colleague at Lipi.
Tomorrow we are onwards to Jodhpur. This takes us into the Rajasthani desert even further. The temperatures are higher and the air drier. I've also lost my sun hat so this should be interesting. Since getting here I have been looking for a decent pith helmet to wear, but they don't even sell cloth sun-hats! Maybe I just had an image of me on the back of a camel wearing a monocle and pith helmet, drinking tea by the gallon in the daytime and getting arseholed on G&T in the evening. Actually, if it's as hot as they say I'll probably just ditch the camel and stick with the gin. It's for the best.