Its all go on these trips and there is not much down time. Our city tour left the hotel at 8:30 a.m.. 5 of us crawled into a lovely air conditioned4-year-old Toyota SUV which was a little more comfortable than the regular auto rickshaws we took yesterday. The "Old City" of Udaipur is quite charming with narrow streets flanked by shops and restaurants and full of the usual rickshaws, oxen, donkeys, scooters, bikes and taxies. How there are not more accidents, I don't know!! We went into 2 of the magnificent City Palaces. The City Palace is a conglomeration of various palaces built by the various Maharajas of Rajasthan over the years starting in the 1600s. The palaces had a fine collection of the usual arches, narrow passages and decorative work and a fabulous view of the city. Some of the highlights for me included seeing the tigers' cage (no tiger unfortunately), the beautiful Marwari horses in the stables, the 'durbar hall' built in 1909 where the ladies of the palace could view the state banquets and meetings from the Crystal Gallery containing an unused collection of crystal chairs, sofas, tables and beds. After the palaces we drove to Saheliyon-ki-bari, a charming ornamental garden designed for 48 women attendants who were part of a princess's dowry. The gardens contain a beautiful lotus pond and the usual amount of floral colour, peace and tranquility that gardens normally offer.
In the afternoon 5 of us went for a rather disappointing horseback ride on the Marwari horses where the only excitement was caused by the sudden burst of blasting in a mine we passed by!
In the evening we went for dinner and to watch "Octopussy" on a rooftop terrace overlooking Jagniwas Island, the island in Lake Pichola where 3 palaces are located that were used in the James Bod movie.
On a couple of the rides in the Toyota I sat in the front passenger seat beside our drive JP. I was able to get a bird's eye view of the undisciplined driving that is India. I couldn't work out the "rules" and on chatting to JP learned that although there are rules, no-one knows, or obeys them, and the police don't bother enforcing them! Many cars, rickshaws, bikes, etc. use no lights and you learn to anticipate the movements of the ominous shadows and black shapes that represent the various modes of transportation. I think it is as JP said: "you take care of you and everything works out" ..... sometimes!!
Our stay in Udaipur was somewhat dampened by some unfortunate events that took place at the hotel, which although beautiful may not have been as safe as most would wish. One of the girls woke up around 2:30 a.m. to find the owner of the hotel in her room rummaging through the bags of one of her other 2 room-mates while they were up on the roof With a few of our group drinking. Apparently she had left the room unlocked so that the other 2 could come in. Although we heard a wide array of excuses, but no apology, from the owner, I think it is difficult to find an acceptable reason for this invasive and dishonest behaviour. Had this been Britain or Canada, the owner would have been reported to the police. Here, there is no point in doing that! Nothing would be done about it.
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