The Venice of the East

Kieran:

The scenery from the car on the short drive to Udaipur was really beautiful, climbing and falling, following the road around the green, forested hills, taking in more lakes and a few rivers.

Once in Udaipur we visited the gardens and the Udaipur art school (famous for its traditional miniature painting), where both myself and nick bought some art painted on silk.

Udaipur is set beside a large lake (made in the shape of India..) and contains a fair few bridges (thus tagged "the Venice of the East"). We visited the palace, which had nice views over the lake and the green hills hemming it in.

For the evening we watched some traditional dancing and music in an old haveli and, on returning to our hotel, we got chatting with another pair of travellers long into the evening.

Nick:

Just heard from my bank. They say keep an eye on my Visa account as it’s active here for ten days, but it’s high risk to use an ATM supposedly! Saw kinfishers, heron and I think also a hornbill. Got photo.

Hey guys, you would love it here in Ranakpur. Green hills full of birds and butterflies. Nice temple also. Got money from cash card too. Relief!

The bird we saw wasn't a hoopoe, the crest was more straight like a cardinals, but body wise it was very hoopoe like, but grey. Hmmm... I've seen Bulbuls now, got a good photo. Beutiful little owl by our restaurant last night, sitting on top of a pole. White breasted king fishers everywhere! Also I think (i hope!) a grey hornbill sitting in a tree. Got picture, but not so clear. Certainly had the double beak thing going on though. Ranakpur was very special, luscious and green and full of wildlife. For 50 rupees a boy took us on a walk round the ponds, and through some gypsy villages. It was so nice, and rained pretty crazy on us just as we were finishing up! Saw at least 3 kinds of heron, swallows, terns, probably indian rollers, and more... Possibly a fly catcher? Would need Jo's bird guide when I get back!

Yeah foods good, not too hot, no stomach problems, but we're following all the eating advice! Usually have rice, chapati, plus a different vegetarian curry/dal option! Loving the dum aloo potato dishes. Food in Ranakpur was best yet. Our driver knows all the room numbers in hotels by heart, so he's always checking to see that we get good ones, and if we don't he takes us to another hotel! All have been comfortable, affordable and good food.

Quick dry pants are brilliant, love em. All washing dries over night, no problems, and that soap stuff is great! And nope we've not got time to head north, we're gonna take 8 days relaxing round Goa, might be nice to see one place for a while! And then Kochi, and then Bangalore for flight. We think we'll book it through our driver, but we'll check price is right first! Let you know plans as they update.

Rain isn't much of a problem down here, it just serves to give us a nice cool down when it happens! We're in Udaipur right now, driver says he'll show me the painting school, just have to not get suckered in to buying anything!

Yeah we saw Bulbuls with black heads, grey bodies and a red patch under the tail, but that's not what we saw in the desert... totally different shape, still a mystery! We've seen lots of black faced monkeys this morning really cool! there should be more to come, and white faced ones too according to the driver. More of these kites, both kinds I think, some unknown large rugged white hawk int he desert alone in tree. Maybe a vulture of sorts? Got a good close up photo of a kestrel (might be something else though), and also an elegant medium sized all white hawk, but quite far way! Wish i'd brought bird book, but oh well.

Visited the painting school where they make amazing Indian miniature paintings, got to see people working on them, and showed them my sketchbook, think they liked it! Also managed to buy some of their tiny brushes off of them!

Music wise, our driver has only one CD and poor radio reception, we know the Cd back to front by now! It's from a Bollywood movie apparently... We were performed to on the night of our camel safari by a three piece Indian folk band, they were quite cool. Awesome castanets.

Oh and you're quite right about temple and fort pictures, everyone takes the same ones, and they also all look the same when I flick back through them. trying my best to get city pictures and more unusual scenes, sometimes hard where there are lots of people, you cant safely get a camera out... Got some nice ones of a small festival in Jodhpur for Ganesh, people throwing pink and orange powder paint around in crowded streets.

Just been brought a chai by someone in the hotel staff, hooray! I didn't order it, and they'll probably put it on the tab, but oh well! Kieran and I are going to pretend to be Swedish from now on, and not understand people who keep pushing guide services on us!

We've been playing cards and kicking back in the evenings, starting to settle in and relax a bit more now. Some lie-ins in Goa will be nice, we've had a lot of long days so far! We saw the botanical gardens in Udaipur and the city palace. The city palace was a bit underwhelming once you've seen Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, but the lake is nice here. The botanical gardens reminded me of Mahe's (Seychelles) gardens. Bougainvillea, Hibiscus, Palm and fountains.