The Lake Palace at Udaipur

Another fairly quiet day. We started with a fruitless search for one of the Rough Guide’s recommended eateries, and then walked over to the Lake Palace hotel to see if we could get in for a drink. Walking past the camels and ponies waiting outside, we walked up the hotel steps and into the bar. The hotel seemed to be populated by groups of Westerners on package tours and charged the sort of prices you would expect (Rs300 for a Corona beer).

After that we made our way to another lakeside eaterie, the Ambrai Restaurant. All the lakeside tables were reserved so we selected a table under a tree a little way back. We ordered a beer from the disinterested waiters and sat back to enjoy the atmosphere. Sadly, the atmosphere consisted of the smell of the staff toilets which wafted over us, and several insects and spiders which dropped onto us. We quickly finished our beers, paid and left.

Just close to the hotel is a little “one stop shop” with internet access. We popped in there to sort out a flight to Mumbai for Saturday, and a train to Goa on Monday. We booked the train on the web, and the guy in the shop sorted us out with plane tickets as well as organising a taxi to take us to the airport. We also emailed a hotel in Mumbai to see if they would have a room available.