Thursday, February 10
Udaipur – Rest Day
I felt pretty good this morning and had a good night’s rest. The plan for today was to go to a French bakery for espresso and breakfast, then to the palace followed by a little shopping and then lunch before heading back to the hotel to get our bikes ready for tomorrow’s ride. That was the plan.
First order of business was to get a tuk tuk to take us to breakfast… we had to flag one down at the nearest busy street. I hate crossing busy streets – the trick is you have to look BOTH ways when crossing the first half because traffic CAN be coming from both directions even though they are only supposed to be coming from one direction. Once you get to the middle median area then you have to do the same to get to the far side… its stressful! We flagged our tuk tuk and were on our way to town when the driver stopped and did a 180 – were we lost or….??? Nope… he was stopping for tea – chai tea. Ok… we thought he wanted his morning chai so we waited. No problem. Then he brought each of us a chai tea in a tiny cup. Oh… I couldn’t do it! This was the FIRST morning I felt half way decent and I just COULDN’T drink chai from the street again. I hated to turn down his offer but I kindly told him I’d been sick and just couldn’t drink it and thanked him with genuine gratitude – he understood. Here’s the chai stop:
Breakfast at the French bakery was very good – porridge with banana’s and honey, a mocha latte with extra foam and fresh squeezed orange juice. The view was overlooking part of the lake because we had to climb several flights of stairs to get to this rooftop gem. Here’s the beautiful view at our lovely morning spot.
We left breakfast and we walking to the palace only a few minutes away when we had to move off the street to avoid the chaos of traffic – fortunately it was right in front of a jewelry store. We went in and the young lady inside was very nice…. Not like the vendors on the street that pressure you as you walk past. Everything in the store was made by this young gal… and the pieces were lovely. She spoke English well and she told us she loved making jewelry and was so happy that she could sell it and make a nice living. We spent a little time and money there. J A wedding procession was going past and I went out front for a few pictures. First there was a loud music procession, followed by the bride’s carriage being pulled by a horse. Walking behind the bride were the ladies dressed in their finest – the bride’s friends and family. There are 7 days of ceremonies preceeding a wedding and this is one. These women were celebrating separately from the men. Here’s the bride on her silver carriage – too bad a motorcycle rider got in the middle of my picture:
I did get a clear shot from the side – the fellow pushing from back was helping the horse get it up the hill I guess… haha!
The women following the bride:
I got many pictures at the palace, but the one I really wanted was the view of the palace on the lake – I was able to find one spot where I could see the lake palace – it is so beautiful!
