Our bus to Udaipur was around midday, so thankfully didn't have to rush off anywhere super early. The tuk tuk took us to the 'bus stop' and it took us a while to work out that he hadn't just dropped us off somewhere random! We managed to sort out our tickets and sat down to wait. Although it was a sleeper bus, we'd just booked 2 seats - they allocated us the 2 at the very front - a good position for everyone to gawp at the only 2 whiteys on the bus! I dozed most of the 7 hour journey which helped pass the time, but James was quite restless and ready for the journey to end! The bus was only running an hour late, which is surprised given how fast the driver was going, but we made it in one piece and managed to find our guest house no bother (well, the tuk tuk driver technically found it).

We'd booked somewhere closer into the action, which was a nice change after the past few hostels being quite far out of town. Within less than a minute in any direction, we had a huge choice of places to eat and we were right on the edge of the lake. Hungry, we stopped into the first place we found with a beautiful view over the lake we sat down to a meal that was slightly out of our budget….but we'd had a long journey so deserved a treat!

As we were starting a fresh in a new place, we were keen to get out and explore. At breakfast we got chatting to Craig (South African but lives in Luton), he'd just left his buddy to continue travelling for a few months before heading off to NZ (he gave us a good tip about applying for a working tourist visa direct with a NZ embassy, so we're going to try that in OZ - he seems to think that the age limit is 35, so James might just be in luck!), so we joined forces and went up to the City Palace. The palace is a magnificent building and at night it's all lit up, as usual the tourist price was much higher and we then had to pay the same price as another ticket just to take the camera in! We were a little disappointed to see that it was just the museum we could get into, and while this was quite a well-kept museum, it didn't really give us a feel for the building as a whole. No matter though, it kept us out of the sun for the hottest part of the day (no, we still haven't learned our lesson from Europe, we are still going out at midday!). Craig had had a long journey from Mumbai by bus, only arriving that morning, so we opted to take the rest of the day easy, a nice spot of lunch and then (as it was Dad's birthday as well) we went for an early beer…and then had a few more while watching the sun set over the lake (I couldn't quite get a picture to do it justice). Earlier in the day, we'd promised to go back to a bar where they had an offer on beer - it was the start of a 9 day festival as well (we never did find out which one, but for the rest of the time in Udaipur, every night there was lots of drums banging), so we finished off our evening there watching the dancing from the rooftop and talking to the waiters about why locals were so interested in us white people (still not sure why…).

Hmm…Kingfisher beer is not the cleanest beer…it apparently has something in it that stops it from freezing - that can never be good (well, I suppose it depends on which way you look at it)….the next day was a complete write off. All 3 of us were feeling pretty rough and spent most of the day around the guest house. Although it did give James and I a chance to sort out our flights to Kerala and some accommodation. Our flight was not until the weekend though so we extended our stay at the guest house for another 2 nights…made us feel a little bit better about being so lame! Craig was the only one that ventured out of the place and even that was only for 10 minutes to buy some post cards! We've re-discovered how much nicer it is playing cards with a 3rd person though and played many games of s***-head to amuse ourselves. An early night was on the cards after a quiet dinner with a few bottles of mineral water. James and I used this opportunity to finish season 3 of Breaking Bad…we ended up watching the last 3 episodes, so not an entirely early night…

Our next day in Udaipur was a bit more adventurous, we walked to another nearby lake which took about an hour, along the way having to run the gauntlet of children haranguing us for anything we had. We were stopped by 2 guys on a motorbike who turned out to work for a new channel and they were doing a report on extremely hot 'winter' they were having (this is winter?!). I decided to let the boys handle this one…gave me a chance to also catch it on camera….I'm not sure what was funnier to be honest; the camera man getting frustrated with James and Craig not fully understanding the issue (being our first trip to Udaipur, how were they to know that it was the worst heat they'd had in 40 years??) or watching the boys try and be serious and answer his questions! I've got most of it on video, although the sound isn't that great, but I'll post it up…tee hee!

After their 15 minutes of awkward fame, we carried on around the lake in search of some lunch. We'd thought there would be a few more eateries around this one, but apparently not! Lunch was a bottle of coke and a portion of masala chips - partly authentic! All was not lost though as I got to say hello to a friendly elephant and give it a little stroke!! Another point of note was the little girl having a poo in a gutter outside a shop…only in India! … Anyway, we had seen a little bakery that had a seating area right out at water level, so went and indulged ourselves in a little treat from home - chocolate brownie, apple pie and a twix were the order of the day (between 3 of us!) and many games of cards later headed back to our guest house to find our friendly European chums from Jodhpur had arrived!

Another less welcome guest had also arrived though - somehow I had picked up headlice - how??? I haven't washed my hair in 7 weeks!!! Task for the next day; buy some coconut oil and get rid of the little b*****s! The blow was softened somewhat though with the news that Ken had booked his tickets to come and meet us in Thailand for Christmas and New Year!!! So excited! Craig was travelling onto Jaipur on the night bus (we'd highly recommended the hostel we stayed in - we have since heard that he had a great time there, as did we!) so after a big group dinner, bid him farewell with the possibility of maybe catching up with him in Hampi in a month or so.

Our last day in Udaipur was spent sorting bits out, booking a few flights and places to stay where we knew we had to be at certain times (Goa at the end of November with James's parents and flights to Krabi to meet Ken)…this meant that we also knew our timings for Mumbai and finally booked our treat we've been planning for a while - a night in the Taj hotel!!!!!! (and at only a fraction of the price it is to stay in the Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur!). We had a lazy afternoon playing many card games, of which I lost most of them, and also trying to look at places to stay in Thailand with Ken (proved quite stressful; weighing up the options of trying to book now and not be flexible, or get there and pay a lot more - we've since opted for the latter option). We went for a final dinner with our European buddies before we all went our separate ways, they were heading down to Goa before heading home. James was over the moon with his desert of pancakes with actual Nutella (small things!). All packed and early to bed ready for our long journey to Kerala…Beach time, finally!!