Jodhpur to Mumbai

The day after Holi the German group left early so I was once again alone! As I was veeeey hungover I decided to have a "nothing day" I sat around in the hostel most of the day just heading out for some lunch and a drink. The next morning I left early on a bus for jodhpur. I decided that I couldn't really be bothered to head to another fort and just wanted to get down to the coast and chill out!

The bus took around 6 hours to get to jodhpur stopping a few times for passengers and toilet breaks.
At lunchtime I felt hungry and wanted a few samosas as they are the best snack in India, but I couldn't find any by the bus stop so I settled for some of these small round balls that were frying in a large pan. They were amazing, so spicy but delicious, I'm just hoping that Delhi belly doesn't kick in whilst on this bus!!

When i arrived in India I managed to get hold of an Indian SIM card for my iPad so I used that to book a hostel before I arrived.

Zostal was my home for the night. I arrived at about 6pm and couldn't be bothered to do anything so I went down for dinner at the restaurant and met 2 English girls who I had seen in the hostel. They were headed to Udipur the next morning with a private driver which is on the way to Mumbai, so after buying them a drink or 2 I managed to hitch a ride with them!
That night, like most hostels...everyone got together for a few drinks and a chat!

Laura and Linsey were a good laugh to travel with and the driver, although reluctant to take me, he soon changed his mind when I gave have him Rs1000 (£10).

I had decided that I would fly from Udipur to Mumbai to save some time. Not very backpacker like but o well!

On the way to Udipur we stopped a few times, firstly we were driving past a lake and the driver said we could see crocodiles so we had to stop!
A young boy appeared out off the bushes like Indian people seem to and told us he could show us the crocodiles so we followed him! Luckily we did as it turned out to be a fairly long walk from the road. Laura was at the front with the guide when suddenly they both came running backwards shouting "snake snake snake!!" The kid said he saw a cobra and refused to go first so I had to lead the way, I really wanted to see a wild snake but unfortunately/fortunately we didn't see one!

The lake was really beautiful and it was so peaceful, no human noise could be heard and what a relief that was!! The lake was surrounded by mountains and their was 1 family that we passed washing in the river. We did see a crocodile but it was through the powerful camera lens of Laura's camera!

We also stopped at a temple the driver couldn't stop talking about the whole way "must visit in India" so we took a little de-tour and headed for the temple! The temple was... Like all temples... Very temply... It was nice but the girls agreed with me.. You see 1 temple you have seen them all!!
The one thing the temple did have was monkeys!
I absolutely love monkeys I have decided! They were sat at the side of the road all the way from the temple to just outside Udipur city. We slowed down a few times but never got out and we NEVER lowered the windows more than a 1/4 of the way down as we found they like to try and jump through the windows to our surprise!!

We made it to Udipur around 6pm and we were all amazing about the beauty of the place, 2 massive lakes at each end of the city with a snaking river running between then.
Once again I hadn't forward planned and booked a hotel as it was all a little last minute, we arrived to where the girls had booked for the night, "The Panorama hotel" which was fully booked... Typical... After chatting to the girls and the manager they let me have an extra bed on the floor for less than £2 as it was for 1 night only..not bad!

We stayed up late watching the sun go down over the beautiful city and lakes drinking kingfisher beer and a good aloo gobi curry! Perfect!

The following day we explored the city, somehow we ended up in another bloody palace!! Much like all the palaces I had been too! But we had a nice day anyway we did a lot of walking around the city and had a great rooftop lunch before I headed to the airport for my flight to Mumbai!