Mumbai - Udaipur (Nov 5th - 10th)

Mumbai - Udaipur

We're pretty exhausted by the time we land in the baking heat of Mumbai after flying through the night. Egyptair aren't bad, but the food they serve up is atrocious! We're expecting the worst in terms of hassles when we land, but are pleasantly surprised to find a modern airport that we pass through easily, prepay for our taxi down to the Southern tip of Mumbai, Colaba where our hotel is, and set off without being asked once where we are from. Its a good hour and a bit through the sprawl of Mumbai to get to our hotel. I remember slums along the airport road from when I was here 12 years ago, but they have either been moved on, cleared up or a new road has been built as there is no sign, just a lot of advertising hoardings, and beeping traffic.

We get to our hotel and are pleased to be offered a huge room in an old colonial house, with the biggest bed we have seen, and a TV to learn of Barack Obama's success (yes we can accept...) After a siesta we wander around Colaba to the Gateway To India, covered in scaffolding built to commemorate King George V's royal visit in 1911. We find a good place for our first curry of the visit, and look forward to many more.

It takes a while to get going the next morning, especially as the internet is against us trying to book flights up to Udaipur. We've decided that 16hrs on the bus is not really an option, when an hours flight will get us where we want to go! Later that afternoon, we take a boat from the Gateway over to Elephanta Island, about 9kms through Mumbai Harbour. There are some fascinating cave carvings to gods, and some very cheeky monkeys.

Mumbai is full of bars and restaurants that wouldn't be out of place in London, and we start our evening with cocktails in Busaba - we're the first in, but its a great bar, with fab cocktails. Then next door for dinner at Indigo, a truly first class place, although Indian wine isn't up to much (and is expensive.) We finish the night with a Bombay Sapphire (natch) in the Taj Palace Hotel - a 5* jobby opposite the Gateway. Compared to the places that we've been in earlier that night, its a bit bland (the hotel, not the gin)

Feeling a little under the weather the next day, we take the easy way out and book our flights with a travel agent - they're cheaper than online, so everyone is a winner. Its probably the hottest day of the trip, but we set off on our walking tour of the city. There is a good swathe of interesting architecture with art deco cinemas opposite gothic court buildings, and Hogwarts-esque university. In the middle of it all, on the oval are games of cricket with the players in full whites. The British influence is still plain to see - St Thomas' Cathedral is the oldest English building standing - and is an oasis of calm amongst the beeping bustle outside. Its also full of fascinating tombs of old Generals who fought alongside Nelson, and young soldiers who died from malaria.

We make a beeline to a restaurant with fierce A/C to cool off - its the Tea Centre so Luce is happy (although they don't do cold milk for her tea, they do a mean curry.) We jump on the suburban train for the princely sum of about 3p to go up to Mahalaxmi, which is home to the biggest outside human powered washing machine - its all blokes doing the work, thrashing whites around in lines and lines of enormous washing trenches - all the washing hanging up looks immaculately clean, but you wouldn't fancy getting all the buttons back! We're a bit out of the main centre, and this is the first time we get really hassled by beggars - with little kids tapping our arms asking for money, so we head back to the station and go back towards the centre, but jump off to visit the Ghandi museum at the house where he used to stay when in Mumbai. Its quite interesting seeing his letters to Hitler during the war, and also to Roosevelt, giving an idea of his utter disdain for the British rule in India.

We're down at Chowpatty beach with plenty of other Mumbaikers for sunset. As usual, we provide the entertainment for most people, but they seem happy just to shyly say hello and run off - much less imposing than the Egyptians. The Lonely Planet recommends stopping for a snack of Bhel Puri, and as it is food related, we jump on board. Its an odd, but quite pleasant mix of puffed rice, noodles chutney and other stuff! After a walk along the promenade, we jump a cab back to the hotel to pack ready for the flight up to Udaipur the next day. We both agree that Mumbai is a fantastic place, and a wonderful introduction to an India much less imposing than we had feared. Its a city that is obviously on the up - the Middle classes are on the rise - GQ India (Daniel Craig cover) and Vogue India (Posh Spice in hilarious Indian wedding cover "I feel very Indian") are advertised everywhere (we pick up a copy of each - and they are full of high end advertising aimed at cash fuelled 20-30 somethings.) The bars and restaurants are all aimed at having a good time, and some are dead cheap and amazing value. Its easy though to spend a fortune too (but for great quality) and we have, so are hoping to save some budget over the next couple of days and get back on track.

We're flying with Kingfisher up to Udaipur - but sadly no complimentary beer. Ali, our driver from the airport tells us about how he worked as production driver on Octopussy, Ghandi and Jewel in the Crown, which were all filmed in Udaipur. He wouldn't make it as a production driver anymore, as he was mental behind the wheel!

Udaipur is a stunning city on the banks of Lake Pichola, with two island palaces to take endless pictures of, in addition to the mainland Palace looking out over them. It reminds us of Lake Bled in Slovenia, but is a bit warmer, and many more tourists. We stop for dinner at a roof top lakeside restaurant, and the view of the palaces all lit up is breathtaking, which is just as well as the food is pretty bland! There are lots of little shops selling all the tourist tat ever required, and the hassle level is increased somewhat, but the Indian people seem so much more friendly that the Arabs, so we can almost forgive them, and find a good bar to chill out over a couple of beers.

Sunday 9th November is a lazy Sunday morning before we head out to the City Palace and have a good explore around all of the various rooms, courtyards and additional museums (with some great pictures of ex-rulers of Udaipur who seem to try and outdo their ancestors in the moustache arena...) Every window has another stunning view out over the lake or over the town.

We take a boat around the lake, and the views back to the City palace are equally as breathtaking -we're thankful for digital cameras, otherwise we would spend a fortune on developing film. As we're staying in the budget Khumba Palace, we cant get off the boat to look around the 5* Lake Palace Hotel (don't they know who we think we are?) but enjoy mooching around the Jagwandir Palace grounds, which has stunning views over the other palaces.

We're back on the mainland in time to order sunset drinks, and a small curry to keep us going. This sunset is probably the most breathtaking sight we have seen - the colours over the lake are magical, all with the delightful Lake Palace in the foreground. As magnificent is the City Palace which takes on a pink/ochre colour as the sun goes down. Mind-blowing.

We don't want to go for a bland tourist meal again, so have been recommended the place where Indians go if they cant cook at home. En route, we stop by the Maharaja's classic car collection, and have an escorted tour of the 30 or so vehicles kept in immaculate condition for the Maharaja to use. He's got a superb RR phantom (used in Octopussy) in addition to Mercs from the 50s, Rolls Royce safari vehicles and a Morris Minor. The chap who shows us around is so proud of the collection, and obviously takes great pride in keeping them ready to go at a moment's notice. We jump a rickshaw to the restaurant which is miles from the main tourist drag. Its perfect - all you can eat thali, guys come round with pots of veggie food and fill up your plate until you cat eat anymore. We've been learning Hindi words for food, so can impress the waiters with naming bindi (okra) paneer (cottage cheese) aloo (potato.) We seem to get bonus attention from the waiters as we're the only blondies in there, and an Indian girl comes over to chat to us, and help us out. Apparently her whole family had a great time watching us wondering what was happening, and then cautiously tasting each dish, before deciding, yeah this is great and digging in! All in all some great experiences today - probably the best day so far

Monday morning in Udaipur is spent over breakfast of poached eggs on toast and porridge, and a read of our books in the garden, before we set off to go on our Indian cookery course via a little museum that houses the world's biggest turban, which must be number two on the things to see in India after the Taj Mahal. Our host and teacher for the afternoon is Vijay Singh - who like his golfing namesake also excels in sport - he is a Swimming and Water Polo national champion and has the pictures up on the wall in his house of him meeting the president at the height of his butterflying prowess. He takes us out to his house on his motorbike, which is a bit hairy, but an interesting drive with the both of us on the back. Don't think that the scooter would manage 3 passengers, but the cows that we pass don't bat an eyelid. We guess that Vijay is from the wealthier side of town, he has a big house, where he lives with his wife, mother and the rest of his family.

As well as a proficient swimmer, Vijay is a great chef, and rustles us some delicious veggie pakora, and curries that we're looking forward to try and create back in London. His wife potters around in the background looking after their daughter, and doing bits of washing up, and his mother watches some classic Indian drama on the TV in the lounge. Vijay's talents also stretch to a bit of palm reading - he doesn't pretend to be any sort of professional, but I'm due to have more money than I know what to do with when I'm 35, and will have 2 kids - a boy first then a girl. Luce is also going to have 2 kids, so that's a relief, and she is very honest. We spend about 4 hours with the Singh family, and then weighing substantially more jump back on the bike to return to town.

We're back on the tourist trail to see some local dancing that evening the piece de resistance of which is the woman re-enacting the ancient dance of the nine bowls from Western Rajasthan. This is a desert area, with a lack of water, so the women used to carry 9 bowls on their heads full of water. Anyway, its a great piece of tourist tat. We've got an early bus to next stop, Jodhpur, which has a lot to live up to. Udaipur is a stunning place - both in scenery and activities, which as they all revolve around food, and in particularly curry are right up our street. Its also amazing value, and our budget is stretching a lot further, meaning more treats to come!