Udaipur Lake
Now we know why Udaipur has a great reputation. After a trouble free journey we arrived in the pleasant city centre Khumba Palace Hotel, interesting and comfortable room, well laid out garden and a roof terrace, under the city palace walls. A big difference between here and Goa is the people who are very proud of both Udaipur and Rajastan and make an effort to keep the place up to scratch. It is a laid back and (relatively) quiet city.
There are three palaces, the famous Lake Palace, which has lost some of its visual charm because of new buildings towering above it, the City Palace and the Monsoon Palace. They were used by the incumbent Maharajas etc. in turn as the seasons changed.
The Whistling Teal restaurant deserves particular mention; excellent food, service and surroundings and sensibly priced.
The Khumba Palace Hotel owners, Dinesh and Francine (his Dutch wife), are charming and professional in all aspects of their business, the hotel, a farm cum ranch and horse riding.
We shipped out of the city next day to the Krishna Ranch for our quietest holiday in India to date. It was like a farm in rural England fifty years back. Contented horses, cows, goats, chickens, small plots for vegetables, roots and an orchard. The camels however would have looked out of place, as would some of the abundance of birds, peafowl, hornbills, parakeets and treepies. There was little in the way of contact with the outside world to disturb us.
