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Udaipur and the Palace on the Lake - or is it...?

Right now we are being cooked at the highest temperature in Udaipur (Rajasthan). God, it is so extremely hot here...and it's only half way through spring!! I reckon summer here gets to over 45-50 degrees celsius, especially being near the desert and all. I've had a headache for the last 2 days, I can't take the heat.

Once again, cow shit everywhere. You breathe in and take in a huge whiff of it...great for your lungs I'm sure! Even the cows find it so hot here, all they do is laze around on the ground looking miserable. Udaipur is famous for it's Palace on the Lake, or City Palace. The Lonely Planet book shows a beautiful palace surrounded by a lovely glistening lake. But guess what? We arrived in Udaipur to find out that there isn't a lake anymore. It's so hot here that all the water has dried up! Amazing thing is that it looked like it was a pretty big lake too. So now we call it "farm palace". It looks quite nice at night, but it would look even nicer with water surrounding it. Oh well. :P

Ben and I decided to get upto some mischief last night and pretend that we were a rich couple looking for a place to stay (hell, there's nothing else to do in this city!). So we went to the City Palace for kicks. No way we could afford it of course, being five-star/deluxe. We approached the guard at the main entrance and he was looking at us up and down. We were hardly dressed rich, just wearing casual clothes. I didn't think we'd be let in but we were. Of course they can't assume by the way we dress whether we have a lot of money or not. Maybe we have rich parents? Hehe. They aren't to know. Anyway we went inside and the place was just so posh and opulent. I don't think I've ever been into a five-star hotel before. Feeling extremely underdressed, we asked to see a room. The main purpose of this really was to see what five-star rooms looked like and plus we were bored and had nothing else to do. The first room was really nice but pretty small. Had it's own walk in robe and the furniture was pretty ornate.

We then decided to go to the bar to have a beer. It was pretty expensive - Rs 200 for two beers, but works out to about AUD$6 so that was cool. The beers were served in a big metal maharaja's cup. We were offered our own space with fancy couches and cushions to sit on. I reckon this is what it was like during the time of the maharajas. Everything was so royal-like...we both 'felt' like royalty! I was gonna a cocktail too but that was Rs 500. Would have been okay I guess - only works out to AUD$15, price of a cocktail in Melbourne. But I was pretty keen to see the 'super-deluxe' room! So we followed the hotel-worker excitedly to this room. We asked him how much this room was and he said it was US$1500. That's a shitload of money! The room had a big swing outside the door - we knew it was gonna be good! We went inside and I swear it was like a house. It had a massive walk in robe, lounge area, a big swing in the middle, stained glass windows so when the morning sun comes in it would come in all colourful. There was a huge kingsized bed with a study table beside it. The bathroom was huge too. It had a his/her sink, a really spacious shower and there was a phone next to the toilet (I can't imagine what for - in case you get stuck, haha). When Ben came into the bathroom, I snuck an extravagant looking body-lotion bottle into his bag before the hotel-worker saw me. I pretended to get my lip gloss out, while I put it in there. I had to do it, a little souvenier for myself. Ben didn't even know until we got outside, hehe!

We were told that Queen Elizabeth 2 slept in this room once. It was very beautiful and opulent. Wish I could spend just one night there. :) Anyway we told them we'd "think about it" hehe. I could never afford that in any lifetime! We went to have dinner after that and Ben was making me paranoid that they were after me for the body-lotion. I don't think they would go into that room unless a customer is interested anyway. :P

Not much else to do in Udaipur, too hot for sightseeing. Ben's getting a sitar lesson soon, and I'm going to the beauty parlour for a facial and get my hair dyed with henna. Should be fun! Leaving for Ahmedabad again tomorrow so we can fly home on Saturday. Mum and dad, about the carrum board. Since it's too expensive to DHL it back, I'm gonna take it with me on the plane. I'll declare it of course but there might be a possibility they'll take it off me. Hopefully if they treat it, they'll give it back to me. Fingers crossed!

Looking forward to coming back to the cooler weather. Feel like I'm being baked in a oven here! See you soon

Ciao for now!
Harmz

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