Udaipur

We arranged to meet Marcus at 9am and visit the Monsoon Palace together so we set off to have breakfast at the same rooftop restaurant where we had dinner the previous night at around 7.30am. We tried to order brewed coffee and mueslie which were both on the menu. They didn't have either so we ended back at our hotel for breakfast. Marcus ended up joining us for breakfast and then we set off at around 9.30am. We agreed on 200 rupees for a tuk-tuk to the monsoon palace but once we got to the gate at the bottom the driver said he could not go any further as tuk-tuks were not allowed. We had been duped! We paid our entrance fee which was only 160 rupees each and could have paid an extra 100 each to be driven to the top but decided to walk. It was good to do some walking without the traffic whizzing by. It took us 45 minutes to get from the entry gate to the monsoon palace. It was very smoggy so the view from the top was not clear but we did manage to see both lake Pichola and Fateh Sagar Lake.

We wandered around for a while then walked back down to the gate and caught a tuk-tuk back into town where we had lunch at the Jheel guesthouse restaurant. We had a bit of trouble ordering but in the end when the food came it was very good. After lunch we walked up to Jagdish Mandir a 17th century Vishnu temple which has a black statue of Vishnu.

There were many beggars around the temple and we were happy to leave the area. We found a coffee whop where David had a piece of chocolate cake and Catriona had a cappuccino. In the evening we met up with the group for dinner and then set off for the train to Jaipur at 9.15pm.