Day 20 - Udaipur

> See cooking class recipes

Finally - a lie in. I got up at 9.30 this morning and had the enjoyment of having to be any where at any time! Gave aaall my grotty, disgusting clothes to the Colonel for washing (despite excessive amount of rainfall here recently, it may not rain again for 48 years, so cannot waste water washing things in room - plus, of course, so much easier to let someone else do it :-)

I went off for a wander, put my films in for processing and just explored the streets and the wonderful shops. At 10.30 we met outside the spice box for our cookery class. There were 8 of us in total, and we were let up to a tiny room across the road and given a comfy seat and a wodge of recipes. For the next 3 hours we spent the time learning how to make chai, curries, and even chipatti (so incredibly easy - never realised). Our teacher had an excellent sense of humour, and kept us laughing whilst we took it in turns to cook. We ate huge amounts, drank huge amounts, and took huge amounts of notes as we went along. The food we produced was wonderful, and so different from the food in restaurants that it was worth it just to taste that. They really are so incredibly easy - Ma & Lynda, chipatti'd are like small wraps, I promise you'll never buy the packets again when you see how easy they are to make!! Anyway, we were allowed to keep the recipes, so may scan them in tomorrow so you at home can try them.

After the cooking I returned to my room for some chill out time. Then I got bored - yes, you guessed it - I went shopping! I bought a ganesh tshirt and some baggy trousers (aargh, awful, but I literally had nothing left to wear). Then I pottered along to the art shop I had visited the previous day. The owner was so friendly, he sat me down and gave me chai, and we chatted away for a bit. He is one of the 'master' artists of the gallery, and when I mentioned I wanted Henna handpainting, he offered to do it - for free, one of his hobbies apparently (think it was just a long, quiet day). For about an hour he drew the most elaborate patterns on my hand whilst I drank chai and looked at the artists work. Itis amazing stuff, they paint with squirrel hair brushes, and the strokes are so fine that you cannot even see them under a microscope. Well, feeling guilty I only went and bought a few pictures (the only thing that the amazing palmist got wrong about me was when he said I was good with money - that's a bloody laugh!). Anyway - I bought a picture of a elephant (good luck), a horse (power) and finally a really cute camel (the guy says "it means love"... quizzical expression from Katie... explanation: "it is the hardest thing to love a camel" - my backside still aches, so very true). Oh, and one for me too (whoops) - a beautiful picture of Krishna & one of his 489 girlfriends (what a player) - very bling and Indian, will look good with bedspread!

I then took an autorickshaw with a bunch of other guys up to the monsoon palace. It is high up on a hill over Udaipur - and the place where the Maharajah would go to avoid the monsoon craziness. The view was aaamazing, and there was monkeys everywhere with their cheeky black faces. We took lots of pictures, watched the sun set behind the mountains and then hopped back into the rickshaws and white-knuckled our way round the hairpin bends in the free-wheeling descent down the mountain.



Above left: Autorickshaw stops to cool down Above right:Sunset at monsoon palace



Above left: View thorough window of Monsoon Palace Above centre: View over Udaipur Above right: Cheeky monkey

For dinner we went to rainbows - sadly no octopussy showing, but food was yummy. Oh, and Murrey & Julie kindly showed us where to get the most perfect coffee and cake. Cafe Edelweiss for Brekkie tomorrow methinks. It is Kay's birthday tomorrow also - she has promised to go swimming in the lake ("gone swimming in the mekong - no worries"), so I shall go and cheer her on (and take amusing pictures - hoho)!