Day 21 - Udaipur

Relaxing day today - I had a lie in, then after getting up I pottered down to the german bakery. I bumped into Kay on the way down - she had gone to have a swim, but there was loads of guys there so she chickened out.

After brekkie myself, Lisa, Kay and Eric wondered to the city palace - we had heard that for 125 rupees you could get a boat ride across the lake. Unfortunately we must have gone to the wrong place, because they tried to charge us about 3 times that amount. Kay and I decided to go in anyway, and we also bought tickets for the museum, and had a wonder round. We tried to find the lake, hoping that there would be a cheaper boat there, but didn't have much luck (more gates, more silly prices).

Afterward we wondered back, looking in the tiny shops. When we exited the palace we suddenly saw a painted elephant, with its handler sitting astride its neck, ambling up the steet toward us. Kay turned to me - "lets ask for a ride yeah". Eeek - this thing was huuuge. But it was her birthday - so I just nodded. We walked up and asked for a ride- "300 rupee, half hour" - sold. The elephant sat down, and we bothe scrambled up its backside and made ourself comfy in the little seat. When it satood up I really thought I would fall off, and gripped the seat with all my might. The walk of the elephant was extremely rolling, and occationally we had to duck under trees/power lines/banners, but it was great fun, and we had a good view from high up. The tourists all lauged, the shopkeepers all waved, and the kids all cheered and ran after us - much fun. We got someone to take a picture (below).



Tonight we are going to go to a culture show for Kay's birthday - and we have promised we will all drink beers and dance, so that should be fun. I've uploaded a few more pics of the Bishnoi villages and other bits and bobs from Kay's camera, and they are added to the entries below, but you can also see them on my Flickr album.