Tuesday 19th March 2019 Udaipur, a city with four man-made lakes, seems to be a popular resort with Indians as well as international tourists. We were told that the island cafe which we can see from our hotel is closed for six months for refurbishment. We therefore planned to take a boat trip on Lake Pichola and, having bought our tickets at the entrance to the City Palace we walked through the Palace grounds, past the Suraj Gokhda and out of the other side with views of the Fateprakash Palace and the Shiv Niwas Palace which have both been converted into heritage hotels. Passengers must wear life jackets in a rare acknowledgement of health and safety regulations. The boat ride is more expensive after 15:00 as this includes the sunset hours. The trip we took left from the City Palace Jetty and takes you past the Lake Palace, which is now a luxury hotel. And there are good views back towards the Fateprakash Palace and the Shiv Niwas Palace . . . . . . and the City Palace . . . . . . and the Gangaur Ghat. We had been given various conflicting pieces of advice by staff […]
Daily Archives: 19/03/2019
Monday 18th March 2019 Before leaving our hotel in Agra, to go to Agra Cantt railway station, we took advantage of the wifi and checked our PNR code. We were surprised that we were in HA1/A/4 and HA1/B/5 [carriage/cabin/berth]. This meant that we had been allocated separate 4-berth cabins. When we got onto the train we discovered that Robert was in a cabin with a couple and a single man. Matilda was in a cabin with a young couple and a free bed. On discussion with the couple and the guard we ascertained that the single man in Robert’s cabin had moved from Matilda’s cabin. This meant that we could actually be together, sharing the cabin with the young couple. However, at about midnight our train arrived in Jaipur and the couple got off. We thought that we had the cabin to ourselves for the rest of the journey. It was then that we had a knock at our door and three men appeared with their reservations to share with Matilda [remember that Robert was supposed to be in a different cabin]. It is actually Indian Railway policy not to mix non-attached males and females in the same cabin. Robert […]