Udaipur is known for its beautiful lake, its intricate palaces and its holy Hindu temples, but on arrival you could be forgiven for thinking that the locals have dumped all their chivalrous Rajput history in favour of that more modern example of suave sophistication, James Bond.
Restaurants advertise video screens showing Bond movies, guidebooks allude to in their descriptions, and travellers distinguish it from other palatial Rajasthani cities by the city's new creed, for this is where Octopussy was filmed, and the locals are pretty keen to point this out. This of course has little bearing on the real Udaipur experience. Dragging bags from an overnight bus into the twilight of 5am Udaipur, I certainly felt shaken but not stirred, and when the rickshaw drivers appeared I wished I had a licence to kill, but that was about as far as it went.
For only the second time in my travels โ the first being the journey from Bangkok to Chiang Mai โ I thought I'd try taking sleeping pills, and the Valium I bought in Pushkar certainly did the trick, knocking me out for the entire drive down.
Unfortunately I was still in a drug-induced idiocy on arrival, and I blindly and gratefully followed an English couple whom I'd met on the bus, who guided me to a hotel where I managed to sleep off the effects of the pills. I was impressed by the power and effectiveness of the drug, but I don't think I'll be doing Valium again; it took a good 24 hours for me to get my eyelids back under control, and that's scary when you don't really know where you are.
Having shaken off the worst of my chemical slumber, I stuck my bleary head out of my hotel window and realised that my English guides had chosen well, for there, laid out in front of me, was not just another beautiful Rajasthani city, but a really special one; Udaipur is charming. Dominating the city is the ornate City Palace, and placid Lake Pichola contains two little islands, Jagmandir with its perfect domed edifice and Jagniwas with its far from ancient Lake Palace Hotel, one of the most luxurious and romantic hotels in India.
