Udaipur, India - Saturday 1 March 2025

Saturday morning woke and went to the rooftop for breakfast. This is the view from our room. This guy sweeps with a ridiculously small broom each morning...

Looking down from the rooftop...

And across to the Taj Palace Hotel...

This is looking up to the City Palace which we will visit this morning...

From the room...

After breakfast, we headed to the City Palace which is very close to our hotel...

We went through the palace which was a huge mistake as it turns out. There was a large group of locals and once you were in you couldn't get out. It was like Ikea!

After that we walked down the street to Jagdish Temple. There are many rickshaws around...

We took our shoes off and walked in for a look...

Looking back down to the street...

We walked down to the lake and this procession passed us. Not sure what it was...

We crossed the bridge and had a wander on the other side...

I know we have cows in Australia, but it was interesting to see them in the street...

In the afternoon I went for a massage and a long walk.

That night, we went to a different rooftop "'bar" I had read about, but they didn't serve alcohol so we left. It's interesting that our hotel didn't have a liquor licence but they said if we ordered gin (as it looks like water) they would serve us, and they did!

Took some pics first...

Jagdish Temple at night...

We walked across the lake and found a nice restaurant on the other side...

We then walked back to our hotel. It was crazy traffic and hard to walk along the narrow lanes...

Udaipur, India - Friday 28 February 2025

Flew from Mumbai to Udaipur on Friday evening. Easy 60 minute flight on Indigo Airlines. Domestic flight and no checked luggage so we were out quickly.

I had booked a transfer via the hotel, but the hotel made a mistake and the car never arrived. So I called an Uber which took us to the edge of the Old Town. Then we got a auto rickshaw to our hotel, the Moustache Luxuria Udaipur where we will stay for three nights.

The hotel is nice, overlooking the lake and has a lovely rooftop bar/restaurant.

It's late Friday night so we went up to the restaurant on the roof for dinner. Lovely view over the lake and nice to be able to breathe some fresh air after Mumbai!

The meal was good...

That's the Taj Palace Hotel on the lake which is where a James Bond movie was shot...

After dinner I went for a walk to get oriented. Cows roam free in the streets and everyone just works around them...

I walked through the old town to the lake and walked across this bridge...

Walked around the other side of the lake and past an art school...

It feels safe walking around and there are many people around. I walked back to the hotel and crashed.

Mumbai, India - February 2025

Early start today. Pickup by Grab at for my flight from Singapore Airlines. Arrived in Mumbai on time at 1045. 

Coming in to Mumbai...

It was quick through immigration and I was met by a driver arranged by my work for the APAC Partner Conference. He took us to the Four Seasons at Worli. Greeted by about a hundred staff  (!) and easy check in. Unpacked and had a couple of meetings over lunch in the hotel restaurant.

Back to my room for a shower. This is the view from my room. The sea is not far away, but it's so smoggy you can't see far...

Then we headed to AER the rooftop bar for dinner. It's a lovely space...

I worked all day the next day but had a brief break in the afternoon so I went for a walk around the block. It's hard to walk as there is only footpath for part of the way. I found refuge in this Catholic Cemetery...

This guy bomb checked each car coming into the hotel...

There was a relaxation room in the gym and the personal trainer would bring me masala tea (he wasn't that busy)...

Another sunset...

The formal dinner was a sit down affair and that was after a lot of canapes!

After dinner the dancers came on...

I can see this street from my room so on my last morning I walked down it. It's very run down and the street suddenly stops...

A guy lead us out there and we ended up at the Nehru Planetarium. We gave him some money. I was expecting to be harassed by locals for money but it seldom happened.

I thought this was a bit incongruous, a Porsche being washed in such a clearly poor area...

This poor taxi driver pushing his car...

Wandered into a local shopping centre which was pretty dead. Love the name of this jewellery shop...

Then walked around the block and back to the hotel.

Had some lunch and headed to the airport for our 7pm domestic flight to Udaipur.