The Monsoon Palace
The Monsoon Palace is a beautiful structure that sits high above the city of Udaipur in Rajastan, India. It was used as a set in James Bond movie Octopussy in 1983. Unfortunately, while the palace is pretty from far, in reality, it’s far from pretty. Years of neglect show, and while repairs are now finally underway, the palace still offers little to the visitor other than stunning views across Udaipur.
Crash!
The Before
“Chuffed as chips”
The After
“Not such a hardcore biker now, are we?”
Actually it was a small crash. Luckily Kate and I were both okay: it was more of a shock than anything else.
That morning I had hired a Royal Enfield Bullet 350cc motorcycle in Udaipur, India. These bikes are true dinosaurs: the design is over 50 years old. It is the oldest production run bike in the world! I had to ride one!
Thing is, in 1955 when the Bullet was designed, motorcycles were very different to the modern day bike: the front drum brake is very weak compared to disk brakes; the gears work in the opposite direction to modern bikes and the rear brake and gear selectors are on opposite sides to what we ride today.
Added together, these differences make for a very different ride.
I took the bike out in the Udaipur traffic by myself and once I was satisfied that I could ride it, went back to the hotel and picked Kate up. We visited the Monsoon Palace, nearby Udaipur, then decided to head up into the hills behind the city.
We travelled up a beautiful mountain pass, past an amazing shrine and saw some stunning views on the other side. It was our first glimpse at the Indian countryside and I was surprised at how sparsely populated it was, considering it’s the second most populous nation on the planet.
As we approached one hairpin bend, I realised that we were going to hit a patch of gravel and oil left behind after some construction work. I reflexively hit went for the front brake. It managed to slow the bike to about running pace by the time we hit the oil, but when we hit the slick, the front wheel locked-up and the bike – and ourselves – went sprawling across the tarmac in a sort of slow-motion lowside.
We hopped about and cursed and yelped and checked that we were both okay – which, thank goodness, we were – and then I picked the bike out of the road. After a minute, two Indians on another bike stopped to check on us. Other than some minor bumps and bruises we were both fine, although Kate was extremely lightheaded afterwards and we needed to stop every two minutes for fear of her fainting until we found a shop in a tiny village at the bottom of the pass.
The Indians had patiently escorted us down. I brought some fizzy drinks and we drank them in the shade of a tree. What seemed like half the village had soon assembled around us and was asking us the questions Indians always ask couples: “Where are you from?”, ”Are you married?”, “Do you have children?”. Our escorters interpreted for us.
We rode (slowly!) back to Udaipur, I dropped the bike off at the rental shop and it was given a once-over by the owner, who was obviously suspicious as to why I wanted to drop the bike off several hours early and with half-a-tank of petrol remaining. Luckily there was no visible damage.
I thanked him for the use of the old thumper, and walked off, doing my best not to show my limp.
Udaipur
Udaipur was definitely the highlight of our trip to India. It was the smallest city we visited in the country, but definitely our favourite.
We spend three nights in Udaipur. We arrived on the overnight sleeper train from Jaipur at six in the morning and checked into our Hotel, the Mewar Haveli. Almost immediately I noticed a big difference from the other Indian cities we had visited to date: people were much friendly, helpful and not necessarily trying to sell you something.
Udaipur Photoset on Flickr / Slideshow
Udaipur is set on the Pichola Lake. Two palaces, Jagniwas Palace and the Lake Palace are built on islands on the lake. Surrounding the lake, numerous other palaces have been built, and in the distance, the Monsoon Palace is perched above the city. Octopussy, the Bond movie, was mainly set in this city, and if you need proof, numerous bars around town show the movie every night at 7pm sharp.
The Lake Palace Hotel resembles a giant wedding cake and it’s used as the ultimate wedding venue for the very rich. Several nights during our stay there were weddings at the venue with amazing fireworks displays to add to the amazing scenery.
We managed to see the surrounding countryside by hiring an old Royal Enfield motorcycle (more about that in a future post), and visited the Monsoon Palace and Ubeshwarji, a Shiva shrine, in the hills high above the city. The Monsoon Palace is definitely pretty from far, but far from pretty – it’s derelict, but the views are excellent, and riding out into the countryside and up the pass to visit Ubeshwarji was definitely a highlight of the trip.
We also explored some hills and villages surrounding the city on horse, which made a great day out and I would highly recommend it – we went with Krishna Ranch and it cost us INR950 for a 4 hour trip, with lunch included.
Jaipur
We spent two days in Jaipur and stayed at the Pearl Palace Hotel. This is definitely one of the best budget hotels I’ve ever stayed in. If you’re ever in Jaipur, I would highly recommend staying at the Pearl Palace.
Delhi and Agra
Although we’re travelling for almost a year, we somehow managed to end up in the position where we could only spend 10 days in the vast, varied country of India. We could have easily spent 6 months exploring the country!
The brevity of our visit meant that we could only spend one day in Delhi and one day in Agra.
Delhi
In Delhi we hired a driver and taxi for the day (for INR1000) so that we could see as much of the city in a short a time as possible. With our driver, we visited Humayun's tomb, the Lotus Temple (below), Dilli Haart for lunch, Rajpath and the president’s house and ended up in one of the swanky bars in Connaught Place for drinks and then dinner afterwards.
Agra
We caught the train from Delhi to Agra. It was much better than I had expected. We were told by many of travellers to expect the worst, but in reality the station was fairly orderly, the train clean and even on time.
We arrived in Agra and met an Indian work colleague from the UK for a great lunch in a revolving restaurant above Agra. Afterwards we headed off for the Red Fort. After fighting our way through the masses of touts that stand outside every attraction in Agra (and most other places too) we were completely amazed by this incredible building. I’ve not seen anything like it anywhere in the world! Our only regret was that we didn’t have a guide, so we may have missed some interesting bits.
That night we tried to find a good restaurant or bar, but found little other than the ones in hotels. Agra seems to have very little to offer away from it’s incredible architectural wonders.
Next morning we visited the Taj Mahal. I got up early (6am) to avoid the crowds and get the best sunrise photos. Kate arrived later, but was unable to gain entry as she didn’t have any cash and none of the ATMs in town were working. Eventually she managed to pursued one of guards to let me out to give her cash, then readmit me.
The Taj is easily the most incredible piece of architecture I’ve ever seen. The symmetry and precision and attention to detail have to be seen to be believed. What makes it all the more amazing is the fact that everything was done by hand before the invention of laser cutters, GPS and all the other tools which would be essential in building such a building today.
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