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Dan&LJ RTW
"And so, the end is near, we finished off our final naan bread.
We faced, the scorching heat, and we've explored, upon our mo-ped.
The roads, were always full,
And all the trains, were packed, night and day.
But still, and most of all, we did it........ Our.... Way."
UDAIPUR
The names Raw......Dan Raw.
The arrival at our final destination was surrounded with intense excitement and Dan near wetting his pants at first sighting Octop**** s palace.
Every café in the town shows the said film at 7pm EVERY night of the week, which as you can imagine was a treat-full prospect for LJ. You'd think that the locals would be a little tired of the film after showing it every night for the last 23 years, but no - they still love it! Unfortunately we did run out of time, mainly because if there's 1 thing more important to Dan than James Bond its food and the screening times tragically coincided with Dan's feeding time. Ah well.
Bond aside, the old town of Udaipur is a colourful & fascinating place and on first impressions we instinctively knew that we had nowhere near enough time with just the 3 days we had left of our trip.
The city is located on the picturesque Lake Pichola and our guesthouse was bang on the banks and we had stunning views of the lake palace and to Dan's delight of Octop**** s abode. The various narrow streets, which branch up from the lake all meet in the central old town area near the magnificent city palace (which doubled as Bond's hotel in the film). We luckily managed to get around the whole complex and also a boat trip on the lake. As we strolled the town, it became evident that Roger Moore had shopped in every single shop on every single street and was a personal friend of every single shopkeeper.
We instantly knew after a full rekkie on foot that the town was unmistakably 'hawk-able'........Enter 'Hawk 2', a turbo charged super machine with the power to dismount pillion passenger LJ through G-force alone. The streets were now ours and the high speed chases which featured in the 1983 Bond classic, paled in comparison to the velocity in which we flew through the city.
In seriousness, Udaipur was a wonderful 3 days and such a perfect way to end the Indian leg of our trip. The town is beautiful and the people so friendly, our reluctance to leave the country was increased massively by our time here alone. If we ever return to India, which is something we have both already decided to do, the quintessential Indian state of Rajasthan will definitely be our first point of call. The colours, the smells, the landscapes and the general character of the state, epitomises everything that you imagine India to be - it is truly delightful.
BACK TO BOMBAY
We got back to Padma's late last night (Friday) after a grueling 26hour train journey. Our arrival felt somewhat reminiscent of a homecoming. We instantly recognise the town and even have to help direct our taxi driver through the traffic jammed roads of the Bombay suburbs (we know this place like the back of our hands!!) It's so easy to fall in love with Bombay on every arrival and it certainly brought back the memories of our first arrival 8 weeks ago. We have to admit that it feels good to be back here, but there is also an overhanging feeling of despondency as we know our time in India is running out fast.
Our flight to Hong Kong departs in little under 12 hours (at the stupid time of 4.50am!!!) But first, we have the torture of England's World Cup quarter final and the mood of the 8 hour flight will be directly affected by the result, so for the love of God, come-on boys.
We were planning to list the highlights of the trip, but decided that it would just simply be impossible. The last 8 weeks have been a constant high for us both. Arriving back at Padma's last night and into the throng of her ever welcoming family and staff only made our departure even more difficult - massive massive thanks to you all, we have been overwhelmed with your kindness and friendship.
Goodbye to you all from India, we'll see you again in China! xx
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