Udaipur day 1 – Elephants & Octopussy

29^th July - Lovely mountain drive from Ranakpur 2hrs to Udaipur, the "Venice of India". The room is stunning we look straight out across one arm of the lake. At some altitude we are in much cooler country with hills all round the city & a chance of a second aircon-free night (it's hell on my skin daahling). There are eagles & kites soaring above & heron & cormorants flying past our room, 200m away across the water an elephant saddles up for an afternoon stroll.

We've windows along 2 sides of the room & these fold open to allow us to feel the breeze & hear the sounds wafting from all around. There are 2 ghats down below through the trees where women & men come to bathe & launder, separately, in the early ,morning.

Feroz has done us proud booking this, there's a view of the main lake as well as the Lake Palace hotel. The latter is famed not only for a)taking up a complete island b)costing upwards of US$500 a night in high season but c)for hosting Roger Moore & babes for several eyebrow-arching scenes in Octopussy. Quite beautiful, can't wait to explore & will try & avoid the many cheap cafes that still show the Cubby Broccoli masterpiece every night.

Carol banged her head on the ornate (spiked, basically) archway from the room up onto the marble floored daybed area & had to lie down for a couple of hours. After fetching Aspirin from the local medicine wallah I set out to smile my way solo around town..