The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
February 4 - The Road Trip to Jodhpur
The focal point of Udaipur is Lake Pichola and the Lake Palace, probably the most-photographed hotel in India. Behind it is the larger Jag Mandir, once a refuge for Shah Jawan, builder of the Taj Mahal but better known recently as the location for the James Bond movie, Octopussy. Some places in town show that film every night! The area suffers from unreliable rainfall and you can see that the water level in the lake is probably down twenty feet. From time to time the lake goes completely dry and the Lake Palace sits in the middle of a huge green field -- pretty, but nowhere near as spectacular. I am told that construction is underway on a channel from the hills to provide a consistent water source for the lake ... and that would be a good thing.
For the rest of our trip we will be traveling in this new Renault sedan. Very comfortable and quite roomy. Of course, we could go native and offer a ride to a few of the locals. Surely we must have room for them -- we counted 23 people in this jeep (including the guy sitting on the hood) ... but we might have missed a few!
A few of the sights on the road to Jodhpur. It isn't easy to get a clear shot from a moving car so you will never see the ones that got away ... but this should give you a bit of the flavor.
© 2009 Restaurant Doctor
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