A Palace with a View, by Caprilicious Jewellery

Hello people, I'm back in town!! How are you? I hope you've missed me as much as I've missed you. I've had a really busy holiday and now am in need of a long rest. Fortunately we have a pre-summer break booked at the end of March, Covid-19 and sand storms permitting, as the holiday is in the Canary Islands which has recently been struck with both these natural disasters. Oh well, we are still 4 weeks away from that, let's wait and see what unfolds.

If my holiday in India was to be put in a nutshell, I'd say that I had a long catch up with my mother, went to Udaipur with my sister in law, to Goa with my sister, and had a joint birthday party with my school fellows as we are celebrating a significant milestone this year. One of the girls has a daughter who runs a music school in Bangalore and she sang 'Memories' for us most beautifully. 

There was also the Bangalore Club that I went to regularly, especially during the evenings and a night market where Caprilicious had a stall, in aid of the Rotary club.
The night market is an interesting concept, and runs from 6pm to midnight. People are able to shop after work and those who don't work can escape the rush hour traffic and find parking spaces so that they can shop without feeling harassed,overheated and exhausted. I have a little clip of the vendors setting up to some great music. 

Udaipur was a load of fun. We got into town in the evening and went to the palace to have a look around as we had heard that there was a 'Sound and Light' show, only to hear that there was some doubt about the performance that evening. It did go ahead and only later did we hear that the palace had been under a lockdown all afternoon (while we were on the 'plane) because a black panther had lost its way from the surrounding forest and found itself in the palace - it was caught and tranquilised, and eventually transported back to the surrounding hills the next day. 
The views from the palace are spectacular, with the Aravalli range of mountains, the lake Picchola and the city of Udaipur visible from its ramparts.

We went back to the Palace the next morning and on the way took in a temple perched high on a hill, with the stone carvings and spires that are customary in North India.

A tryst in a public place!

We wandered around the palace, listening to history playing out silently - Rana Pratap, Rani Padmini, and a host of names from our school history books came from these parts and if we listened hard we could hear the tinkling of bracelets and anklets especially when we sat down for a rest in the gardens of the harem.

Acting the Monkey

We watched the sunset over the Aravalli range across the Fatehsagar lake, a very moving experience that unfortunately no camera can do justice to - I did try, though.
We took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel, the route took us through the bazaar - to distract myself from the bone shaking ride, I took pictures as we drove slowly through the market.

I love this chap - what a handsome picture he makes, waving lush bunches of coriander at people as they drive by. The dust, the smells and sounds of the market came through into the auto rickshaw and I felt a tinge of sadness at the tourist I have become in the land where I grew up. 

The Leela Palace hotel was beautiful - they had a bunch of musicians sitting by the front entrance to the jetty - every time people came in or out of the hotel to get to the boat required to ferry them to the city, the musicians struck up an unholy din - I must admit to sticking my head in and out the door like a tortoise, and they obligingly picked up their instruments to play and then put them down again when I retracted my head. Childish, I know, but totally irresistible.

Queen for a day!

And then it was time to fly home, back to Bangalore with its traffic and high rise buildings, and most importantly, my mother.

That's me for today folks. Have a fabulous week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then
​xx