A traveler in India

From our hotel roof top restuarant we can see the 'dobi walas' (clothes washers) in fantastic coloured sari's on the Ghat below. To my left in the middle of the lake are two white Palaces. In the distance the hills rise up and on the tallest one is the Monsoon Palace, at night it's lit-up and you can't see the hill it's on - we've called it the floating palace.

At dusk we watch the monkeys jumping to the best vantage point to watch the sunset. In the morning we can pat the elephant down by our ghat as he waits, like a bus, for his next load of tourists. We're in Udaipur, Rajasthan, this is where Octopussy was filmed. The Venice of the East.

Whilst we were here we where advised by an Indian in a 'German Backery' of all places to go a festival for one of their Gods. We did and when we got there we were very excited to see about 300 people dancing with sticks in a circle.

The men dancing one way while the women went the opposite. Each time they smacked each others sticks as they passed. It's one of the only times when the young Indians get to meet with the opposite sex to flirt. We hadn't been there long when a man came up and invited us to some seats.

As we followed him it became apparent that the seats where on a large stage overlooking the entire festival, not only that but we where sitting next to a Bolllywood film star and other glitterati, in our flipflops and shorts. They made us feel like guests of honour. This went on to midnight with continous ear-splitting music.