A relaxing massage...

13^th October 2018

Another day, another destination. Thankfully we had a few relaxing hours and a leisurely breakfast before being picked up by another taxi driver who drove us to Rawla Narlai, a beautiful hotel in a small village just over two hours away.

I’m not sure why we picked Rawla Narlai (I say we, but really, I mean Rory as all I really knew was that we were in India for a while) but I think it might have had something to do with the five star reviews and the most amazing pool! According to the website;

"Tucked away amidst the Aravali’s, among the world’s oldest fold-mountain ranges, this one-time ‘”Hunting Manor’ of the Jodhpur Royals now opens its doors to those on a hunt for blissful tranquillity.

Today, this 17th century ‘Country Manor’, painstakingly restored to its original magnificence, caters to an exclusive clientele in its resurrected avatar of a boutique resort.”

That sounds pretty good to me! Our room was beautifully decorated with lots of artisan furniture and finishing touches. The view, across the pool and on to  the Indian landscape was, for lack of a better word, amazing.

After getting settled in we decided to walk around the local village. The hotel offered a guided tour where you meet different locals but we decided to go out on our own. I must admit that while I hate seeing the rubbish, I love seeing the wildlife, especially the little litters of pigs!

While out on the walk we came across another amazing sight; this temple, carved in to the side of the imposing landscape. How people managed to build these structures blows my mind! We had a nice look around and made our way back to the hotel for a candle lit dinner in the main courtyard.

As part of our delicious meal there was a staff member on hand to give a quick massage. Sound fairly harmless, right? Wrong. It started out well, maybe a little firm at times, but pretty enjoyable and then… the head massage. Just imagine you’re sitting in a really fancy hotel, lots of other couples around, and the local masseuse give you a head massage, which is really nice, but for some reason involves hair going here, there and everywhere. At this point I could hardly stop laughing (I wasn’t alone, the other guests found this hilarious too) so it’s safe to say that this is a candle lit dinner I won’t forget!  

Palace, Pool, Paneer

12^th October 2018

When selling the idea of three weeks in India to me, Rory pitched the second half as the relaxing half of the holiday. With that in mind we had a bit of a lazy morning before heading over to the city palace. Again, I knew very little about the palace but for a mere £3 we explored dozens of elaborate rooms and beautiful courtyards. I know so little about Indian history but they sure know how to build a palace!

On the way back to the haveli we spent some time exploring the smaller side streets and picked up a few more trinkets to bring home – after some stellar negotiating I managed to pay £6 rather than £7 for an elephant stamp and some ceramic door handles. Again, I was probably ripped off but I genuinely didn’t mind.

We spent the rest of the day lazing by the pool – I think I touched on it before but despite all our holidays, we have never really had a relaxing/pool side holiday so it was a nice novelty! Feeling very brave we ventured out in search of a travel bag – we only brought hand luggage on this trip (as it’s so much easier to travel with) but we have booked bags in to the hold on the way back. Our recent purchases are making our bags bulge so we went from shop to shop trying to get a decent price for a small duffel bag. The vast majority of people started at £15 and as soon as we went to leave they were dropping their prices to £8, then £4, then asking what we’d pay. Not in the mood to haggle, we headed back to a bag we saw earlier in the day and happily paid the extortionate price of £5 for what is a very pretty and very practical purchase!

A final meal by the lake was in order and now that we’ve taken the Indian cookery class, we were dab hands at ordering. Who knew that cottage cheese could be so delicious in a curry? (And no, I’m not joking. We haven’t eaten any meat on this trip so paneer, or cottage cheese, is a genuine treat – how times have changed!)

Food, Glorious Food!

11^th October 2018

Despite never cooking at home (shout out to Esther for all those dinners and lunches), one of our favourite travel activities is a cookery class. The top rated class in Udaipur is taken by a woman called Shashi so at 10.30am we found ourselves sitting in her kitchen, going through recipes for the day. As a little bonus we saw some sort of parade from the window, which was just amazing!

Unlike previous cooking classes we didn’t have our own cooking station, rather there were two gas hobs on the kitchen island and each participant (five including me and Rory) helped prepare different elements of each dish. We started with chai masala tea and moved on to vegetable pakora that was served with mango chutney and a coriander dip.

 The rest of the day was spend preparing and cooking chapattis, nan, paranthas and three different curries which all began with the same base, known by Shashi as magic sauce. Apparently most Indian dishes are cooked using this base. We picked up some good hints and tips and when it came time to leave we stocked up on Indian spices, recipe books and even a spice tin. We might not have pots and pans but we have plenty of spices for when we finally start using our kitchen!

We ate so much food at the cookery class that we were too full for dinner so instead we lounged about our amazing room and made the most of the view. Our first night at the Haveli was spent in a traditional room but today we moved to a lake view suite. We think this was Selina Scott’s room on the TV show and while the traditional room was lovely, the lake view was unbeatable. I don’t think we’ve ever been so close to the water – it really is like the Venice of the East (but with no gondolas and lots more rubbish).