India part 9

This is another place where we stayed, called the Lake Palace. It is located in the city of Udaipur, also known as the Lake City (not to be confused with Salt Lake City). This was the summer palace for the maharaja, built in 1746, and it has also been converted into a hotel. It is located in the middle of Lake Pichola and the only way to get there is by boat. Of course, that is dependant on the monsoons. We were lucky because this year was a good year for monsoon season so we had a full lake. Apparently, the lake had been completely dry for a few years, in which case I guess they could call this the Dustbowl Palace? Our guide told us that when the boats can't get out there, they take people on elephant, just so it still seems special in some way. Boat vs. elephant? Again, I will say that we were lucky because we got to take a boat and the whole experience was really magical.
(btw, if you are a James Bond fan, apparently the film Octopussy was filmed here.)

Arrive by boat, and then you are literally showered with rose petals! I admit that I lingered a bit under the rose petals. Later we saw people arrive who barely looked up when the shower started. what losers!

The windows in the middle here (jutting out) are the window's from the room Trevor stayed in.

The palace at sunset.



Here is one of the common rooms inside the hotel. It is hard to tell how beautiful it is -- I loved this room because it had my favorite colors blue and purple. I love the blue tiles in all the detail of the room.




Here are the grounds of the hotel. As I was taking this photo, I ran into Kathy who was on the roof taking some photos of her own.


We took a sunset cruise to another palace in the Lake. Here are Kathy & Trev before our departure with the city in the background.