Octopussy Movie Every Night At 7pm

Our train from Jaipur to Udaipur departs late in the evening, officially at 22:20. We’re dropped at the station at about 21:15, so we’re in good time. As it happens, we’re in very good time indeed, positively oodles in advance, in fact on the wrong day, because it is four hours late. We eventually board at 02:15: here’s another small untruth on the departure board.

It’s an overnight train, and we’re in Second Air Conditioned Sleeper Class, so we have bunks and everything. Despite the lateness of the service, we’re still booted out of bed at 06:45.

We eventually arrive and check in to the Panorama Guest House. A word about the Octopussy thing: much of the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy, starring Roger Moore, was shot in Udaipur. Consequently, many of the city’s rooftop restaurants and bars show the film every bloomin’ evening. Really, though, there’s a limit to how often you want to watch it. Once does us.

We like the place immediately, and it is beautiful, set on a large lake. We have breakfast, and occasionally dinner, in these restaurants, right on the shore, watching people taking a dip or washing their clothes.

The city boasts many palaces. We visit the City Palace, from which we get a great view of the famous Lake Palace. This is now a hotel, run by the Taj Hotel group. You can’t land there unless you’re a guest.

We’re keen to try cooking, so we sign up for a class. We watched and participated in cooking aubergine and tomato curry, potato pilau, dahl, onion and tomato raita and chapati. Our instructor made it look simple, and it was delicious. As usual, my chapatis aren’t round, but oval.

We take a trip to the magnificent Jain temple at Ranakpur, where Diane finds another elephant. It was nice to drive around the Rajasthan countryside also.

One of the advantages of Udaipur is that we can get coffee, which we like every now and again. This cafe, which also has a fabulous rooftop restaurant, is recommended by Lonely Plant.

Towards the end of our trip we take in a local cultural show, the climax being a dance where a large number of water pots are balanced on the dancer’s head. I’m not sure I could balance one.

So, farewell then Udaipur, after an idyllic couple of days. Off to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve next, to try and spot the aforementioned iconic cat.