April 2, 2015 (Udaipur, India)

Today we were visiting a city named Udaipur, but first we ate breakfast on the train. Like usual on the train we had a grand departure from the train with flowers and the red carpet. Our day in Udaipur was our second to last full day on the train before arriving at our final destination, Mumbai. Our first activity in Udaipur was boating on one of the lakes. The only place we visited on the lake was the Lake Palace. That palace is a few hundred years old and is owned by the maharaja of that area. The palace isn't huge like the one in Jodhpur it is white and surrounded by water. That palace is also where they filmed 007 Octopussy. On the palace grounds they also had gardens that we could walk through.

Back on land we walked up to the next spot, the City Palace. The City Palace was bigger than the lake palace and by the water. This palace is where Mom found the design she liked, which was the sun with the mustache. There, we visited some rooms and one of the things I saw which I hadn't seen before in a palace was a square cushioned swing that I'm guessing the maharaja used.

We walked over to another part of the palace where we saw the Maharaja's crystal furniture and dining supplies collection. I had never before seen crystal furniture. This collection of crystal furniture and is the largest of it's kind. It has a unique story. The Maharaja ordered this furniture custom and the day the furniture arrived the Maharaja died. Because of that they thought it was a bad omen to open it. So they family left it down in the basement of the palace so it was never put together or used. Before they opened the home to the public they discovered the furniture in the basement after it had been there for a hundred years and assembled it and displayed it without having it being used. After the crystal collection we ate lunch at the palace.

Next we drove to a handicraft shop. There they sold textiles and camel bone paintings. Mom and I got three small camel bone paintings. The two that I chose were one of a Kingfisher and two, the Taj Mahal. One of the things about the camel bone, when you hold it up to a light it would glow through and light up the painting.

Back at the train I walked over to the Safari Bar and played Carrom, an Eastern Asian game for a few hours with Mom, the two boys, Noah, and Cody, their dad, and two girls, Faith, and Piper. Carrom is similar to pool but you are using flat chips to play with and you can only strike from a certain area. After Carrom I walked back to my room and did some blog before dinner.

We had dinner at the cozier restaurant, and right after I played some Uno and some more Carrom in the Safari bar before walking back to the room.