Picturesque Udaipur and Modern Mumbai

We thought our visit to Udaipur was a perfect way to finish our tour of Rajasthan.  It was warm, beautiful, and a perfect place to meet up with Tal’s parents. 

Our hotel was near a place where many women would go to wash their clothes…   

Below is a picture of The Lake Palace, a palace which has been turned into a 5 star hotel.  It is the centerpiece of the city of Udaipur.

Below is the Udaipur City Palace.  We had a fun time discovering the rich history of this city and how it fits into Rajasthan’s history…

The walls of a beautiful temple in Udaipur…

 

Yes, that is an old plastic bag next to that beautiful bird!

This was our hotel room…

 

We loved this hotel. It was our big treat at the end of our India travel (before heading to our next volunteer experience). For the past 8 weeks we had been staying at some rather questionable places and so this was such a special place for us. We commented every day about how much we liked the room.

Here’s our view from our room…

The biggest highlight of our stay in Udaipur was the arrival of Tal’s parents. They were such great company and they treated us to a whole different world of luxury than we had seen in India. Below you will see what we are talking about.  The prices at this restaurant were many times as high as anything we had seen in our travels.  One dinner for $25?  We were used to $3 to $4!

 

Lots of girl talk, which was fun…the guys were off talking about basketball.

We got to do some shopping with my parents which was fun because they offered to take a few things home with them.  The thought of carrying anything more in our backpacks was enough to help us not purchase anything until this point.

 

Mumbai
This is the famous Victoria Station in Mumbai. It was built by the British and the first train left from here in 1853. The outside is pretty grandiose, while the inside looked rather plain.

The promenade in Mumbai… it was interesting to see lovers showing affection since that is a huge taboo in most of India…

This picture below shows you the luxury we enjoyed thanks to Tal’s parents. There was a gym in the hotel and Anita went twice! The food was also superb and the whole experience was such a nice treat!

3 Idiots is Bollywood’s biggest hit in the last 10 years. We watched it in Hindi, since it has not come out with English subtitles yet. Tal and Linda made it through the 3 hours, while Rick and Anita left after 90 minutes.

Listing of the times movies are shown in this local theater in Mumbai. It was really cool, but honestly we don’t think they still use it.

My mom and I were the only ones that made it through the 3 hour movie so we got to spend some time together in the city after the flick.  We laughed pretty hard about some of the dramatic dances and sound effects. We found a local restaurant that served great Thalis.  Mom and I loved it!

We loved the sign in our restaurant and tried to heed to the very direct request…

 

 

This is Anita – While in Mumbai, we had the chance to accompany Tal’s parents at their Young Presidents Organization (YPO) event at a beautiful house next to the ocean.  YPO is an organization for very successful young professionals under the age of 40. Tal’s parents have the privilege of addressing these young professionals all over the world on the topic of parenting. In fact, they just returned from a fascinating trip to Saudi Arabia and if you’d like to read more about their trip you can visit: http://eyrealm.blogspot.com/ 

Most of the YPO members are eager parents wanting the best for their children, but many are struggling with the materialistic world they find themselves in. In their speech, the Eyres gave these young parents great tools to help “un-spoil” their children and to help raise them to be independent, responsible adults. It was a treat for us to see Rick and Linda speak.

We pulled out our best outfits for the event. That was tricky because our backpacks only had some cargo pants and t-shirts.  So our “best” meant wrinkled pants and a shirt. Thanks to Linda, Anita ended up looking somewhat dressed up. She let Anita use this really great shawl and a necklace – things Anita has not seen in months.

 

No, this wasn’t the only lady we talked with (there were about 60 people there) but we only took a few pictures.  The people of the Mumbai YPO Chapter were so good to us and we had a great time getting to know them.  The host of the evening (pictured in the red and black dress) is a jewelry designer. We wish you could see her earrings up close… all rubies and diamonds…

Rick and Linda in action…

On to Rising Star Outreach in Chennai…