D111 -- Happy birthday Thomas!

Thomas almost always wakes up earlier than me, so I recorded a little happy birthday message on our computer that would play when he booted up. Ah, technology.

He decided he wanted to spend his birthday vegging out at the rooftop pool. I passed the time reading Thomas' hand-me-down copy of The God of Small Things, a novel set in Kerala, India, and Thomas read my hand-me-down copy of Angels and Demons, a novel set in Rome. We're trying to get into the habit of reading books set in locales we're visiting. We didn't lift a finger all day, except to climb some stairs up to an addition off the roof to check out the views and sunset. That's the monsoon palace we visited on the hill.


By far the highlight of the day was Thomas' birthday dinner at Udai Villas, an ultra-luxe resort right outside of town. This place was SO beautiful!!! It looked like a palace, and our copy of the Lonely Planet said that suites there go for as much as $2000!!! Crazy! Dinner was served on an outdoor patio with beautiful views of the hotel and Udaipur across the lake. The atmosphere was already wonderful, but to top things off there were musicians and dancers performing around two fountains. Many of the dances were the same ones we'd seen at the show last night plus beautiful singing. We had AMAZING nan and murg ka shoeta, a Rajasthani specialty. It was one of the best dinners we've had on the entire trip. We both really enjoyed it, but we decided we wouldn't have wanted to stay at such an opulent resort even if we could have afforded it. We feel strange enough traveling through India as “rich Americans” and that feeling would only be exaggerated at a place like Udai Villas.

Back at our beautiful but modest-by-comparison hotel, we checked in with family and bought some last-minutes gifts from the store next door. Any romantic vibes kicked up by dinner were squelched as we watched Alive while we packed. Yikes!

-Elva