Moving ahead with our travel interview series (the first being Maui), we caught up with Muriel who visited the beautiful Udaipur. Read on to discover her exploration.

Muriel Jacques is a French-born British resident. She has been an avid traveler and is always on the lookout for an excuse to travel yet again. Her most memorable visit has been her trip to the wonderful royal Udaipur in Rajasthan, India. Since then she is fascinated by everything Indian!

About me

I am a self-proclaimed French-born Yummy Mummy. I caught the travel bug when I was 23 when going to Bali for the first time. I have traveled at every possible opportunity, for work or for vacations. For some reason, I feel happy when I travel.

My special travel destination

A place that blew me away was Udaipur in Rajasthan This was my first trip to India and I actually wasn’t too pleased to go because I was following my husband, who at the time was working for an Indian company and had a work seminar while all the spouses were supposed to visit Rajasthan together. I thought that it was going to be a bit of a bore. I couldn’t have been more wrong!

The landscapes were stunning. To top it up, we were staying at the lake Palace Hotel, in the middle of lake Pichola. You had to travel by boat to get to the hotel. It was where the James Bond movie “Octopussy” had been shot, and I am a huge James Bond fan. To me, it is simply the best hotel in the world. The white building seemed to float on the water. The food was fantastic. As it kept coming in small pieces, I was eating all the time. But the best part of the trip was that I was the only European woman, and I got to talk to all the Indian wives. They explained to me what their religion was about and we visited a Ganesh temple (Ganesh has an elephant’s head and is known as the Obstacles remover). We all seem to be very comfortable with each other’s company quite soon.

Places I visited

We drove around quite a lot and went to the Monsoon Palace, the summer residence of the Maharajas. It was huge and all the objects were fantastic and very colorful. In one of the rooms, a huge peacock was drawn on the wall. It was bright yellow and blue.  Also, who could miss the shopping in Udaipur. I bought lots of embroidered scarves to give to friends and family and also fell for a little silver elephant, beautifully carved.

The best time to be there

The best time to go to Udaipur is between September and March if you want to avoid the heavy rains of the monsoon and the tropical heat of the summer.

Financial Issues

All types of hotels and guest-houses can be found in Udaipur. Pick the one that falls within your budget. I would recommend, wherever you stay, to go to the Lake palace Hotel for a meal or a drink even if you are not staying there.

One special tidbit

While in Udaipur, a fortuneteller told me that I was a very spiritual person (which came to a surprise to be as I would like to think that I am quite pragmatic!) and that I should consider fortunetelling as a new career. I haven’t acted upon his recommendation yet.