We stopped along the way at a tourist trap for lunch—Indian lunch that was with a temptation to purchase unnecessary Indian trinkets. We have another 3 hours to go- we again fell asleep. When we awoke, we found ourselves surrounded by marble. Marble was everywhere on both sides of the road. Gorgeous slabs larger than life. Josh was drooling. We had to stop and take pictures. Apparently this was India’s marble export area, right outside of Udaipur. Josh dreamed of having this marble “outlet” as his disposal for his business. We even looked into shipping marble slabs home. We decided to continue onto the Devi Garh hotel in Udaipur.
As the late afternoon some flooded our car, we pulled into a long driveway surrounded by trees with the mountains in the distance. Like in the movies, the driveway went on and on, winding towards what seemed to be a large castle or palace at the top of the hill. It looked like Count Dracula’s residence. This was our home for the next two nights. As we pulled up to the hotel, we felt an eerie sense of mystery. The hotel was large, creepy and desolate. We did the typical Indian hotel welcome—heads dotted, welcome drink, passports handed in, and we were escorted to our large 1 bedroom suite which sprawled out on the top floor of this white palace. Our room had 2 balconies. One of the balconies, which overlooked the nearby villages and mountains, was where the maharaja received his massages. The hotel creeped us out and so did the less than stellar services.
