Our James Bond Experience

Lunch at Devigarh

Sas Bahu Temple Complex

Defaced Statue with Nose Destroyed

 

Akhtar and his Father

With our driver, friend and brother: Vijay

True Bliss

On Restaurant Patio, our James Bond Moment

The Palace at night from the boat returning us to The Lake Palace Hotel

We started our day driving about 45 minutes outside of Udaipur to visit the Sas Bahu Temple complex. This beautiful Hindu Temple was vandalized by the Mughals. Their brand of Islam prohibits the depiction of the human form. So when they conquered this area the defaced the beautiful statuary by destroying the noses of the faces. That is why so many ancient Hindu statuary has damaged faces. The structure itself is quite beautiful. The intricate carvings depict stories from the ancient Indian myths the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Almost any Hindu would be able to look at the carvings and understand the story behind them.

Our guide, Rohet, was excellent as explained what we were looking at. This temple is no longer active because of the vandalism. We could photograph it and walk anywhere we wanted throughout the structures.

We next went to the active temple complex of Eklingji. This is the royal temple complex and is an active Temple: no shoes, no sox, no pictures. Our guide bought us garlands to give as offerings to the gods. We walked in to the complex to experience the music, chanting and prayer. Worshipers passed before the idol praying and leaving their offerings to the Gods. We all sat down before the idol and prayed. If my prayers are answered, we won’t have to worry about Trump anymore and Apple stock price will increase. The form of Hindu worship is very personal, although there are Brahmin priests dressing and taking care of the idols they do not lead the attendees in ritualized prayers. I love the chaos of India that then transforms itself into the sacred space of the Temple.

From the Temple of Eklingji we took a short drive to Devigarh Hotel . We have stayed at Devigarh previously, this time we were just going for lunch and to meet up with our friend Akhtar.

Devigarh is a beautiful hotel property. They basically gutted a decrepit palace and rebuilt it. From the outside, it looks old and worn down, from the inside it is like a modern hotel. This is NOT what the Lake Palace is about by the way. The Lake Palace, where we are staying, has kept all of the old craftsmanship and has been updated in a way that did not destroy the original. More than any place we have ever stayed The Lake Palace is like stepping back 350 years (while still having wifi – but no central heating).

We try very hard to get out of the standard tourist bubble. We know we are staying at very exclusive hotels and are sheltered from the “Real” India, we jump at any chance to truly mingle with the people. Akhtar lives with his wife and two small children in the small village of Delwara adjacent to Devigarh. We met him as an unofficial guide to Delwara years ago and have maintained a friendship over the years. After a walk around the village, he took us to his home and offered us some snacks. His father is a retired policeman, and although he looks hearty he has health problems. In this age of Islamophobia, it is very special to have this devout Muslim who goes to the Mosque 5 times a day share food with 2 Jews in his house. He is without a doubt one of the warmest people I have ever met. He doesn’t speak English but the look in his eyes and the way he embraces you tightly is an exceptional experience. He stood up and then wrapped turbans around the heads of the two of us.  Visiting with him, however briefly, is definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Akhtar told us that because of his health problems he has been very depressed and the thought of us returning to see him really brought joy back to him. We hope they can find the right solution to his father’s illness.

From Delwara we drove back to Udaipur (certainly the most beautiful city in India). Our guide has a family member who has a textile store and we went to meet him at his store. Usually we avoid that sort of thing but this time it was the real deal. We must have spent 2 hours shopping and drinking tea and just talking. It was very enjoyable, and not that expensive!

We returned via boat (of course) to The Lake Palace for drinks and to meet a tailor that was coming over for another fitting of a coat I was having made. It is amazing, the tailor comes to you, you don’t go to him. Guests are not allowed in The Lake Palace (only customers spending the night), so he was restricted to only entering the lobby, there I tried on the jacket for a 2^nd fitting. This time the fit was perfect. He departed with the jacket and will ship it to us in America - won’t have to lug it along with us.

We had drinks (as you will soon find out, a martini for me – shaken not stirred) and then departed the hotel for dinner. Although the restaurant we were going to was only a short walk (uphill) from the pier, the hotel arranged a liveried driver to take us to the restaurant and return us to the pier at the conclusion of the dinner.

The dinner turned into a rather James Bond-like experience. At the restaurant we ate on the deck overlooking Lake Pichola and our Hotel. The James Bond movie, Octopussy, with Roger Moore was shot in Udiapur with many scenes filmed at the Lake Palace Hotel. Earlier in the day, we had by accident met a man, who knew a man, who had a relative, who said they could exchange our rupees for us. We agreed to meet on the terrace at the restaurant. I had an envelope full of now worthless 1000 rupee notes. Mid-way through the dinner, Cathy mentioned that the person who ever he was, we had no name for him, had not shown up. Then almost on cue, a man appeared and said “I believe you have an envelope for me). He sat down and started to count the money in the envelope. It felt like something out of Bond movie, as we sat on the deck with this total nameless stranger. While he was counting the money, the manager of the restaurant came over and told us it was illegal to have this money. I thought we were going to be arrested or something. However, we explained, somewhat vaguely, the situation and when we brought Trump into the conversation, the manager, smiled as we discussed our politics. The nameless man departed with our money, the manager left us alone overlooking our hotel and our driver picked us up to take us back across the lake. No sightings of Octopussy happened on our short voyage. I had a final Scotch and we went to bed. Since we already have figured the Rupees were worthless, if in fact they actually do get converted, to treat the money received as found money and donate it to our favorite Indian charity. We will see what happens.