Our latest hotel is providing us with the pleasure of unlimited internet access after I managed to hack into the wireless network. I'm sure Mum & Dad will be pleased to hear that my 4 years university education is already proving worthwhile.
We are currently staying in Udaipur, a city that has been dubbed "The Venice of India". I've never been to Venice, but if its anything like the place I'm in at the moment, I don't think ill bother. Saying that it's a dam sight better than most cities in England, so I probably shouldn't be too critical. The city of Udaipur once surrounded 3 large lakes but in recent years the monsoon rains have suffered the effects of Global Warming and these great lakes have been diminished to a set of mildly swampy ponds. The city itself is still very impressive, especially the lakeside palace, and I'm sure its beauty could easily be restored with a good downpour, or ten.
While we were in Udaipur we decided to book ourselves a little cooking course with a friendly housewife in the town centre. Despite my early pessimism this turned out to be one of the best things I have done so far. We learnt how to prepare a series of classic Indian dishes and even got the chance to make our own chapattis. After the demonstration, Rory and I got to eat what we produced around a big table with the other members of the class. The class contained a mixture of foreign nationals and spanned several age groups. This made for a nice, and welcomed, change from our own company. We discussed our different experiences of India so far along with our highlights and annoyances. 
One gentleman, who's name I can't remember, recommended that we watch the James Bond film, Octopussy as it was filmed in the city of Udaipur back in its glory days before the drought. So we left the cooking class, found a rooftop restaurant that showed the abovementioned film and settled down with a cup of tea and a bit of apple pie. The film was played on a 15" ALKA television and featured all the trademark qualities you would expect from a 25 year old VHS that's played each and every day.
If you are ever sat at home on a bank holiday weekend with absolutely nothing better to do, I would also recommend flicking over to ITV and watching Octopussy. It provides a brilliantly inaccurate portrayal of Udaipur & Indian culture as a whole. It also has some real rib ticklers, at one point James is confronted by a snake and with his usual wit and cringe-worthy-I'm-embarrassed-to-be-British-charm, tells a snake to "Hiss off". My favourite inaccuracy is when James, who coincidently isn't pestered by a single carpet shop owner throughout the entire film, jumps into a Rickshaw without even negotiating a reasonable price for the journey before departure. Dear oh Dear James, Textbook mistake.
