work in progress

It's been 3 days since I've written a blog and that's due to a few reasons.

Firstly on monday I was sick as a dog. The doctor said I caught some infection from the food I ate at the wedding on Sunday night. He gave me some drugs, told me to stay away from alcohol, dairy products, meat and fruit. Instead I was put on a diet of water with sugar and salt, dry toast with balck tea, soup for lunch and light yellow dahl for dinner....sounds delcious doesn't it??

Following doctors orders does pay off. The next day I was right as rain...and exactly that happened. It rained and rained and hasn't stopped raining for the past few days. It's a blessing though as it cools things down from around 40 degrees to 32. Plus it helps when you are running around the palace working all day. And there's been plenty of that going too.


I haven't had much time to step out of "P" world (that's Palace world) and into the real India. But the times that I have I've been met with bad urine smells, lingering cows, friendly locals and the cutest kids you could ever imagine.

Today Lynne and I pretty much finished all our work with the Palace people. The music is complete, the scripts are waiting to be approved, studio in Delhi is all booked and so are the flights.

Late afternoon we headed into India and did some last minute shopping. I bought some cool cooking utensils for my Indian dinners which I can't wait to use.

Tomorrow afternoon we fly out to Delhi to begin the recording and finish off some interviews. I won't admit this to Lynne but I'll be sad to leave Udaipur tomorrow....it really is a cool place.

day of rest

My best way to spend a Sunday is to sleep in, cook a nice lunch, eat, swim and rest. And today was no different.

At 10am Shannon and I booked ourselves into an Indian cooking school. We learnt how to make the most delicious butter paneer, traditional dahl, dry fried okra with mustard seeds and my favourite chapatis (kinda like a flat Indian pita bread).

The morning was spent cooking and learning about spices but the best part was when we got to eat all the food we'd made after the class was over. I can't wait to get back and cook a big Indian banquet for everyone.

In the afternoon we swam in the marble pool at the palace hotel.

Later that afternoon Lynne's friend Ambika invited us to a another wedding that evening. This one was a little different from the nights before. It was a Rajput wedding so it was very traditional in some ways. Even though the alcohol was flowing freely, on arrival the men were seperated from the women. I went my way with Ambika's husband who is brother with Mr Gujendra the manager of the Crystal Palace. The girls followed Ambika into the women's area or the Zenana section.

The wedding was very colourful (as most Indian weddings are) and very ceremonial. The groom arrived on this huge elephant. It didn't take long before he was whisked away by the women of the bride's family and into the Zenana where he spent the rest of the night. You'll have to read Lynne's account of the wedding to find out what went on in there as I only snuck in for 5 min to have sticky beak.

I was sitting at a table with all men of course. Mr Gujendra and his 5 brothers. I ate and drunk and chatted with Dr Bupendra who is the manager of the Palace Museum. So overall it was a good networking night in a relaxed atmosphere.

Tomorrow it's back to work with a full on week of script approvals, music searches and recordings.

Monsoon Wedding

Saturday night in Udaipur and with the full moon shining, I spruced myself up in my linen pants and shirt and headed towards the ferry. Lynne, Shannon and I had been invited to the monsoon wedding that has taken over the City Palace for the past few days. We were all so excited. Tonight was the final installment of the 3 day event - The Wedding Ceremony. It was being held at Jagmindir Palace a maginficent building in the middle of Lake Pichola.

As we arrived to catch the ferry, traditional Rajasthani musicians were playing their drums to welcome the groom and his family. The boat trip over to the palace was amazing. The boat was deocoratd with garlands of flowers and the whole palace was lit up with lights and coloured with flowers.


As we arrived we were greeted with musicians and were handed a corsage of orchards and a traditional Indian wedding gift, kind of like a bomboniera. A tika was placed on our forehead to mark the auspicious event.

The palace garden was boarded with 6 buffet areas and the tables set for around 600 guests. This was not a small wedding. The groom came from the 25th richest family in India and the bride from the 23rd biggest!


The food consisted of all vegetarian dishes from India, the Middle East, Mexico, Sth East Asia and even the Greece. Non-alcoholic drinks were only served and if you wanted something a little harder you had to make your way out of the garden and around the other side of the palace where a small bar was sectioned off. It wasn't specified but it seemed that only men were allowed in this area. Of course I couldn't resist but to take a look. I made some new friends as I sipped my vodka fresh lime soda and chatted to the cute Indian men dressed in their Kurtas.

The cermony was followed by professional photos and traditional Rajasthani dancers and musicians. It was truly the most maginficent wedding I've ever seen.




But don't go thinking that the bride and groom have had it easy. The gossip is that the couples parents didn't approve of their relationship as they are both from different casts. The groom from Rajasthan and the bride from Maharastra. It's hard to believe that in this day and age people are still so traditional. If it was a Greek family the parents would be over the moon that they are both from the same country let alone the same province. It took their parents only 6 years to approve the wedding. So the hopeless romantic in me couldn't help but think. Since it wasn't an arranged marriage and their families had all the money in the world, maybe true love still does exist.

my work begins...

Woke up to a reasonably hot 40 degree day. It's not a good feeling waking up to the heat with a slight hangover. I couldn't believe we polished a litre of Smirnoff last night. I can't see my self doing that again....although it was our welcoming party so it was just a one of thing.

At 10am Lynne and I headed up to the palace to meet Shriji the Maharaja or 'present custodian' of Udaipur (as he likes to call himself). The meeting was held in his palace office. Chandeliers hanging from the tallest ceilings you've ever scene. The meeting went really well as Shriji was most impressed with Lynne's work - which always makes my job really easy.


In the afternoon Lynne used Shannon and I as her guinea pig. With Lynne as our guide we went on a test run of the audio tour. By the afternoon the sun was beaming down and we were boiling hot so I was glad to be out of there. The tour was a success and it was obvious that Lynne had spent 4 hard working weeks perfecting the tour. I especially loved the main courtyard called Amar Vilas. I'll have to go back and photograph it, as it truly is stunning.

Later that afternoon the wedding festivities were in full force
with more music, coloured fruit cocktails and garlands of marigolds. I couldn't resist the kodak moment!

In the evening I went for a little stroll through the main town at sunset and couldn't resist some bargain shopping at my favourite tailors in Udaipur.


I think the owner should franchise his business on Oxford Street!!!







It was my name day today - St Peter & Paul's. So we thought we'd be a little adventurous with dinner and order tandoori chicken. But after a mouthfull we decided to stick to our original plan of being vegetarian. Our bbq panner, mixed dahl, rice and salad was delicious!!

Welcome to India Mr. Paul

After a comfortable flight to Bombay, Shannon (Lynne's daughter) and I checked into the hotel and had a restful sleep. In the morning we visited the Prince Of Wales Museum (one of our sites in India). The museum was only a 10 min walk from the hotel so we decided to get a bit of exercise and take in the sites by walking over...and boy did we get a nice surprise on the way. The monsoon rain hit us hard and we got absolutely drenched. It was kinda fun walking in the summer rain until I was literally walking in shoes filled with puddles of water. It was a good excuse to stop at Fab India and pick up a few new Indian clothes to change into. Any excuse for some shopping!


That afternoon we caught a plane to Udaipur where Lynne was eagerly waiting our arrival. It was nice to see Lynne smiling and happy. She looked so rested and excited to see us, welcoming us with open arms.






In the afternoon we did a quick walk around the palace and took in the gorgeous view of Lake Pichola. Which is absolutely stunning. I haven't seen anything like it. So romantic. Which makes it a perfect setting for a wedding. Unfortunately we aren't staying at the palace hotel as it's been taken over by wedding guests for a huge Indian wedding. I call it the monsoon wedding.



You can't imagine how extravagant this event is. It's a 4 day wedding with a function every night spread all over the palace. Lynne tells me it's costing the family around $100,000 for the whole wedding. Red carpet, fancy fruit cocktails, garlands of flowers drapped all over the palace. The bride arrived yesterday and the groom today. They even have musicians playing traditional Indian instruments welcoming the guests.

The colours in Udaipur are stunning. The streets are filled with pink, yellow, red and gold saris. I'm really loving this place so far.

We settled into our hotel and enjoyed our dinner over a bottle of vodka. Tomorrow we start work with Shriji the Maharaja of Udaipur.

6 sleeps to go!

It's less than a week before I depart on yet another Indian adventure for work. Up until today I was kinda excited for the first time to be going back to India. It's taken me 4 trips so far to become sensitised to the poverty and despair that I always seem to come across in that country.

Don't get me wrong India is a fantastic country full of colour, passion and wonderfully spirited people, but there is a down side which I tend to forget sometimes....it's DIRTY!

And who better to remind me of that but Lynne. Today she sent me a pic of a street in the main town of Udaipur - a town in Rajasthan (North West India) where I will spend most of my time working in.