The Lake Palace in Udaipur is one of India's most photographed and sought-after hotels. Most tourists to Rajasthan gaze out across Lake Pichola at it, some venture across to take tea or dinner there, and the wealthy get to spend the night in its marbled splendour, but I can't help feeling that some of those who do stay at the Lake Palace have opted to keep India at too long an arm's length. If you want an element of pampering - which I treated myself to for a few nights by saving on accommodation costs travelling by sleeper train - you don't have to plonk yourself offshore. Udaipur's magnificent City Palace complex has two luxury hotels of its own - Shiv Niwas and Fateh Prakash - so you can relax in air-conditioned comfort after a long journey or hot day's sightseeing. But as the complex sits on the edge of the old town you are in the heart of the action too, a few minutes' walk from lively streets where the chatter is infectious, dozens of rooftop restaurants show videos of the Bond film Octopussy (chunks of which were filmed there) and the welcome is as warm and sweet as the tea.