As they moved west along the Silk road, royals and leaders of the cities they encountered opened their gates to them. William being his usual dashing, erudite, and engaging self was part of the reason for the lavish welcomes – but, mostly the locals were scared to death of his father the Great Khan and his reputation for capricious violence.
Lighting upon Udaipur’s City Palace on Lake Pichola, the Prince and his gang encountered a most interesting fellow. Maharaja Modi Agarwal, a prematurely grey youngish man of 32, was a luminary of the Rather Regal Royals of Rajasthan Association, and was quite keen to throw a raging potentate party. Modi showed off his new deck, pointing out the sick trucks, and proceeded to demonstrate a nose-grab and a wicked crooked grind.
Sammy thought the new toy quite marvelous and took it for a spin while Modi introduced his pink emu and they listened as she regaled them with her around-the-world stories. The cocktails were clearly working as she often forgot which of 17 languages she was supposed to speak, even when belting out the latest Bollywood hits.