8th April - Exploring Udaipur

The most beautiful city I have been to in India! Well worth a visit :-)

Up early and sat and nattered with some friends on skype before Alan woke up. The view over the river from the roof top was fantastic.


Up early and I went for breakfast at German Bakery. Ummmmm. Coffee and fruit and cereal - NO curry for breakfast :-) Alan need to pick up a parcel from town and so he headed off leaving me to treat myself and go for a massage at one of the local hotels. It was fab! I have done a lot of exercise recently and my muscles really needed a good old pummeling. I went back for a really hot shower and put on some clean clothes. I felt like a girl again rather and a scummy cyclist traveler. I did not have any oil anywhere!

Alan had headed off for a wonder while I had showered and so I went for a short wonder around town and the local temples. There are loads in the area. I am actually getting a bit board of temple ticking now.....


City Palace Visit

I met Alan at the City Palace around midday. It was great has he was very happy to act as our official guide and read from his book as we looked round where as I acted as the official photographer....

This is Alan standing on the platform explaining to me in his dry Irish way that this is where soldiers would stand to get on their Elephants. There was another lower platform to get on to horses.


Right at the entrance to the Palace there are elephant parking bays. These stone hoops are for the chains and the lower parts were where the elephants lay down.


This is fantastic. A army was short of elephants and so had to use horses. They thought that they would confuse the oppositions Elephant's if they dressed up their horses as Elephants with fake trunks!


This is what Wikipedia has to say:

City Palace, Udaipur, is a palace complex in Udaipur, in the Indian state Rajasthan. It was built by the Maharana Udai Mirza Singh as the capital of the Sisodia Rajput clan in 1559, after he moved from Chittor. It is located on the east bank of the Lake Pichola and has several palaces built within its complex. Udaipur was the historic capital of the former kingdom of Mewar in the Rajputana Agency and its last capital.

The City Palace in Udaipur was built in a flamboyant style and is considered the largest of its type in Rajasthan, a fusion of the Rajasthani and Mughal architectural styles, and was built on a hill top that gives a panoramic view of the city and its surrounding, including several historic monuments such as the Lake Palace in Lake Pichola, the Jag Mandir on another island in the lake, the Jagdish Temple close to the palace, the Monsoon Palace on top of an overlooking hillock nearby and the Neemach Mata temple. These structures are linked to the filming of the James Bond movie Octopussy, which features the Lake Palace and the Monsoon Palace. The subsequent publicity has resulted in the epithet of Udaipur as "Venice of the East". In 2009, Udaipur was rated the top city in the World's Best Awards by Travel + Leisure.

Swimming at City Palace Hotel

After the wonder round the palace we decided to go for a swim at the Palace Hotel (300RS). I did not have my things with me where as Alan did.

I popped in for lunch at the German Bakery on the way back to my room to pick up my swimming things as Alan had phoned me to tell me that it was very expensive to buy food at the pool side. It was a very good decision. I could not help myself but buy one glass of cold white wine though. Totally blew the budget but it tasted even nicer for the fact.

The swimming pool and surrounding gardens were really lovely. There was only 1 other couple there sitting reading books. It was a quiet tranquility after the crazily busy Indian streets outside the Palace.

Apparently Queen Victoria and Roger Moore have stayed in this hotel and swum in the pool.... Check me out!


Wonder round the non tourist part of the City Palace

The tickets to the pool allowed access to other areas of the Palace and so I went for an explore on the way to my boat ride.


This restaurant behind the hotel has incredible views but was extremely expensive. Maybe one day.....


Boat Ride on the Lake

Alan did not really fancy the boat ride and so I went on my own. I thought it was really good and well worth the money. I caught it at 6pm - perfect for sunset. It was great to appreciate the city from the water. You get a different idea of the scale.



The boat ride took us right past where the ceremony was taking place for the last night of the festival. It was the same event as last night. You could get a much better view from the water but the driver did not stay there long enough.


There are 2 structures on the islands on the lake: one which is famous because they shot a James Bond film there and the other is a palace which has been converted into a high end hotel. The boat ride dropped us off at the latter for a wonder round for half an hour. Again very much worth a visit.







They obviously knew I was arriving!


Drinking Whiskey at Sunset Point

When I got back from the boat ride I caught a Rickshaw to the sunset point to meet Alan. The Rickshaw driver dropped me off at the bottom of the walking path rather than at the cable car so by the time I got to the top it was well past sunset. I had bought a small bottle of whiskey on the way and sat with Alan looking at the view and drinking whiskey for ages. As I have not been drinking and had not eaten it went straight to my head. The views of the palaces on the lake all lit up at night were great.

We walked all the way back as we got fed up with Rickshaw drivers trying to charge too much and were starving before we found a restaurant. Alan ordered Pizza and for some reason I ordered Indian food even though that was all I have been eating for ages.... I had food envy. I reasonably late night by the time we got back. Awesome day.