Udaipur, India (Day 10)

Today we started off with a new driver and our guide for Udaipur by going to the City Palace and museum. Our guide taught us that Maharana means king in Udaipur, maharajah means king of big kingdom, and raja means king of small kingdom. Also, he told us "pur," on the end of so many of the cities we've visited, means "place." We also learned that one of the James Bond films, Octopussy, is set in Udaipur.

While walking up to City Palace, we had a pretty view of Lake Pichula and several palaces including summer and monsoon palace. When we got to City Palace, our guide pointed out a fountain and told us that the fountain is on when the king is home, off when he is away. The palace had several beautiful rooms, covered in mirrors, and a courtyard that had four different, amazing peacock mosaics. We also saw a scale the king used to use.. quite a different execution than our modern scales.

Fountains turned off

Entrance to City Palace

Entrance to City Palace

Vani Vilas - Room in City Palace

Room in City Palace

Carrier pigeon cages

Window in City Palace

View of Udaipur from City Palace

Summer palace

Swing for the queen

Peacock decoration on wall

Peacock decoration

City palace 

Peacock decoration

Scale for the king

Zeana Mahal (Queen's Palace)

Another room in City Palace

My favorite items in the museum included a carriage and harness and some pretty different shoes!

Carriage

Harness

Paduka - Footwear

Howdah - Saddle for elephants

After touring the palace and museum, we had a thirty-minute break in the courtyard to explore, take pictures, or visit the stores. Hajar went to grab a cup of tea while I explored the stores. I finally got to venture into one of the bangle stores I'd been dying to see.. so many bracelets! I'm hoping to get to go into more in the next cities.

Once we were finished, we visited a Hindu temple for a few minutes, then headed back down to our driver and were taken to the Sahelion Ki Bari gardens. These gardens have several different fountains that are naturally powered by the lake's height in relation to the park, instead of by electricity.

Hindu temple

Temple detail showing different stages of life

Gardens

Naturally powered fountains

Naturally powered fountains

After an afternoon break at the hotel, we went for a boat ride on Lake Pichula, the largest lake in Udaipur. We had to wear life vests, which were HUGE and (kind of) had Velcro in the front. We went by City Palace and then looped back and de-boarded at Jagmandir Ghat so we could explore the small island for a few minutes. After walking around for about ten minutes, Hajar got chai masala tea and I got two scoops of reeeallly good chocolate ice cream and we sat for a while enjoying the beautiful view of the water and mainland of Udaipur before we got back on the boat.

City Palace from the water

Marigolds and rose petals, we've seen these all over every city

Decorated boat

Where we had dinner the past two nights on upper balcony

Jagmandir Ghat

Ice cream!

Beautiful scenery

Another decorated boat

It was great timing to head out on the boat at 5 pm like we did; just before we met our driver, we had a gorgeous view of the sunset over the water.

Sunset over Lake Pichula

The beautiful sunset was followed by five VERY happy minutes for me… while we were waiting for our driver, suddenly monkeys started appearing! Lots of monkeys. I was thrilled as I didn’t get my monkey fix from our short experience in the car. Hajar crossed the street to get away from them but I got closer to snap pictures. One of the times I lifted my camera to my face, I guess the lens reflected and startled the monkey that was three or four feet away from me above my head.  He leaned in and made an angry almost hiss noise and showed his teeth… I leaned back and was worried. Thankfully that was all that came of it. Just as our driver pulled up, a monkey was sitting close by with her baby hanging onto her. SO CUTE! I didn’t want to leave.

MONKEY!

Right after I scared him

Five monkeys

Since our dinner was so good, we returned to Hari Garh. The night before, Gajraj had dropped us off about ten minutes away, and we walked down a street, across a pedestrian bridge, and down a few more streets to find the restaurant. This time, our new driver was really sweet, misunderstood Hajar when she told him he could drop us off where Gajraj had, and he drove us all the way to the restaurants. If the streets had been any more narrow, he would have had to fold his mirrors in.. it was crazy. Especially since cars try to go both ways down the road. If you meet another car, you have to back up! This time I had Murgh Lababdar (pre-marinated boneless chicken pieces baked in a day oven and cooked with thick tomato gravy) and cheese naan and about died it was so good. OH my gosh. Possibly my favorite meal ever. It was such a good place food-wise and was fun to sit on cushions, overlooking the water. This time I got a much better shot of one of the creepy bats hanging from a tree maybe ten feet from us.

Bat in the tree by our table

After dinner we walked around to the few stores we could find that were open, including one where the store keeper talked our ears off about the places he does business and how it’s wrong to have a guide or driver in India and allll this stuff (whatever, man!). We were finally able to leave, telling him we had to meet our driver. Our driver decided to not drive back to get us and had parked close by and walked, so we walked back to the car with him. After trying to move an auto rickshaw that was blocking the car, he very carefully got out of the spot, only to get stuck on the bridge back to the hotel. The bridge was two-way, but cars had parked all along one of the sides, making it one way. So we had to back up to allow other cars to go so the path was clear for us to go!

When we got back to the hotel, I made what I have titled a “reverse moat.” Instead of being a little ditch holding water, It’s a wall that holds water, to prevent our bathroom from flooding. This hotel is the worst! The absolute loudest, coldest, you have to wear shoes in the room or your feet will get dirty, and then the shower floods the bathroom. Boo!

Lauren invention: Reverse moat

Something else I’ve been meaning to talk about but haven’t yet is the bathrooms. I think I’ve yet to see a bathroom that doesn’t have a little handheld sprayer and drain next to the toilet. I guess it’s their version of a bidet, and explains why some of the restrooms along the road won’t have toilet paper.

Sprayer in upper left corner

-----------------------------------------------------------

12th Feb: Day 10: Udaipur

After breakfast proceed for half day city tour of Udaipur – visiting the City Palace and Museum. The largest palace complex in India, it is a blend of Mughal and Rajput influences. Also see the 17th century Jagdish temple, drive around the Fatehsagar Lake, and visit the Sahelion ki Bari (the Garden for the Maids of Honour), an ornamental pleasure garden with fountains and marble kiosks. Later visit the Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandir or the Folk Art Museum.

Later in the evening take a boat ride on the 4 km long and 3 km wide Lake Pichola, which is fringed with hills, palaces, havelis, ghats, embankments and temples and offers spectacular views of the city. Visit the Jag Mandir Island with its exquisite Gul Mahal Pavilion.

Overnight at Hotel

Drive to Udaipur, India (Day 9)

Today on the road to Udaipur, Gajaraj stopped at a textile factory so we could see the workers making clothing and home goods. They took us into a big room where there were women sitting on the floor hand embroidering fabric, and men were working with cutting and sewing machines. After seeing the factory area, they took us into one of the rooms we've been in many times on this trip, where we sat along the wall and they unfolded tens of pieces in front of us while giving their sales pitch. We didn't purchase anything but enjoyed seeing the factory.

Textile factory: women working on blankets

Textile factory: man sewing

Inside the textile factory

Inside the textile factory

NEON turban (have seen a lot)!!

The next stop along the road was at Om Banna, a temple dedicated to a man and his motorbike. In 1991, the man was in a wreck and died and police took his motorbike. The next morning, the motorbike was back at the scene of the crash. They took it back to the police headquarters, emptied the gasoline, and chained it up but again, the next morning it was back at the scene of the crash. The locals ended up building a temple and encasing the bike in glass, and people stop there to pray for a safe journey on the road.

Om Banna's bullet bike

Women at Om Banna temple

Women at Om Banna temple

A symbol we noticed early on and have seen daily since is the swastika. Originally the swastika was used as a sign of well-being. It can be seen carved into architecture and painted in many places that we've visited. There's even one on our car. Here's a really interesting BBC article on how it morphed into what we think of today.

Our next stop was at Ranakpur Temple, a beautiful 14th-century Jain temple along our drive to Udaipur. We had to rent a locker for our phones and water bottles, get tickets, audio guides (signs said  "required for foreigners," and a photography permit, and leave our shoes outside before we began the tour inside. While following the audio tour, we learned the seven tenets of the Jain religion, ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), achaurya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (celibacy/chastity), and aparigraha (non-attachment/non-possession). The temple covers about one acre of land.

Temple rules

Ranakpur Temple

Ranakpur Temple

Ranakpur Temple

Ranakpur Temple

Ranakpur Temple

As we continued our journey to Udaipur, we followed winding roads through the hills and saw lots of monkeys along the way. At one point Gajraj stopped the car and held chips up to the window and one of the monkeys jumped onto the hood! Another jumped on the top of the car and then hung down in front of Hajar's window. They were definitely more aggressive than the ones we saw in Morocco!

Monkey on the hood

Monkey looking through the window

Monkey at Hajar's window

After checking into our hotel in Udaipur, Gajraj dropped us off in town and we walked about ten minutes to a restaurant called Hari Garh. We went upstairs to their rooftop patio and sat crossleged on cushions at a short table overlooking the water. I had Murg Muglai (it seems "murg" means chicken) and garlic naan. It was really good. Dinner at Rajdhani, my sizzler at Gypsy and this have been the three things I would be happy to eat again so far.

After the sunset, there were pretty big bats crawling ALL OVER the tree next to the patio. Very creepy! After paying for our food, we quickly walked back to meet Gajraj and go back to the hotel.

View from dinner

View from dinner

Bat flying over the water

Tonight we learned that if we use the shower, it floods the whole restroom. No clue what's up with that! There's a glass wall that divides the shower from the rest of the room, yet water can just go underneath. Weird. This is also the loudest of the hotels so far.. all have been pretty loud but this one wins! Thank goodness for earplugs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11th Feb: Day 09: Jodhpur – Udaipur (300 KM)

After breakfast drive to Udaipur; arrive Udaipur and transfer to Hotel Mewargarh.

Set on the shores of Lake Pichola and surrounded by hills, Udaipur grew in complete contrast to the harsh deserts of the rest of Rajasthan. As capital of the old Mewar State it was the only Rajput stronghold to uphold its Hindu allegiance in the face of Muslim invasion. This fairy – tale city, with its marble palaces and lakes surrounded by a ring of hills, was founded by Maharana Udai Singh in 1559. The city is dominated by massive City Palace, which overlooks Lake Pichola with its romantic island palaces. Picturesque havelis, ghats and temples line the lake front, with the lively bazaars of the old walled city stretching behind them.

Overnight at Udaipur