Landed outside Udaipur around 3:30 this afternoon.
The first thing you notice is the silence. No honking horns just a few polite cab drivers waiting for you to purchase your pre-paid cab fare into Udaipur.
25 Klms later you enter Udaipur and yes you can still see the poverty but you don’t have people running up to tap on the car window with crying babes in there arms.
Then you approach the Palace Gates…that’s right my friends, I said Palace.
WE ARE STAYING IN A FREAKING PALACE!!!
I’m not talking a 250 rupee enterance fee palace. I’m talking full fledged, royal guard at the gate, mountain shangra-lah.
The cab labours up the steep driveway to the check-in. Cyrsantemum (sp) leis are adorned around our neck.
What? No fruity drink?
A very polite clerk checks us in and escorts us to our marble floored room with a semi private court yard none-the-less.
The room is small for $250/night but the bathroom is HUGE and clean so everything is cool.
Then the turban adorned bell boy walks in with our fruity drink…that’s better.
Some historical facts about the lodgings…Yawn.
“Formerly known as Mewar, Udaipur was founded in 1559 when Maharana Udai Singh II took flight from the final sacking of Chittorgarh by the Mughal emperor Akbar (the same guy I was talking about during the last entry). The city is bounded by the remains of an ancient city wall and is placed on the east side of Lake Pichola.”
It’s also the location where the Bond flick “Octopussy” was filmed – so that’s cool.
First order of business was food.
We took a tuk tuk through the narrow streets, when I say narrow I mean Narrrrr-ow. You don’t see a lot of cabs in this city but motorcycles and bikes are abundant.
During the car ride home last night, our driver recommended that we go to a restaurant with a perfect lake view of our hotel complex called “Ambrai’. This is where I had the opportunity to take the photo above.
We sat, drank cold beer and had a few snacks while the sun went down. I can say with some certainty that this view can’t be beat. And the smell…oh my the smell.
With the sun going down we decided to walk the streets home, cause that’s just the type of city the Udaipur is. We weren’t approached once buy beggars and the shop owners are far less aggressive.
This is definitely and artisans town. Look through the doors of most shops and you can see by the dim light a craftsman with chisel in hand chipping something or sewing something but mainly chiseling something.
The smell! Sure, this is India and you are guaranteed to get a whiff of burning wood or diesel fuel but in Udaipur there are so many small temples and incense dealers that the smell of natural Jasmine rules all.
I think the unique thing about Udaipur is that the pace is slower and the Monarchy is right there.
The night ended with a cocktail over looking the Lake where we were treated to a fireworks display.
So glad that we are going to end our trip here.
Tomorrow it’s trinket shopping and sight seeing.
Night all.
