Udaipur

Our final destination was Udaipur. While most of Rajasthan is dry desert, Udaipur is best known for being on the lake. The lake does dry up a lot during the dry season, but as we were there just after monsoons, it was completely full. But more about that later.

We set off from Jodhpur fairly early in the morning (9 ish). We were to see a temple on the way to Udaipur. Not knowing much about it, I wasn't totally sure what to expect. I've seen a lot of temples during our stay in India, and some were just interesting, and others spectacular. This one, Sheth Anandji Kalyanji, is truely special. As we were driving along, we got on one road which started to get a little curvey and going up hill. The vegetation started to change, it became more green and the trees reminded me of home, looking very much like the big oaks of california. They weren't of course. Then we stopped at the temple.

Now this is a very active temple and has been there for several hundreds of years, managed by the same family. It is carved entirely out of Marble. I did hear one quote from an tourist while inside which totally flabbergasted me and almost caused us to break out in laughter. Mind you this is a Jain temple and they are very Vegetarian. The lady asked her guide if the temple was carved out of marble or Ivory. I couldn't believe it. Anyways we wandered around this architectural marvel for an hour or so. Even Maya was impressed by it. It maintained a cool atmosphere by being open enough to let the breeze through. It let in light, but wasn't so open as to warm up too much in the sun. It was filled with carvings and there were all sorts of colums, pillars, domes, and other wonders to look at.

We proceeded to lunch at Aranyawas which has a nice view of the little valley it overlooks. And then on to Udaipur.

We arrived in Udaipur in late afternoon and went pretty much straight to the hotel. Unfortunately we were not booked in a hotel on the lake, but it is a former palace of the local King. He still maintains his polo ponies there and has his own private airport there. Since it was Diwali when we arrived, the staff was pretty minimal and all of the staff were wearing what looked like army uniforms. This gave the whole place a bit of a military feel. There is a small private lake there too. It was pleasant, but not at the top of my list if I were to return. That evening the hotel had scheduled Diwali celebrations over the polo grounds. First they handed out sparklers to everyone and lit candles all around so we could litght the sparklers. These were more similar to the ones I've seen in the USA. About a foot long (1/3 meter). They were fun, but hard to light. There were a couple of children running around with the sparklers. I think they were something like 4 and 7 years of age.

Then the guards started lighting the big stuff. They had two different kinds of rockets, bottle rockets, and some in cardboard tubes. They started off putting the big ones in the tubes upside down, so the first 2 ejected the tubes into the air, and exploded on the ground at their feet. Pretty spectacular!! Fortunately no-one got hurt. Then they got it right and the children descended to "help". They kept running up to the guards who were lighting some rocket, or firecrakers, or strongter stuff. I kept wondering when they would get hurt or scared, fortunately they didn't. I couldn't understand how they could be running around down there, but then found out they were the hotel manager's children and knew all the guards. All was well.


The following day, we met our guide for Udaipur. Of all the guides, we liked him the least. He rushed us through the few sites he took us to, and seemed to be forgetting one we wanted to see. He started us off at the palace. It is a home to the current king, plus a hotel. Since it was part of the same hotel chain where we were staying, we got to go through the grounds without paying extra fees. We did have to pay for the tour though.

Inside they have a number of nice exhibits. Unfortunately as we were rushed through, we didn't get to see all of them. One I thought was particularly interesting is a represnentation of the King's horse in an historic battle against another Mughal supported king. He dressed his horse up as an elephant baby so that the war elephants from the other side would not injure it. The war elephants supposedly carried a sword in thieir trunk to injur the opposition horses and riders. It worked for a time, but then the elephants realized and did injure the horse.

The tour goes through all parts of the palace, up and down narrow stairs. The narrow passageways were part of the security scheme. Only 1 man could hold off several because the hallways were narrow enough for only one to go through at a time. We got to see views of the lake from the palace, the first working indoor plumbing, and many other things.

We had a short visit to the local temple. Then we went off to a garden which had been built for the palace ladies. Only women were allowed to enter there when it was built. Now it is open to all. After that a quick visit to a folklore museum. Then it was time for Lunch. The guide took his leave.

After lunch we asked our driver where to go for a while. We had tickets to take the boat tour at 5:30, and needed to kill a little time. Not so much we could go back to the hotel, but enough to need something to do. He took us to the lake shore where I spotted some pirate boats. And we enjoyed a leisurely walk along the water.

Then we went on the boat tour. We actually took a boat at about 4:45, which was just fine. We toured around a bit, and then stopped at Jagmandir. This is an island in the lake which was used as a summer picnic/ palace ground for the royal family. It is now open to the public and you can see the gardens, have a bite at the coffee shop, or even stay overnight in part of the former palace. We stopped in for a coffee, and the view. We had been wondering where to have dinner. We sort of wanted something scenic. Well we had found it. They had a dinner restaurant on the island. And they were willing to give us a table. So, all we had to do was wait around for dinner time. We wandered the island, saw the sunset. And we took pictures and then watched as they put blankets on the elephants out front of the Island. I guess they can get stone cold.

We enjoyed a delightful dinner at Jagmandir, along with a stunning view of the palace all lit up for Diwali. I'd love to go back and just relax on the lake for a couple of days.