Our trip north to Rajasthan began early with a 4am departure from our B&B in Mysore with Steve our host insisting on getting up to see us off. After a four hour drive to Bangalore and a two hour wait at the airport, we took our Jet Connect flight to Delhi where we endured another two hour wait before our Jet Airways connecting flight to The City of Lakes – Udaipur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Udaipur was going to be the longest stay of our Rajasthan cities thanks to many reports and recent first-hand accounts (thanks Kylie!) that this city was the pick of the bunch.  Our taxi stopped at the bottom of one of roads in the old city and we continued on foot to our pre-booked accommodation. Originally designed for pedestrians and donkeys, the streets of the old city are narrow and winding and mostly only accessible by foot or motorbike. One of the reasons I chose the Mewargarh guesthouse for our stay was because of its location at the top of a steep laneway, therefore eliminating drive-by traffic and making our stay in a central old city guesthouse  as quiet as is possible in India!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While calling Udaipur the ‘Venice of the East’ might be pushing it a bit far, it is certainly true that Udaipur has something that is most unusual for an Indian city – lakes.  Lake Pichola is one of three interconnected lakes located in the city and the ‘galis’ (narrow streets) wind up the elevated hills of the old city, wrapping themselves around  The City Palace, which has an enviable view over the lake to the Aravalli Mountains range beyond. It is a city of palaces, temples, bathing ‘ghats’ and the site of Hollywood (James Bond in Octopussy) and many a Bollywood movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our days started with breakfast at the guesthouse rooftop restaurant while taking in the views across the city and into the streets below. Days were spent exploring the colourful labyrinth of alleyways that make up the old city and the odd visit to a Palace, museum and a show, oh yes a bit of school work when we could fit it in!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October certainly is a very exuberant time to be in India – it is the time of many festivals as the monsoon rains have finished and everywhere you look there seems to be lights, decorations, music and dance.  The day we arrived in Udaipur was the last day of the nine day festival which is technically the Navaratri Festival, making the day after the celebration the tenth day or Dasara Festival. It’s devoted to celebrating the defeat of the demon king Ravana by Lord Rama.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Festival, the beginning of which we enjoyed in Mysore is in honour of Goddess Durga, and statues of her were adorned, there were light shows and decorations strung up between the narrow galis and the deafening music booming from the huge speakers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier on that day we followed a procession where the coloured paint powder kumkum was being thrown into the crowd and watched the dancing in the streets – I think the girls found it too full on, Phoebe was walking with her hands over her ears! It was certainly like nothing I’ve seen before – just too cool for words!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hearing that the culmination of Dasara involved burning huge effigies of the demon Ravana, we made our way by rickshaw and foot moving with the crowd to a large outdoor stadium.  We watched the fireworks and then the lighting of the three effigies as they burned to the ground.  What a day (and night!). This is the India I came to see!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent one afternoon exploring the Udaipur Palace or more commonly called the City Palace. Built on the shores of Lake Pichola and overlooking the Summer Palace (now an expensive hotel which has been built on an island in the lake), the City Palace epitomises the architecture and splendor of the bygone days. The largest palace complex in Rajasthan, construction was completed in 1559 and although not overly impressive from the outside, the exterior understates the elegance and grandeur contained within.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just through the main gate, we passed the eight arches commemorating the eight times the Raj weighed himself and distributed and equal weight in gold and silver among the cities poor. Also on display at the entrance were a tiger trap and the smaller leopard trap, both looking like larger versions of our possum traps at home.

 

Immediately inside the palace front door is the armory (now a mini museum with a comprehensive display of weapons) where the visitors of a bygone day were required to check their arms before proceeding. We followed the crowds in and out of doorways, up and down narrow winding stairs, through rooms finished with marble look-alike plaster and taking rest stops in the cool interior courtyards. The more important rooms and breezeways took in impressive views of the city or lake through stone latticed windows that you couldn’t help but be drawn towards, while other rooms looked inward onto the cool courtyards. The solid marble window panels were decoratively carved and so thin in places that they became translucent and allowed sunlight to pass through.

The interior walls of the palace are adorned with paintings depicting everything from past rulers to tiger hunts in the surrounding hills, elephants wrestling to local festivals. The pictures of the hunts give the impression of a large population of tigers who were herded into valleys by palace staff in extended line beating drums toward the waiting royalty perched on raised platforms and rifles at the ready. Phoebe in particular found these paintings particularly distressing as they left little to the imagination when it came to the hunting and killing of wildlife.

 

 

Also interesting was the display of battle attire including a costume to make a horse look like an elephant, reportedly so enemy elephants would refuse to attack the horses thinking that they were baby elephants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed in Udaipur for a total of eight nights with one of them spent out at a horse ranch so we could indulge the girls in some horse riding and enjoy some of the countryside in and around the Aravelli Mountain ranges. Leaving our packs in the guesthouse storage and taking just a daypack, we were collected by car and taken to the Krishna Ranch about ten kilometres out of town. Both Immi and Phoebe are animal mad and Immi especially has a particular fondness for horses, as do many girls.

I had organised an overnight stay in one of the ranch cottages, though unfortunately we were the only guests and were pretty much left to our own devices but the girls enjoyed the cows, chicken, goats and dogs as well as the horses. They spent quite some time feeding and playing with the various animals, before we set out on our afternoon ride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For three hours we rode along the beautiful tracks through the Aravalli mountains, and passing through small villages where people still live in very traditional ways. The Rajasthan or ‘Marwari’ horse is descended from the splendid war horses that served the ruling families and warriors of feudal India. Their signature is the lyre-shaped ears that curve inward and meet at the tips.

 

Back in Udaipur, there were still a couple of spare days to take in the Haveli Museum including the House of Puppets, and an evening show with demonstrations of the puppets, local folk dancing and feats of pot balancing on heads while standing on broken glass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also enjoyed dinner on a couple of occasions at the Sunset View restaurant, taking in the lake vista as the sun set behind distant mountains enjoying typical Punjabi meals like Paneer Masala (a white curd cheese in a creamy tomato/cashew nut gravy) and Aloo Paranthas – potato stuffed wholewheat flatbreads.. yum!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our stay at the ranch was clearly the highlight for the girls during our time in Udaipur, whereas I enjoyed the energy and colour of the old cities winding streets, constantly looking down to dodge the cow poo and rubbish and up to see the action and beautiful facades of the Haveli’s. Udaipur lived up to its reputation and we enjoyed our time there immensely.