Udaipur

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Udaipur is supposed to be the most beautiful city in Rajasthan, and it most certainly didn’t disappoint! Our adventure began at about midnight on Friday night. It was supposed to begin at 10:40, but of course the train was delayed! We’d booked sleeper class tickets for the train, and despite what I’d heard about sleeper class in India, it actually wasn’t that bad! Despite the snoring and burping and farting and complete lack of descretion with bodily functions of my fellow Indian passengers, I burried my head under my blanket and managed to go to sleep. We arrived in Udaipur at 8am (2 hrs late), stumbled off the train and caught a rickshaw to our hostel. The driver’s name was Bunty (‘like the chocolate’ he said – I think he meant Bounty) and he was really friendly and surprisingly upbeat considering it was freezing and so early in the morning!

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The streets of Udaipur are small, windy, alleways with shops displaying their colourful offerings lining the sides. We also noticed how much quieter Udaipur was compared to Jaipur – and cleaner! Such a nice change from the crowded streets of Barkat Nagar back home. We were shown to our room at the hostel and headed to the roof-top from some brekkie. The view was amazing!! There was a 360 degree view of the city – Lake Pichola on one side, Jagdish temple on the other, and mountains all round sheltering the colourful rooftops of Udaipur’s little houses.

a nice change from the crowded streets of Barkat Nagar back home

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Whilst the view was spectacular, the service at the roof-top restaurant was pretty much the opposite! The boys, although ordering after us, got their food about 30 minutes before us, and when our vege omelette finally arrived, it was cold. Jose waited an hour for what she thought was a fresh apple juice, but ended up just getting a little apple poppa! The menu provided a laugh though. On the breakfast menu were ‘screambled eggs’, ‘pouched eggs’, and ‘apple studle’.

After sorting out our bags, we went for a little stroll down the street to a boat ramp, where we hired a boat to take us on a 60 minute tour around the lake. We floated past the City Palace, the Lake Palace, and lots of other pretty buildings I don’t know the name of.

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After our lake tour, we walked into the centre of Udaipur, passing lots of little shops and food stands. When we got into the centre, we decided to split up. A couple of people went back to the guest house to nap, the boys went in search of an ATM, and I, of course, went shopping! The shops in Udaipur are so much quieter than those in Pink City. You still have to haggle, but at least many of the shop keepers are used to tourists and speak English. It seems the specialty in Udaipur are patchwork, leather and handmade paper notebooks, colourful fabric bags, and antique jewelery! I only got to do about 2 hrs of shopping, it wasn’t enough!

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We got a rickshaw to take us up the steep mountain road to the Monsoon palace. There were three of us girls in the rickshaw and that little thing was struggling! The road was pretty steep, and a couple of times the rickshaw sounded like it was gonna give up and start rolling backwards! We musn’t have been as heavy as the two boys though, cuz their rickshaw was way behind ours! The Monsoon palace was so spectacular. It’s right at the top of the mountain and overlooks the whole of Udaipur. We got there around 5:30, just in time for the sunset. After exploring the palace for a bit, we settled down to watch the sun set behind a scattering of clouds. It looked amazing!

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After getting kicked out at 6, we headed back to the guest house, where we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at a roof-top restaurant of a 5-star hotel. Food in India is so cheap so we weren’t really worried about the price. The restaurant was incredibly pretty, had a lovely laid-back atmosphere, the service was impeccable (such a nice change!) and the food was DIVINE. Martin even said it was the best food he’s eaten in all his time in India! The most amazing thing was they actually made Western food well! I ordered a canneloni and it actually tasted like canneloni! We realised how bizarre we were, eating at a restaurant where a beer cost the same as our accomodation, and our main meals cost more than our train tickets!

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The next day we were joined by 4 other trainees, and after breakfast we walked to the City Palace to explore. It was relaxing strolling through all the different rooms and admiring all the glass mosaics and pretty archways. Then after lunch at yet another roof-top restaurant, we split up, and I, of course, went shopping again :D. We spent a while in a really nice antique jewelery store, and I got some shoes, pants, bags and some kurtas. I really gotta learn some self-control! For dinner, we went to another restaurant at a 5-star hotel, where the food wasn’t as good as the first night, but the view was amazing. From our little window seat where we sat cross-legged on cushions, we could see the Lake Palace glimmering on the water!

It was the perfect week-end get-away. Udaipur is such a lovely little city; the people are friendly, the streets are (mostly) quiet, and the shopping is great! It was really nice to just get away for a couple of days, and I can’t wait to go on my next trip!