Udaipur 007

Detailed carvings of the Jagdish Temple.
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The city of Udaipur was drastically different than any town we've seen in India. Here loud congested streets are replaced by narrow, hilly lanes weaving between old hotels, shops, and homes. Many of the streets were barely wide enough for a rickshaw, successfully eliminating traffic, leaving them quiet and easy to explore.

The old section of Udaipur is built around a small bay of Lake Pichola. The hotel we stayed in was located on the water adjacent to the City Palace, and had a great rooftop balcony. We ate breakfast there every morning looking out at the deep blue lake and surrounding arid hillsides.

Katy with a giant elephant outside the Jagdish Temple.
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Seemingly afloat in the middle of the lake is the Lake Palace. Once a royal summer retreat, it is now the fanciest of luxury hotels and can only be visited if staying or dining there. It's so unusual and exotic that it was one of the feature filming locations in James Bond: Octopussy. Many of the town's numerous rooftop restaurants try drawing in diners with nightly showings of the movie, and we were two of the many who have now seen it.

On our first day we visited the City Palace, which is the largest in Rajasthan. It stretches across 5 acres of Lake Pichola's eastern shore and is a tremendous sight to behold. The palace is an off white color that shines brightly against the blue desert sky. We were able to see many of the interior rooms during our walk through the City Palace Museum.

Jagdish Temple carvings.
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Near our hotel was a large stone temple called the Jagdish Mandir. It looked pretty interesting so we decided to take a walk around it one afternoon. In typical fashion we had to remove our shoes before entering the complex. Unfortunately in the desert surfaces tend to heat up rather quickly and our leisurely stroll around the temple turned into a sprint. The white marble floor around it was scorching hot from the sun. The stone work was exquisite and we were able to snap off a few pictures during our run around it.

Donkeys hard at work.
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One of the traditional forms of entertainment in Rajasthan is the puppet show. Many of the souvenir shops in town have loads of puppets for sale and we thought it would be fun to see a show. According to our travel book the Bhartiya Lok Kala Museum ran hour long puppets shows at noon and 6pm so we took a rickshaw out for the noon performance.

The stage was set in a royal ballroom with four members of the royal family sitting at the back of the stage facing the audience. One by one puppets came out to dance for the family. The first puppet was a snake charmer, who was followed by three different dancers. The show was funny and entertaining but after 10 minutes it suddenly ended. Apparently the museum only ran one, one-hour show each day during the summer and of course it was at 6:00pm.

House painted blue somewhere in the back alleyways.
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With a little extra time to kill after the puppet show we decided to explore some of the markets around the Delhi Gate. Rajasthan is well known for its spice trade and we came across vendors selling heaping piles of colorful spices. In addition we saw a man making snack mix, which is also very popular in the area, as well as the typical fruit and vegetable markets.

That evening we caught a sleeper bus to Jodhpur. The advertisement the travel agent was using for its bus was particulary amusing. It read, "No vibration, no noise, no jerk." With such an audacious claim I'm surprised they didn't add "No inertia" to that list. Without fail the sign wasn't even close to being accurate and the bus ride to Jodhpur was one of the bumpiest of our lives.

View of town from a rooftop restaurant.
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Unfortunately we accidentally mailed almost all of the pictures we took in Udaipur home before adding this entry. So enjoy the limited selection of photos, they're the best of what was available!