Ridiculously romantic Udaipur

The lake front at sunset
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Udaipur airport was just the size I like...kind of like Blenheim airport - tiny terminal building, 2 departure gates...but flasher as they have a luggage carousel, whereas in Blenheim they just drive the luggage trailer over to the side of the terminal.

A promising start.

After our taxi wound it's way through winding back streets to our hotel and we checked in to our room, we climbed up to the roof terrace for what has to be one of the most stunning and romantic views in the world.  The roof terrace of our hotel was where we ate breakfast and lounged around like lizards in the sun every day.

Tracey doing what Tracey does best - shoe shopping
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Udaipur is famous for its lake and palaces.  The lake is man-made, built hundreds of years ago by Rajastani royalty to encircle their palaces built smack bang in the middle of the lake.  One of the palaces has been converted in to a Taj hotel, but after blowing our cash on the Taj in Bombay, we really couldn't do it again.

Anyway, we both agreed that actually, the beauty of Udaipur is in looking at the lake with the palaces in it, something you would miss out on if you were staying in said palace.  Made us feel better anyway...

Udaipur from the boat
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Apparently the lake had been empty for a few years not so long ago due to droughts in the area, which totally killed off the tourist business.  Our guide book described the lake as a 'mosquito infested puddle' (ouch) so when we got to our hotel, we literally dropped our bags in the room and ran up to the roof terrace in trepidation to see if we had a puddle or a lake.  Luckily for us, the lake actually had water in it.

Aside from gawping at the lake from our roof terrace, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that there were a few more things to do in Udaipur.

View over Udaipur at sunset from the Monsoon Palace
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-  Firstly, you could gawp at the lake at close proximity from one of the many boats that do 30 minute or 1 hour circuits of the lake.  We wanted to go at sunset, so had to join a 1 hour circuit.  Predictably, it was the same circuit at the 30 minute trip, but the boat just drove slower (how Indian).  Actually when we got to the pier we had missed the sunset boat, but the manager put us on his personal speedboat and sped us out to join the sunset boat much to the bemusement of the people already on board a we pulled up alongside and told them to shove over.  All very James Bond.

Women in the Jagdish temple
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-  Then there was the 'City Palace' which was actually a huge huge complex of palaces built on the shore of the lake.  We spent an hour or two touring around looking at the hundreds of rooms with beautiful stonework, tiling, glasswork, mirrors and incredible views.  The palace was also impressive from our lake boat trip when the setting sun bathed the golden sandstone with light.

-  The Jagdish Temple in the middle of the old town is an ancient temple complete with beatifully carved figures and 'genuine' holy men, who let you take their photo if you give them some money :)  Inside the temple, a less extravagantly dressed holy man was holding court over a large group of people who were all nodding and laughing as he preached from a book, clearly adding his own embellishments along the way.

Women washing clothes on the Ghats
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-  There was also the 'Monsoon Palace', a (now disused and almost derelict) palace high on the hills overlooking Udaipur to the east and the hills of the Rajastan region to the west.  Best viewed at sunset, we caught a tuktuk the 7km drive up the hill, dodging the other tourists in their large airconditioned cars all the way, and sat up the top enjoying the views and the wonderful golden hue that the sunset cast over the Monsoon Palace and Udaipur in the distance.

On the downside, being so touristy, Udaipur was a bit of a circus at times.  Worst of all (or funniest depending on if you're a boy) were the guys who lashed themselves with their own whips while their wives beat drums and touted the tourists for money.  Sickos.

Detail of the City Palace
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However, there was some good shoe shopping to be had - mainly very bling flip flops.  Luckily Simon was fascinated by the madness just outside my 'shoe shop' of choice, so was content snapping off piccies while I happily perused the contents of bags and bags of shoes.

There is only so much time you can spend gazing at the same view, so after a couple of days we were on another flight, this time further in to the desert to Jodhpur.