Magical Udaipur

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Two weeks ago (which seems like a lifetime now) we had a whirlwind weekend trip to Rajasthan’s most romantic city, Udaipur, also known as ‘the city of lakes’. Its claim to fame is that the 1960’s James Bond film ‘Octupussy’ was filmed there, as we were reminded by every shopkeeper, rickshaw driver, hotel owner etc. They even have the film showing every night at most hostels, and of course each shopkeeper claims to be the close friend of Rodger Moore :) We left on the usual late night sleeper train after work on Friday evening, but due to a mix up with the reservation we were all spread out in different cabins- which basically sucks. It was probably the worst train I have taken so far, with the snoring, farting, burping, hocking soundtrack being at full volume- and we arrived 3 ½ hours late. I felt bad, because for 4 of our 6 travelling companions it was their first Indian train experience, not such a great start. However, once we arrived we realised instantly what a beautiful city Udaipur really is. The streets were clean, small and winding, with little dust- from some angles it even looks like Venice! All of the rickshaw drivers and shopkeepers could speak good English, the buildings and temples had a majestic quality about them- and there was very little shit :) We also saw more westerners than in any other city that we’ve visited.

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The lonely planet proved to be trustworthy once more; we stayed in an ideal cheap hotel, in a beautiful room with a view, in the centre of town, and a 360 degree view of the famous Lake Pichola and many palaces from the rooftop restaurant! After breakfast/shower/refresh we set out walking around the winding streets to find the port where we could take a boat ride of Lake Pichola. We took a one hour ‘luxury’ seven seater (which basically meant it would stay afloat) boat ride with an American couple. It allowed us to see all of the palaces that flank the lake- including two floating palaces which are on small islands in the middle of the lake. Some parts of the cliff faces around the lake really did look like the Italian Riviera, it was just beautiful. A combination of the sun poking through the high clouds and a fog that shrouded the surrounding mountains made it feel like a storybook. The boat ride was really peaceful- in drastic contrast to our train journey- and the lake was relatively clean! The palaces were all sandstone in colour and the mountains green…

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Rejuvenated after our ‘cruise’, we just enjoyed discovering the town, and its small streets (and inviting shops). We saw the biggest elephant that I have ever seen- it could barely fit down the street- we were just in awe, until it started walking our way and we all had to dive into a shop to avoid a crushing :) I love elephants, but the ones in the streets with a little man riding them always look so sad. The best part about travelling with other trainees, and people that like to travel, is that we can have our own agenda. Therefore for the afternoon, Tai chi and Martin went exploring, Louisa and Jose shopping, and Uber (a random German we met on the train) and I returned to the hostel for a nap.

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Around dusk we took rickshaws up to the ‘monsoon palace’ which was built for royal families as an escape during the monsoon season. The American couple recommended that we go there for sunset- and boy are we glad that we did. It is situated high high up on a hill in the middle of a national forest- even the drive up there was spectacular- 8km winding around a mountain. It had a breathtaking view of the entire city, and the palace had an abundance of my favourite thing… Archways. The archways in forts and palaces are so intricate and inviting and somehow romantic, that the other trainees think I have a slight archway obsession. In fact my hundreds of photos of various archways probably prove them right. Anyway while waiting for sunset we had fun running around the abandoned palace, seeing the view from all different angles and levels. The sky was really cloudy so we didn’t see the red-ball sunset that we were hoping for, but the fluffy pink and orange clouds were just as nice! The air seemed so clean, and we were high up above the city- we didn’t want to leave- there was even grass in the entrance- grass!- we were like little kids running with no shoes on at the sight of grass.

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Again thanks to Mr Lonely Planet, we found the most incredible restaurant on the other side of town for dinner, situated in a small 5 star boutique hotel, another rooftop restaurant but this time super classy. It had a swimming pool, lanterns, musicians playing traditional music on sitars- the atmosphere and service were just divine. The food however, still makes my mouth water- Tandoori chicken on a sizzling hotplate!! The whole evening cost us about AU $18 each (really expensive!)

Content and in love with Udaipur we all slept so well that first day.

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For our second and final day, 4 other trainees joined us from Jaipur (we were now 9 in total) which was great because we could store our bags in their room… we had breakfast once more on a rooftop restaurant, where somehow we seemed to be spending half our time- relaxing, eating and drinking on various rooftop restaurants, by the end of which we were rooftop connoisseurs. There was a German bakery in our hostel, so we all indulged in Apple ‘cramble’ and ‘studel’ for breakfast (Indian menus provide endless amusement for spelling mistakes- pouched or screambled eggs anyone?). I managed to do a severe amount of damage in a small silver jewellery shop across from our hostel while the others that had just arrived freshened up- semi precious gemstones are at least a tenth of the price here, with turquoise, black onyx, lapis lazuli, tiger eye and everything else you can imagine just overflowing out of one little store- Arghh!

At the city Palace
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We set off together to see the City Palace- which still has a Maharani living there, one of the worlds oldest dynasties. The palace itself was very different from many that we have seen so far- it was very opulent and still in good condition. One of my favourite parts of all Rajasthani palaces and temples is definitely the big black and white chequered marble floors… for some reason they make you feel like you’re a pawn on a chessboard, or Alice in Wonderland from one of her scenes! Indians also love peacocks (I have been too lazy to find out why) and one of the palace’s rooms had floor-to ceiling- mirrored and glass mosaic peacocks which was really stunning. I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story…. It took us several hours to see the whole palace, with all its secret corridors and rooms, but also being a Sunday there were a lot of Indian school children there, which was rather annoying.

Palace shimmering on the lake
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We visited another temple, where prayer was being held so we couldn’t really linger, and then took a well-earned break :) at another rooftop restaurant. We did meet an Indian guy outside of the temple who upon seeing us took out a Barack Obama badge- which was really strange and funny. We split up again for the afternoon, with the newly arrived doing the sights we did the previous day- the rest of us girls went shopping and the boys did who knows what- but by sunset we were all back on the rooftop of the hostel, freezing and tired and waiting for the girls with the room key to return from the monsoon palace. The German guy we had met on the train resurfaced and offered us to nap in his room- I don’t think he quite anticipated all six of us to jump at his offer, so the poor guy had all of us crammed in his room for an hour dozing away :)

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It was Dominika’s, the polish girl, last night in India so we went to another special restaurant overlooking the lake and palace, and then another after that to have Indian beer and sweets to wait for our train. The food wasn’t as good as the first night, but from our carved window seat where we sat cross-legged on cushions we could see the Lake palace glimmering on the water!

Miraculously our train left only 2 minutes late, and arrived only one hour late. A combination of having (more or less) our own compartment, away from the toilets and being dead tired from the past two days we all had the best 7 hour sleep on the train home (as well as can expected on a train). We woke up literally 30 seconds before Jaipur, and when we stumbled off the train at 7am I had my sleeping bag around my neck, eye mask on my head and shoes in my hand. We must have been quite a sight! Louisa and I arrived home with just enough time to shower and leave for work at 8am- for a field trip- which meant more travelling in a really shitty bumpy jeep to a rural village and not returning until almost 8pm… SOOO tired- but for Udaipur, it was worth it!