Udaipur - City of Lakes

Day1: 18-Dec-2024

Started at 6:20 am at home and reached the airport by 7.10 am. Srikanth drove us to the airport. There was no self baggage checkin for Indigo so we had to wait in the long queue for check-in, losing time for breakfast. Instead of having breakfast in the lounge, we shared one plate of Guntur karam idli at Minerva Coffee shop near Gate 111. We started watching Maharaja - a Tamil dub movie and landed at 10.30 am on 18th Dec in Udaipur.

Collected our baggage and boarded Jay Singh, our guide cum chauffeur was already waiting for us. We chose to not check in to the hotel yet as we boarded the flight in the morning and feeling fresh. Instead, we chose to roam around the ‘city of lakes’. Udaipur got the name as White city due to its lakes.

We went to the world's only Royal Enfield museum but couldn't visit it due to power cut. Then we headed to the monsoon palace Sajjangarh. It is a very good view point. We could see 2 lakes from there - Fatehpur lake and Pichola lake. There was a person playing Ektara and a statue of Sajjan Singh. No other attractions.

We had our lunch at 1559AD. The food was good - potato kulcha/garlic naan along with paneer tikka masala. Then we went for speed boating, it was real fun for 472 bucks. We had a thrilling experience as the boat rider was making twists, turns, ups and downs which was really exciting. We went for another ride immediately but this time it was not as much fun.

Then we stopped at Sai Sagar to have Kullad hot coffee as hubby loves such experiences, I also had a sip and it tasted very good.

From here, we went to Maharana Kumbha Sangeet Parishad, which was a local arts show promoted by Rajasthan tourism. We enjoyed it thoroughly. The troop divided into teams and performed Rajasthani local dance and every item was a feast to the eyes. Major attractions being a woman performing dance with pots on her head and someone would add more pots one after the other during the dance show and with all the pots on top, she would pick a note from the floor. Then there was a puppet show.

From here, we went for some shopping and bought Dohar and a Bandani Saree as these are famous here, then we had chat for our dinner at Chotu Bhai which is in a row of chat shops in Udaipur.

Then we reached our hotel room which was very beautiful. We loved the sofaset which was on the windowsill.

Day2: 19-Dec-2024

We had our Chole bhature and bread for breakfast in the hotel and headed to the Udaipur City Palace. We took a guide to walk us through the palace. Our guide, ManSingh, was a little elderly person and initially we thought he would make us feel bored as he was asking us to repeat what he was saying, but he turned out to be a great company throughout. 

It took 22 generations of the king’s dynasty and over 250 years to complete the construction of the palace.

Half the palace is open for visitors while the royal family lives in the other half. It has 4 floors with a garden on the top. We first reached the rooftop and started our tour from there. There were few big, huge trees on the rooftop which explains how strong the construction was. We took a few snaps there and the guide liked my dress a lot and was more than happy to help us take pics. 

While we were going down, I saw short, narrow passages, then understood why the guide said my husband should mind his head in the palace. These passages had a special purpose. They slow down the troops of the invaders and the soldiers of Udaipur kingdom would cut the heads of the invading army as they try to peep in through these passages. 

The city of Udaipur got its name due to the King UdaiSingh. Maharana Pratap is his son and is the greatest warrior king of this place. He had a horse named Chetak and we have heard many stories of this horse which was very loyal to his king. It was due to this horse that the King won many wars. The 2 wheeler of Bajaj - Chetak - was also named after this brave and loyal horse. There is a big statue of Chetak in the palace which has an artificial elephant-like trunk. This trunk made it look like an elephant and gave it an advantage during wars.

Mewar kings worship Sun God and have the habit of praying to him first thing in the morning and to do this, they have constructed a few window-like openings in the third floor. On the days when Sun is not seen they have built a very big, beautiful 5-feet statue of Sun God on the first floor.

The palace had a honeymoon room for the newly wed king and queen and a special playroom for kids.

Another beautiful preservation we saw in the palace was a room full of intricate paintings. These were painted with natural colors in the 17th century and the art is intact till today and looks very beautiful even without any touch ups.

We had learnt a lot of details about the palace from the guide and he treated me like his daughter. He also said we stay happy forever and come back as three the next time we visit the palace. 

He took us to a shop which is famous for local paintings and bid us goodbye there. The shopkeeper explained to us in great detail about Pichwai art which is about how the background looks when we see lord Krishna. So he showed us the paintings of the Lord, some of which have gopikas and cows while the others just have the cows. The paintings have real silver and gold in them and most of the colors are natural colors which come from rocks and vegetable colors. The color stones are rubbed on other rocks which gives color powder and a natural liquid glue is added to this which can then be used for paintings. That is the reason these paintings dont fade and last forever. Sunlight is the only thing that can damage these and folding these paintings would also not cause any damage. The paintings can be done on silk, paper, cotton and also on a material that looks like ivory.

There are paintings of different sizes starting from 1 feet to 8 feet which can cover a wall beautifully. Though very expensive, they add a lot of beauty and elegance to any place where they are hanged. He also showed one painting which would be used in a temple often for the sevas. We considered a few paintings for our new home which would be built at Kollur.  The place also had big statues of elephants, soldiers etc made of wood. Overall, a very artistic place, anyone with a taste for arts would enjoy looking at those paintings.

We had the local fame - Dal Bhati - for our lunch at Krishna Dal Bhati. It was served in traditional vistaraku and bowls also made of the same material. The Bhati is crushed and about four tablespoons of ghee is poured on it. Kheera, garlic chutney, pudina chutney, Dal, capsicum curry and a sweet were served as accompaniments making the lunch very heavy.

After a heavy lunch, we started for our next point and saw a vintage Car showroom on the way. This place has a collection of more than 50 luxury cars which were used by the kings and are still maintained in good condition.

Next, we reached Sahelion ki bari, which is built by the King to appease his 7 year old daughter who insisted on seeing the rain even after monsoons. This is basically a garden where ladies of the royal family would visit for entertainment. This princess used to celebrate her birthday here and there would be a lot of entertainment and she would invite his father for these celebrations. The garden had 5 different segments and the guide put up a good story for each of these linking them to the events of life of the princess. Back then around 400 years ago, the fountains of the garden were constructed when there was no electricity. This was possible because it gets water from the lakes of Udaipur which is 80 feet higher than this place. That's how great our architecture was. The pipelines were made of copper due to its non corrosive nature. The same pipelines are used till date.

This guide dropped us at a shop where local jewellery and clothing was sold. We took a few bracelets and bangles to gift to our friends and family.

Our next destination was a ropeway. Udaipur has 2 ropeways - one was the Neemach Mata and the other was the Karni Mata ropeway. Our driver dropped us at the Neemach Mata ropeway.  We had the pleasure of watching the sunset from the other end of this ropeway point. 

After this we went to the hotel, got fresh and we shifted to another room 203 as there was a lot of disturbance in our room 303 due to the kitchen on the floor above. My husband borrowed a bike from the hotel manager and we got the screen guards added to both of our mobiles in a mobile shop. Then we bought a few snacks from a bakery and a local shop and my husband got the bike filled with some petrol as a token of thanks to the hotel manager. We returned the bike and called it a day.

Day3: 20-Dec-2024

After finishing our breakfast, we started in the same vehicle to Jodhpur. On our way, we saw a beautiful statue of Lord Krishna built by the Miraj group. They have also built a big Siva statue in a theme park but we liked this Krishna statue a lot.

Have you heard of snow in desert? Yes, unbelievable but it is true as you can see below!!

This is at Kishanpura - a marble dump yard which became famous for pre-wed shoots due to its scenic beauty. Due to the white color and the water, it feels like we are in snow. We came across atleast 5 couples in the short time span of half-an-hour that we spent there. Jay Singh helped us get some good pics. For the first time, I planned and prepared myself for a photo shoot kind of a thing 😎. I got inspired from my friend Ramya's pics which were taken at Kishangarh, a similar place near Jaipur.

I was satisfied with the pics we took and we headed to Jodhpur.

Mudithal nervagarani vidya kalade muddaara nerpinchinan....

Note - I drafted this 10 years ago and posting it today 😇

 This is one saying in Telugu which I used to hear from my Telugu teacher in my school days. So much true!!! Proven in my case. I am talking about my first drive to office without my husband sitting beside in the car. Today (03 Jul, 2015) is a very big day for me. We are living in a generation where buying a car is not a big thing. But to me, driving a car is a BIGGGGGGGGGGGG thing, I am still not able to believe that I drove the car to my workplace all the way by myself, because I don't even know how to ride a bicycle or drive a two-wheeler till date. I have started learning how to drive a car an year ago, my husband being my teacher. Very good teacher he is :). Very patient indeed. So, goes the saying :).

 Before starting todays' drive, I had the change (Rs.30), ready for the toll and the phone holder holding my phone with the destination in Google Maps set to my office. I didn’t want any confusion while driving. But one thing I missed was, there was very little charging in my phone :(.

 The first time I tried starting the car a few years back, the car jumped and then came to a halt, skipping my heart beat. That's it. I didn't dare to touch the steering for the next two years or so. After a lot of persuasion from my husband I had to mentally prepare myself first for the driving thing.

 So, since a year I used to venture driving on the weekends when we go places mainly to buy something or so. I rode on highways during our Kerala Visit and a few other places. My husband used to be happy with one thing for sure about his student. Whenever he offered me to drive, I was always ready. I was a very slow learner for his pace (otherwise also of course ;) so he had to be very cool. Another weapon we women have if we get scoldings is the tap running from the eyes. It was a seldom case in our scenario though, but nevertheless, he had to be careful;) Since then I have been trying to learn and every time he is there to guide and correct me whenever required. When everything goes smooth on a day, my confidence levels would shoot up ;) and if I make a mistake, I used to give up saying this is not my cup of tea. Then he is there to push me...He was very strict in the teaching process, not letting any mistake creep in. Every single traffic rule has to be followed while learning.. that's the pre-condition. When I point someone out and say 'look he is not following the rules', he would say, "Know what is right and learn it the right way".

 With all this learning, I dared to drive the car all alone to office. If driving all the way from home to office is a big thing, parking is another whole challenge. I managed to do this properly after a lot of caution. But wait, it is incomplete if I don’t double-check if I have pulled the hand break up, put the drive mode to neutral, closed all the doors properly and pulled all the windows up etc. After checking this from within car, I got down and checked if the car is parked in alignment with the yellow parking lines in the parking lot. Also, checked from outside if all the doors are closed and locked by pulling each of the door, thereby, completing the circumambulation of the car which is called pradakshina in Telugu. So, I treated the car almost like a god and did all the due rituals before leaving it in the parking lot and headed to my work with a sense of accomplishment and pride 😁.