Udaipur

So this was my first bus journey. It was a 5 hour bus ride to Udaipur as there are no direct trains. Once again I took one of the ‘doctors’ biscuits before the journey and time FLEW by. I watched a movie for the first hour after which I, magically, managed to sleep very comfortably the rest of the way 🙂

So the bus Journey I took on the South India tour was a proper local bus. I did some research and found that the government run a premier bus service which on the site is referred to as “Volvo”. The tickets are a lot more expensive and the coach a lot more comfortable. For one thing the coach has windows and has climate control. The middle class locals obviously use this service and tickets can very easily be booked online the night before the journey. I think a lot of people don’t bother pre-booking as the buses are normally quite full. The price of the ticket was around £5 for a 5 hour journey.

Anyway I arrived at Udaipur and booked myself into a guesthouse. It was CRAZY cheap. So I got an ensuite room for £5. The next day I went to explore Udaipur. What a beautiful place.

First stop was Bagore Ki Haveli:

Nothing amazing to write home about after the Havelis in Jaisalmer but they had (probably) the world’s biggest Turban on display:

I then proceeded to see the Jagdish Temple which is one of the famous temples of Udaipur. Located in the City Palace complex of Udaipur, this temple is made in the Indo-Aryan style of architecture. In 1651, Jagdish temple was built by Maharana Jagat Singh, who ruled Udaipur during 1628-53. The temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu (Laxmi Narayan), the preserver of the Universe. It is celebrated for being the largest temple in the city of Udaipur.

This three-storied temple is a wonder of architecture that comprises beautifully carved pillars, decorated ceilings, painted walls and lush halls. In those times, 1.5 million rupees were spent to raise this structure. The spire of the main temple is around 79 feet high that undoubtedly dominates the skyline of Udaipur. This shikhar (spire) is festooned with sculptures of dancers, elephants, horsemen and musicians making it truly a sight to behold. 

After that I went to see the City palace. It was built over a period of nearly 400 years being contributed by several kings of the dynasty, starting by the Maharana Udai Singh II as the capital of the Sisodia Rajput clan in 1559, after he moved from Chittor. It is located on the east bank of the Lake Pichola and has several palaces built within its complex. Udaipur was the historic capital of the former kingdom ofMewar in the Rajputana Agency and its last capital. On arriving I wanted a guide and managed to share one with these two French guys, so had a nice guided tour of the palace. As good as the audio guides are – you can’t beat a real guide for these places. The palace was beautiful.

Back in the day whenever there was an inauguration they would fill this pit with gold and the new King would distribute the wealth to the people.

So the palace was hired out by one of India’s wealthiest families for a wedding. Apparently it’s very common for the super rich of India to host weddings in his palace. They were setting up for the evening. The wedding looked AMAZING. I was seriously thinking of crashing it as the ID cards looked easy enough to fake, but for such an occasion would need appropiate attire, which I didin’t have.

Maharanas of Mewar are Surya Vanshi or decedents of Sun god. So they daily pray the sun god. One big sun god status made of Gold is available inside the palace and the kings use to perform puja here on the cloudy days when sun god is not visible.

This was the queen’s bath back in the day:

Udaipur is known as the white city and here’s why:

Beautiful architecture within the palace:

They very interestingly had three symbols of sacred geometry which I found interesting and want to research later:

I then took a boat ride on the lake:

This is a hotel owned by the Taj Group called Lake Palace Hotel in the middle of the lake. It used to be a palace which has now been converted to a hotel. You can’t go to visit unless you stay there and rooms start at £400/night – so well out of my budget.

View from the boat ride:

As you can see from the distance, Udaipur is surrounded by hills.

The boat ride was very nice. Very beautiful lake. We then stopped off at this island in the middle of the lake for about 20 mins. Again more work was being done on this island for the wedding. It’s a shame the preperation was going on as we couldn’t see what the island normally looks like. Although this must be the most grand wedding I’ve seen:

Views from the island:

Anyway I was famished after this so went to get something to eat. After lunch/dinner I had read of the Monsoon Palace which is supposed to be the highest point in the city on top of a hill and so a really good point for sunset. I therefore decided to take a Riskshaw there. On arriving I found out that the riskshaw can’t go to the top of the mountain, only cars can and I had to take a government car to the top. The palace offers a panoramic view of the city’s lakes, palaces and surrounding countryside. It was built basically to watch the monsoon clouds; hence, appropriately, it is popularly known as Monsoon Palace. It is said that the Maharana built it at the top of the hill to get a view of his ancestral home of Chittaurgarh. The timing was a bit hit and miss but I made it within haf an hour of sunset so perfect timing.

The palace itself was not great but views from the top were amazing. The palace, built with white marble, is located on Bansdara peak of the Aravalli hill range at an elevation of 944 m (3100 ft).

After this went back home. I had planned to go to a cultural show in the evening but was too tired. The next day was a two hour journey to Chittorgarh to see the famous fort.

There seems to be a lot of early starts for this leg of the trip. Is starting to feel like the South India tour all over again. I think in Pushkar I’ll take a few days to chill. Definately need some chill time before I hit the CRAZY Varanasi. Udaipur was a beautiful city. I can quite clearly see why it’s the wedding capital for the north. I could have spent some more time here just chilling by the lake but decided to move on.