Udaipur: City Palace

I arrived in Udaipur about 8:30am this morning after taking a night train from Jaipur. I am now traveling by myself, as Anna and Sydni stayed behind and will be returning to New Delhi today by bus. I didn't get much sleep on the train last night but it was a good experience. I finally got to stay in one of the cabin rooms that sleeps four people. I shared the room with three elderly Indian people, two of them looked like a couple and the other lady looked like an older friend. The man spoke a little English and he told me that they were traveling for religious purposes, to visit a specific temple (don't know which one). While I was on the train the man taking care of first class passengers handed me a brochure for a "backpackers" hotel named Mewar Inn. The prices were much cheaper than any of the hotels in the guide book and it looked like a place other young travelers would be going so I decided to check it out. The hotel said on the brochure that it was a hard place to get to because riskshaw drivers don't like to take people there because the don't pay commissions, so I went to the Tourist information center at the train station, got a map and directions and walked all the way there. I will be staying here for the next two nights.

After eating breakfast at the rooftop restaurant at the hotel I started the walk towards Lake Pichola. The map I got is only semi-useful. Nothing is to scale and all the roads aren't on the map. After a lot of walking and asking many people for directions I got to the lake. Even though it is rainy season the lake was almost completely dried up. I walked for a little while along the shore before I was told I wasn't suppose to be there. The streets near the lake are very much like the narrow streets near the Ganges in Varanasi and it was very easy to get lost. I had to go into a restaurant that boasted the "highest restaurant in Udaipur" to get my bearings.


I spent most of the day in exploring the City Palace. This monster palace has an extensive museum, courtyard, a palace for the prince, a luxury hotel, and more within its walls. The highlight for me was going into the luxury hotel end near one end of the palace. Everything was elaborately decorated which was much more fitting than the emptiness that now fills most of the smaller palaces within the museum tour. This part was almost empty, only a few people hanging out around the pool. I went into the bar at the end and had a "Cobra" beer in the window seat of a beautifully decorated and room overlooking the JagMandir. I had someone waiting on me and for that short time I felt like a king. My other favorite part of the palace was the Bodi Mahal which was at the top of the other end of the palace and within the museum tour. This was a peaceful courtyard purched at the highest point of the palace with lookouts on three sides. There was also a fountain which provided a soothing sound. At first I was disappointed that the lake was near empty, but after viewing the JagMandir and Lake Palace from the city palace I humbled by the beauty of this place.


Down near where the docks were I was looking up in the trees and I saw these things that looked like large pieces of fruit. Upon closer examination it was a tree full of bats! Big bats! There were at least 10 trees with hundreds of bats in each! The people working nearby said that these were fruit bats. There was also a new kind of monkey playing in this park and I sat there for a while watching the baby ones goof off.

For dinner I went to the Jigat Niwas Restaurant which is also the Hotel that I was originally planning on staying at. The rooftop restaurant has a beautiful view overlooking the lake. You can see the north end of the city palace, the Lake Palace, and the Jag Mandir. To the west I watched the sun set behind the surrounding mountains. The restaurant and hotel were amazingly empty. I had the place pretty much to myself! I walked back towards the hotel along the lake shore until I got lost. This was a poor idea both because it was dark and my feet were killing me from blisters. After about a 30 minute detour I found my way to the hotel. Aftering cleaning up I watched some cricket on tv... I don't know why anyone would want to watch cricket on tv (slow slow slow).