Travel Diaries #Udaipur

And as mentioned in the last post, part 1 of the adventurous trip.

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Rajasthan is a diverse and beautiful place that beats superlatives. During our 10 day trip, after a lot of discussions, we managed to fit an itinerary to cover Udaipur ( The City of Lakes), Jodhpur (The Blue City) and Jaisalmer (The Golden City) . We skipped Jaipur (The Pink City) coz we had already seen it and Pushkar too because I had seen it just a month back.

After deciding the places, the next question was how many days for each. Matt was crystal clear on Jaisalmer. He had been there earlier and wanted the most number of days there. I trust his sense of travel so obediently agreed. So we were supposed to go to Delhi to Udaipur via train, stay 2 days there. Then take a road trip from Udaipur to Jodhpur ( wow!), spend a day there. Jodhpur to Jaisalmer via train, spend 2 days and finally come back to Delhi via train.

So all train tickets and hotel bookings were prior done. Seemed a well planned trip. Except that we didn’t decide upon which places to visit and when in the particular city. That’s the most boring thing to do. Though I had a list in my mind of the places to see and the food joints to visit ;)

The first adventure of the trip

Britt and Matt

We missed our Delhi Udaipur train!! I already have a record of missing trains and flights :P It was at 7 pm from Nizammudin Railway station and we couldn’t reach on time. While I had a panic attack for once, my crazy foreigner friends Matt and Britt were all chilled out. They took it SO casually that it made me ease out. We accepted the fact that we’ve missed it. But we wanted to leave the same day. With our bags packed, none of us wanted to go back home :)  So after a lot of chaos and confusion, we went to Bikaner House, took a bus to Jaipur and then train from Jaipur to Udaipur. It was hell fun! Matt and Britt had a “bumpy” bus ride of almost 6 hours. I was still ok since I am used to such buses but for them they would wake up on every speed breaker. :D We thought we would get berths in the 6 hour train ride from Jaipur to Udaipur. Alas! We had no food and had to manage with chair seats. Thankfully, we reached Udaipur by afternoon, just 8 hours later than the scheduled arrival.

Day 1: The Hippiness began!

We stayed at Mewargarh Palace. Please don’t be mistaken by the word “palace”. A family has created a guest house on the first floor, a little uphill walk. It is an economical stay but the rooms and food are really nice. I loved the sunrise view from the open space there.

We reached there around 2 pm. Seeing the bed I wanted to doze off for a while (we all were sleep deprived since more than 24 hours!). But got ready by 4 pm as none of us wanted to waste the day. So we first went to the street shops and Matt and Britt bought the hippie clothes. When in Rome, behave like Romans. That was a must in their agenda: D We then went to Fatehsagar. 

I’ve been to Udaipur earlier and I like the Auto system there. Readily available at any point in time but wish they would run by meters. The walk inside the Maharana Pratap Memorial till the statue of Rana Pratap Singh was nice with a pleasing weather. Since I was with 2 foreigners, many asked me “Aap inki guide hai?” (Are you their guide?). I was short of words to explain them that they look foreigners but they are Indians in a lot of ways. They know the skill of negotiating, can’t be fooled easily and Matt knew many common hindi words. If he would find any guy with long mustaches, he would start “Aapki moochein bahut achi hai” ( The way he says it is hilarious!) And the other person who would be smiling and blushing! After taking a look around the memorial we whiled away a bit at the Fateh Sagar lake. I wanted to take a round in the lake in a ferry but Matt and Britt, being adventurous, made me sit in a speed boat! I was shit scared initially but was soon able to let go of the inhibition and loved it! 

Speedboat @ Fatehsagar, Udaipur

We had dinner at Millets of Mewar. Of our entire trip, this, according to me, was the best place in terms of ambience, price and food quality. A 5/5. After a sumptuous dinner, we figured our way back strolling. Nothing beats late night lazy walks with crazy friends. :)

Day 2: The amazing explorations!

Addi joined us from this day. We were happy to see him! :)We all got ready and chose to first see the City Palace. In the palace, a part of it is the living quarter of the erstwhile royal family. I am not much of an artistic or history person so found the palace ok :) ( Please pardon me if you Love the place :) 

We had lunch at The Ambrai. The best, rather the only good part of this restaurant was the view. Sitting and eating right besides the lake..gazing at the water and observing the impact inside..listening to the gushing sound and feeling the breeze. I found the place too pricey with the food quality being moderate. We then went window shopping in the small lanes near the lake since we wanted to pass time till about sunset to take a boat ride in Lake Pichola. We were told to take the boat around 5 pm to witness the sunset. And I think that was the best decision made. The sunset experienced in the middle of the Lake was estupendo! Priceless moments, full of divinity. I am scared of deep waters but that point in time, nature seemed my best friend. :)

Sunset @ Lake Pichola, Udaipur

We thought of going to Jag Mandir but that’s really expensive. A few thousands per person! I would rather prefer to go to South India adding some more money ;) We settled for dinner this day at a rooftop restaurant. I am not able to clearly recall but I think it was at Jaiwana. Didn’t have much food there so can’t say much about it but rooftops with a lake view are undoubtedly awesome.

We also saw the Dharohar Dance show at Bagore Ki Haveli. The show is worth a watch and icing on the cake was the Bhavai Dance where the lead dancer did this! It seems easy but it isn't and I was spellbound when she actually did it in front of us - she started with 2 and kept adding one after the other and danced barefeet on broken glass!! #DanceBasanti in true sense ;)

So the 2 days at Udaipur ended well and we were looking forward to our road trip now starting early next day which had its own set of adventures! The next leg of the trip in the next post:)

Keep smiling :)

Swati

You may also like to read:

• Travel Diaries #Jaisalmer
• Travel Diaries #Jodhpur
• Travel Diaries #Pushkar