Udaipur

Before we begin this LONG OVERDUE post, we would like to apologize for being so many months behind but we have to say, it really isn’t our fault. We don’t want to make any excuses, but … our excuse is that ever since we finally got to hot weather in mid-January, the sun fried our brain and slowed us down! So you see, we couldn’t help it!! That being said, we have taken lots of vitamins and built our strength back and hopefully we are in good enough form to get back on track. J



Lake Pichola and Water Palace in the distance

 As you know from our post on January 1^st, we spent new years in romantic Udaipur sitting on Lake Pichola (a wonderful couple we know got engaged here and the romance is still flowing between them as they now have a beautiful daughter!). We have to admit that we didn’t love the city at first and didn’t feel the romance. While we saw the beauty in the design of the city with its intricately designed Lake Palace on an island in the middle of the lake and the ornate havelis and hotels lining the lake shore, we found the city to be overcrowded with tourists and the streets around the hotels lined with too many stores selling the usual: jewellery, clothes and all the other stuff found all over Rajasthan. However, we decided to give the city a chance and stayed a few extra days and finally understood its allure. We had to remind ourselves that it is only natural for a place always swarmed by tourists to become touristy and that you have to take it for what it is to really appreciate it.



bathers with one of the many boat rides going by

 Udaipur was founded by Maharaja Udai Singh II in 1568 and has the famous Lake Palace that covers the whole of Jagniwas Island (approximately 1.5 hecters*). Built 1754 it was originally the royal summer palace but is now a luxury hotel (visitors are not allowed unless you have lunch or dinner reservations). The royal families divided the rest of their time in Udaipur between the enormous City Palace complex which takes up a large part of the east bank of the river and during the monsoon season at the Monsoon Palace sitting on a distant mountain range overlooking the city. There is another island palace on Jagmandir Island which is flanked by a row of enormous stone elephants. A popular tourist excursion is a boat ride out in lake Pichola around the two islands. We have to say, this is really a worthwhile trip!

Besides the boat trip and just strolling through the many areas of the city, you can also walk along the shore and check out the bathing and dhobi (laundry) ghats. We also stumbled upon the old Muslim quarter and found that all the Muslim women here did not wear the usual hijab or burqa but had a very beautifully embroidered skirt and top with a hood - it reminded us of what little red riding hood wore. We ended up seeing this again in another city in India later on in our travels. Another cool thing about the city is that most of the hotels in the old town on or near the lake are tall with rooftop restaurants or sitting areas with beautiful vistas of the city, lake and surrounding mountains.

Note: For you movie buffs Udaipur was the backdrop for the James Bond flick “Octopussy”. It’s hard to visit this city and not be reminded of this fact as most of the restaurants play this movie nightly.

To see more pictures of our time in Udaipur click HERE (password: palaces).


one of the dhobi (laundry) ghats



another laundry ghat with the Lake Palace in the background



our room at the Lal Ghat Guesthouse



ain't we cute?!? :)



people hanging out and swimming at one of the ghats



women doing the laundry



hardest workers in India: women and donkeys.  Imprssive, carrying a baby and loading bricks!



another woman hard at work ... seeing a trend yet??



a merchant carrying his goods through the streets of Udaipur



donkeys hard at work



ladies and their babies



Jaipur: India's 'pink city'

Jaipur, the capital of the state of Rajasthan, is known as the ‘pink city’ because of all the pink buildings lining the streets of the old walled city. Overlooking Jaipur from a ridge is Nahargarh, or Tiger Fort, which is one of three forts in the city’s vicinity. The largest of the forts is Amber fort and palace which was the home of Maharaja Man Singh, the man who planned out and designed the old city of Jaipur. Present day Jaipur has spilled out of the old fort walls to become one of Rajasthan’s most polluted, crowded and noisy cities.

main street in the old city

Getting ready to write this post we thought back on Jaipur and the only things that came to mind where our home away from home at beautiful Krishna Palace and how crowded and hectic the streets were. However, when we started to look back at the pictures and reflect on our time there we remembered the beauty that lay amid all that chaos. Once you accept the chaos for what it is you come to understand why Rajasthan is considered the heart of India: the streets are lined with pink limestone buildings and filled with carts of multicoloured produce and sacs overflowing with dried red chilli peppers, women are in their colourful saris and bangles and the men don eccentric moustaches and colourful Rajasthani turbans. All this life and colour amid all of the rich history is where the beauty lies.

Our first day we decided to walk an hour to one of the gates leading into the old walled city to see the real Jaipur. This walk was the beginning of a day which sure tested our patience and nerves. First of all, to get to the gate, you’re walking along the side of the road (as there are no sidewalks) fighting your way through countless people, bikes, cars, carts pulled by men and camels alike, buses, trucks, not to mention making sure you don’t step on anything unpleasant and of course saying “no thank you” to the relentless auto and bicycle rickshaws. The real shock comes as you walk through the city gates: in addition to the above mentioned obstacles the old city throws at you a million hungry shopkeepers and street vendors on either side of you trying to sell you anything under the sun. Feeding into this frenzy are hundreds of side streets bringing with them speeding motorbikes unwilling to stop for anything or anyone leaving the pedestrians to fend for themselves leapfrogging through traffic.


street vendor

It took us some time to adjust to the flow of this very vibrant city but as we said before, once we did the true beauty of Jaipur came to the forefront. First thing that we noticed about the ‘pink city’ and its buildings was the unique architecture on display. The pink facades are covered with intricate carvings and lining the main streets all the buildings have uniform archways that cover the sidewalk. Though many buildings are in bad shape it is nice to see that all the buildings in the old city continue to be painted pink.

Hawa Mahal

We have to note two sites that really stood out for us: the Hawa Mahal and the Jantar Mantar. The Hawa Mahal (or Palace of the Winds) is part of the palace complex in the old city and was built for the ladies of the royal household so that they could have a place to watch the happenings of the city from. The exterior is stunning with its beautiful pink honeycombed small windows overlooking the main street. The interior, on the other hand, is nothing but an open courtyard and paths and stairs leading to the many window ledges from which the ladies watched the city life go by. The other interesting place we visited was Jantar Mantar which is an observatory built by Jai Sing. It looks like a bunch of sculptures, some of them exceeding 8 stories in height, lying around a park. Then you learn that each piece has a specific astronomical or astrological purpose such as measuring the position of stars, altitudes and azymuths and calculating eclipses. The massive sundail tells time to an accuracy of two seconds Jaipur local time. Amazing for something built in 1728!

To see our walks, the forts, the palaces and the crazy beauty of Jaipur, click HERE (password: forts).

gate into the old city



the old pink city



Jantar Mantar



Amber fort and palace



Lake Palace



Albert Hall Museum



This is 'rat park' and what we mean by this is that it's a park with people lounging and eating surrounded by holes that we discovered were rat holes when we saw big fat rats running out of them.