Day 7 - Udaipur

I don’t know what went through the auto rickshaw driver’s mind, but he had a sudden charge of heart. “It costs 20 rupees to Hotel Gorbandh” he’d said before we stepped in for coffee. No sooner had we finished coffee, than he pointed out the hotel just behind the big gate. Life is full of surprises.

According to Lonely Planet, Udaipur is the Venice of the East. But the lakes are hardly full. Expectations were high after being impressed by the photographs of Udaipur that I have seen over the years. The city palace opens at 7:00 AM – earlier than everywhere else. Hence, at 8:00 AM, we had the place for ourselves for all our photographs. This was reportedly the biggest palace in the whole of Rajasthan. The façade was imposing and beautiful. But the inside was a trifle disappointing. This was the land of Mewar, of the famed Rajputs who appear in loads of Amar Chitra Katha volumes. But from all the paintings hung up inside, it seemed as if the kings of Udaipur were hunting boar or tiger all the while, Perhaps expectations were high.

The palace still took half a day. A visit to the Lake Palace was denied since it was an exclusive hotel, not for the likes of me who live on a meager few rupees every month. We’d met Shannon from Sydney during dinner yesterday. She was in India for a 3-month vacation. Today we ran into her, while on the way to Lal Ghat. She was trying to learn some Indian music. She walked with us all the way to Bansi Ghat. After the unsuccessful attempt to get into the Lake Palace (where a lunch would cost about Rs. 2000 per person), we were determined to get to Jagmandir Palace. Perhaps a 300 rupee boat ride was not so much as a 2000 rupee lunch, and hence we decided to take it. After visiting Jagmandir, which was again just a hotel, it did not seem a wise decision.

As the sun set behind Gangaur Ghat, we wee seated in the cozy confines of Café Edelweiss, munching fried eggs and sipping hot coffee. The last thing on the agenda for the day was the Rajasthani Folk performance across the road at Bagore Ki Haveli. It began at 7:00 PM with the evergreen “Padharo Mhare Des”. And for the next one hour, we felt we had truly stepped into Rajasthan.

Pic(k) of the Day:

Incredibly, there are none - on a day when i clicked 340 photographs - the most i've ever clicked on a single day