TRAVEL CHALLENGE

Udaipur Revisited

A to Z of my favorite travel destinations — U is for Udaipur

As I get down to the end of this alphabet challenge it is getting tougher and tougher the lower down the alphabet I get. I didn’t have trouble with most of the previous letters and could probably do a few more places for each letter. But now that I’m on U I’m really struggling to find a place in my list of travel destinations. Just when I’m about to cop out and do one on the United States I remembered Udaipur in India. I’ve already written about it in my Rajasthan travels but it’s one of my favorite cities in India so I hope I’m able to write a little more.

During my three-month travels through India, one of my favorite things to do was to drive through rural parts of the country, making frequent stops. I often drew stares, tourists don’t usually stop, especially guys with earrings and a nose ring.

Just outside of Udaipur, my final destination on a tour through Rajasthan, my driver and I stopped outside one village in a very rural area. In fact, we had to walk from the road, through a farm field to get to the village well, where a couple of villagers were operating the bucket wheel and loading up their vessels. I hope I didn’t seem rude as I snapped photos (my driver/guide had asked permission) as they went about their daily routine. They probably thought I was nuts because I was so interested in them getting some water.

My driver obviously knew how much I was interested in rural Indian life so while in Udaipur, he took me to a place called Shilpgram, a kind of theme park highlighting village life in India with houses representing different tribal styles across western India from Rajasthan to Goa.

From the countryside and the farming villages to the big city of Udaipur. Though by Indian standards, its population of about 450,000 is pretty small. The city is built around several freshwater lakes and is surrounded by hills and valleys.

At the center is Lake Pichola, a manmade lake, with the City Palace on its eastern shore, and the magnificent 16th-century white marble Lake Palace in its center. It was once a summer home for royalty and now is a 5-star hotel owned by the luxurious Taj Hotel Group.

Across the lake from the Lake Palace is Jag Mandir Island which is used for lavish weddings and celebrations.

Along the lake shore are a number of bathing ghats, which are concrete platforms or steps which people can use to bathe or wash their laundry, often both at the same time.

There is also a great view of the City Palace, a massive 4-hectare complex along the Eastern bank of Lake Pichola.

The Palace boasts numerous temples, towers, and domes. Part of it has been turned into a museum and also features its collections and exhibitions online. The buildings are often used for elaborate weddings and celebrations and the descendants of the Mawar family dynasty are still living in part of the Palace.

It’s a good thing I had such a great time in Udaipur because, on the next leg of my journey, I was about to board a train for Mumbai. I would spend a large part of that 17-hour train journey in the squat toilet. You can read all about my nasty adventure, here...

Thank you for reading. For more of my favorite travel destinations, you can check out my list of stories: