The Westside Story – XV – Udaipur – Day 12

We woke up to a beautiful misty morning in the cantonment and treated ourselves to some hot and tasty aloo paranthas. After that we headed out to the city palace museum which seemed as though it was the central point around which the entire city of Udaipur has been built. Testimony to this fact is that all the places to see in and around Udaipur lie within a 5 to 6 km radius of the city palace museum. Udaipur, with its narrow, steep and curving lanes is by far the most colorful place I have been to on this trip. The multitude of colors and patterns makes one feel as though one is looking at the entire city through a kaleidoscope! J Even the people here are so colorful.Guess when Rajasthan was being created (or painted) god was a little too generous with the colors!! PS: We spotted the first packet of Uncle Chipps today!! :D Paid an entry fee of Rs. 50 per head and another 50 bucks for the car park and another 200 bucks for the camera. Bit on the higher side, but that’s the way it is here. Everything is so beautiful and all of it costs to see. All the palaces are maintained by HRH group of hotels and that’s why the steep prices for entry tickets and such. For example, a 10 minute boat ride to the Jagmandir lake palace /hotel cost each one of us Rs. 300 + Rs. 25 for entry… L The Rajputs have, from time immemorial, been known for their valor and bravery and the city palace museum narrates just that with its paintings, weaponry and not to forget, the palace itself. The view from the palace windows is like looking at a picture postcard. Most of the windows face the lake which has two more palaces build on islands, with beautiful hills for background. There is another museum called the crystal palace by the lakeside which again charges Rs. 325 as entry fee!! L Wiser from our experience at hard rock café in Mumbai, we decided to give this one a pass J Had lunch at the Jagmandir palace hotel, in the middle of the lake. J Prices are on the higher side but we were really hungry to bother about that and moreover the food was finger lickin good J J One quite interesting fact about the City Palace is that it has been owned by the Mewar dynasty since it was established! This dynasty is the longest serving dynasty in the world!! We headed back to the city palace museum and from there to the monsoon palace of Sajjangarh. Situated on a hill, this is probably the highest point in Udaipur, giving one a birds eye view of the entire city. Originally proposed to contain 13 floors, this one ended up having only five floors. As we had to head back to do some shopping and catch the “Sound and Lights” show at the city palace museum, we did not spend much time here. On the way back we stopped over at the vintage car museum that houses the car collection of the current Maha Rana. Here again there is an entry fee of Rs 100 that includes the privilege to see and touch around 18-20 of the Maharana’s vintage cars, jeeps, truck, schoolbus and some horse carriages J If you are too tired doing all of this there is a cold drink to be had at the end of it J We then set off to do some shopping. We had to breeze through the shops since this being the wedding season, most of the shops down their shutters by 8:00 PM. Danish and I left for the city palace museum to catch the Sound and light show, leaving Lee and JJ behind to shop all they want J J . The Sound and Light show is the star attraction for tourists in Udaipur. The entire history of Mewar, a bloody one at that is narrated with sound bytes and lights placed strategically on the palace front. Lee and JJ joined us 10 minutes into the show with a bag full of merchandise. J The one hour long show left us with a lot more understanding of Mewar and its gritty rulers. We stopped over at a trinket shop and bought some really cool stuff! We got a good deal as it was closing time and the shopkeeper wanted to get rid of us somehow J but make some money at the same time.. J Had dinner at a nearby hotel and then headed back to the cantt to get some much needed sleep if we were to head out to Jaipur at 0500 next day J