Day 3 –Udaipur (Venice of East)
Udaipur is claimed to be India’s most romantic city. You’ll agree to this if not completely then to some extent for sure. If one could afford living in hotel ‘Fateh Prakash Palace’ on the banks of Lake Pichola, where the tariff starts from 20,000 bucks or to hotel Udaivilas where tariff range is 35,000 to 2,50,000 bucks then indeed it is best and most romantic place, no wonder why it is the foremost choice for several high profile marriages.
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| Lake Palace |
Even for a mango man (Aam Aadmi) Udaipur is not displeasing. The entire city has a maximum radius of 10-15 kms, not expensive and less crowded too. See the different perspective of the city.
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| Lush green all around |
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| Breathtaking Views |
Shared Auto as well as reserved one can be hired for local transportation. In Udaipur you will come across many pole, like Udiyapole, Hathipole, Surajpole and many others. They were once the gate or entry point to a particular area where on arrival guest used to wait for their host.
I reached Udaipur by 8 PM and there is a hotel wali gali at Udiyapur very close to bus stand. I got an AC room for 500 bucks on a Pandit ji Dharamshala, which was more like a hotel with fairly good dining option too. Since on last two days in Mount Abu I was on vegetarian diet so now there was no question of facing any Rajasthani or Gujrati thali again. But here comes the problem, you will hardly find any non-vegetarian food joint here. After enquired a lot I learned about a place called Rehmania in some subzi-mandi area. Finally I took the auto to went there, asked him to wait, had my chicken bhuna masala with roomali roti, and came back with a sigh of relief. Although food was nothing in comparison to saadi Delhi but still like a source of water in absolute horrific desert.
I asked the autowala for an entire day trip and we settled on 400 Rs for a tour of 16 points.
Next day Auto was there at my hotel by 9. It was drizzling and just perfect to roam around. First we started from ‘Karni Devi Temple’ where a ropeway is installed that will take you to the highest point. To and fro journey will cost 60 Rs. It is a perfect place to grab some pictures.
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| City of lakes, hill and palaces |
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| Distant view of Lake palace |
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| Rope way to Karni Devi temple |
Next point was lake Pichola and city place but by that time it started raining heavily and to my bad luck boat ride was not available due to heavy rain. After waiting for more than 30 minutes I decide to move on.
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| Lake Pichola |
Next destination was ‘Gulab bagh’ which is a small zoo in Udaipur. It was still drizzling but somehow manageable.
The high point was the name of the panther. It was time for his lunch and the zoo caretaker called him, monu come in and have your lunch. What an innocent name for him! Probably the tiger and leopard have known as sonu and tonu respectively.
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| Monu |
After Gulab bagh it was sukhadia square en-route, and we stopped at Bhartiya Lok Kala Museum near Chetak Circle. There was a remarkable one hour puppetry show followed by equally beautiful dance performance.
They also have vast collection of Rajasthani Folk Art in the museum.
Next stop was Saheliyon Ki Bari. Many Bollywood song sequences in 80s and 90s (like lamhe) have been shot at Sahelion ki Bari.
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| Saheliyon Ki Bari |
It was already 4.30 and the ticket counter in most famous City Palace Complex is used to close by 5 so we rushed to it. Museum ticket is 60 Rs and still camera charges are 200 Rs.
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| City Palace |
This museum is also known as Pratap Museum. It has a remarkable collection of ancient sculptures, exotic paintings, antiques and inscriptions of the golden Rajputana era.
City Palace Museum acquires a major part of the City Palace Complex and it is divided into several pavilions and halls. Every pavilion has a distinct theme of its own. I don’t remember the names but to visit entire premise a complete day is required.
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| Lavish parties are thrown here usually |
That was end of the day 3, next day I visited Fateh Sagar Lake and Nehru Garden.
Continued in Part 4…