Udaipur, City on the Lake

Udaipur was a very pleasant surprise. It is a quaint and romantic little city surrounding a lake, a nice change from the desert. The room at our guesthouse has a beautiful view of the lake and the palace, instead of spending 2 nights here (as originally planned) we’ve decided to stay for 5.

On our first night here we ate dinner at the Marwar hotel which has a beautiful deck overlooking the lake with cushions and pillows to relax on while eating dinner. We’ve since been back 3 times for various meals and met some friends there as well. Bunty who works at the Marwar and is a native of Udaipur, invited us to his village 5km away for a festival tonight honoring his sister’s new baby. In India there is a festival every day it seems!

Udaipur is absolutely beautiful to walk around, so many things to see, elephants walking about, people washing their clothes and bathing in the ghats (where all of the sewage goes as well)... We explored the City Palace which offers amazing views of Lake Pichola and the Aravalli hills. We headed to the Monsoon Palace for sunset which sits on a hill overlooking all of Udaipur. On the way back to Udaipur, our rickshaw driver really wanted to show us his art school on the way back and we reluctantly agreed. We should have known it was going to be a hussle to buy artwork. After about 30 minutes and our refusal to buy, we headed back into the city. At night was a festival which included a special dancing with sticks, hundreds of people all hitting their sticks in unison to music.

Today we will explore a bit more of Udaipur, possibly rent a boat at sunset and then meet our friend Bunty to go to the festival this evening. More to come!