Spirit of India Day 13 Udaipur

Thursday April 21^st

Happy 25^th Birthday Danny!!

Today, we had a little more relaxed start and didn't load on the bus until 9:00 for our trip to the sights of Udaipur. This city is called the Venice of India because of the three lakes it is built around. First we visited a 450 year old Hindu Temple. It was not as ornately detailed as the one yesterday, but nevertheless, it was very impressive. Inside were a group of women chanting to the rhythms of a drummer. Sameer explained that these women come to the temple after their household chores to relax and socialize while connecting to their religion. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the temple, but there were photo ops outside, as several holy men sat around outside, including the rather intense on in the photo. You have to be careful of them and religious men inside as they will either demand money for photos, or offer to pray for you and then demand money. So, I always watch first and see what their scheme is. Today they were okay with photos.

After the temple we walked up the hill to the City Palace Museum. This is the second largest palace in India (the largest is somewhere in the south). It has been the permanent home of the royal family of the Mewar district since the 6^th century. The current Maharana is only a figurehead and he has no powers politically anymore. The palace has been added to over the centuries and houses many different rooms and courtyards with many historical paintings of battles, tiger hunts and daily life, throughout and lots of tiled and mirrored rooms. The palace has a stable for horses and another for elephants, a loading platform for elephants, an elephant tug of war arena, and another area where they pitched animal against animal, or man versus animal much as Rome did two thousand years before! The palace sits right on the shore of the man-made Pichola Lake, which was originally made to facilitate the moving of goods by boat to markets. On the lake is the Lake Palace and the Jagmandir Island Retreat, also known as the Garden Palace, which both belong to the family and on top of a distant hill is the Monsoon Palace where they retreated during monsoon season.

After that we walked to a local restaurant that Sameer recommended and I had an Indian version of a wrap, not bad. Then some of us took tuk tuks back to the hotel, (while others stayed to shop) where I spent some time in my room sorting photos and going for a swim in the pool. Yesterday I had a bit of a problem with my room, because the lock on the door didn't lock easily and had to be jimmied to close. This morning Sameer arranged for me to be 'upgraded' to a better room. Not that there was much wrong with the other one, but this room is beautiful and has a commanding view of one of the three lakes here in the city.

The weather this week has been really hot, high thirties to forty degrees! The sun is very intense but thankfully it is a dry heat. Originally I wanted to do a tour of India for a month that encompassed north and south India. However, now I'm glad I didn't because the south is hotter and more humid. This is the last of this tour for the season and all the national parks close for the monsoon season shortly and don't open again until October, so my timing was good.

We met up again in the lobby at 4:15 for a boat cruise around Pichola Lake. The ride offered a beautiful view of all the palaces and parts of the city, including some bathing ghats. Apparently the Bond movie Octopussy was shot here and uses the various palaces as locations. We landed at the Garden Palace and had a look around there for a half hour, before getting back into the boat for the return ride.

A bit of relax time, before meeting again in the lobby for our excursion to dinner. We took tuk tuks to a terrific outdoor restaurant right on the lake, with a spectacular view of both the City Palace Museum on the opposite shore and the Lake Palace. In the dark with just the lights from the buildings around the lake, it was beautiful. For once all the dirt and grime that is India was hidden. We had a lovely dinner. I shared two veggies dishes with Wendy and we all had a couple of drinks. Jennifer was celebrating her birthday tonight even though it is really the 22^nd. Then we took our tuk tuks back to the hotel and some of us had a nightcap at the terrace rooftop bar.