Thursday 7th November 2013 Udaipur

Today was fabulous, I enjoyed it all 🙂

We caught the hotel boat over to the mainland around 9am and met with our guide Girish, we had a good time with him, he was a great guide.

Udaipur (pronounced Oodypoor) is described as one of the most romantic cities in India, the Venice of the East! It is built around hills and lakes, there is a city palace, lake palace and monsoon palace.

Today we learnt that the Raj is the king, Maharaja is a great King and Maharana is a great warrior

The palaces were built by Maharana Jagat Singh II in 1746 and are still owned by his family. His descendants still live in part of the city palace, the rest has been turned into a hotel and museum.

Next we had a look at the Crystal gallery Museum, it is the biggest collection of crystal under one roof. The Crystal all came from the UK, once the British left India, a few Crystal factories closed down in the UK as the Indians stopped buying it.

Afterwards we had a drink and some interesting discussions with Girish about arranged marriages – around 85%. The more educated girls tend to have a say, but otherwise they do not. We talked about the effect the internet and television is having on the culture and also about rubbish collection, which is very hit and miss to say the least!

Then we had a walk through Pichola which is over 500 years old, we love walking through the streets of India, especially when they are so old, they have so much character and it is a photographer’s paradise.

Then we headed to the Sahelion-ki Bari Gardens built in 1721, the area used to be a jungle now they are beautiful gardens with 5 fountains. A family of tourists to the area asked us to be in their family photos. Girish explained that they would have been from the country and would not see many westerners. They would go back and show the other villagers our picture. 🙂

While I am typing this there is a big catfish about 2+ foot jumping out the water just a few metres from our window. This morning Greg saw it get the leg of a dove, of which there are thousands, but the dove got away eventually! 🙂

We had a lovely lunch with our guide at 1559, it was a third of the price that we are paying in the hotel.

Then it was off for a boat ride near our hotel on Lake Pichola over to Jag Mandir which was built by the Maharana as a pleasure palace – today it is used as a restaurant and many people use it as a place to get married.

Before our boat ride, we were sitting waiting for our guide to get tickets, when a beautiful elderly lady came and sat next me and said she would like her photo taken with me, well she didn’t use any words, but I understood!  So numerous generations of her family were stood before us with their cameras taking photos, we linked arms and had many photos taken, it was a beautiful moment. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and she reciprocated. I will remember it always. It doesn’t matter how many buildings or views that I see on my travels it is always the iteractions with the locals that I remember the most.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Girish, and back on a boat to our hotel.

We are off to dinner tonight to the rooftop restaurant.  Then flying via Mumbai to Kochi way too early in the morning!!

Udaipur is 50sq km and has half a million people, so smaller than other places we have visited.

Its main industries are tourism, marble and zinc.

In May/June they pick a fruit called mahoowa and make moonshine with it – adding battery acid and other such things – so not so good for you!!

This is an indication of how holy the cow is considered – feeding one cow gives you as much kama as feeding 100 people!

We also learnt that where we are headed to next, Kerala, the ruling party are the Communists. They were the first party elected democratically in Kerala.

The women here in Udaipur, seem more liberated, many are driving motor bikes and many are wearing western clothes – but they are in the minority.

I mentioned that we had not seen alot of poverty, and our guide said that in the last 7 years there has been alot more work in the coutry and he had noticed that not as many people go barefoot as they used to.

I am interested to see how we find Mumbai/Bombay!

Happy 55th Wedding Anniversary Mum & Dad, wow, that is a long time hey!! 🙂 We will be having a cheers to you tomorrow night, enjoy your celebrations and hope you have fun in Melbourne. Love you xo

And thanks so much to everyone for your messages, we love receiving them xo

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