Udaipur – Of Royalty, Palaces, Lakes, and Narrow Alleys

The final leg of our Rajasthan trip took us to Udaipur, a city famous for its Lakes. To be honest, I thought it would be just another city, but what we experienced here was out of the unexpected, in a wonderful sense. Before getting to Udaipur, I do like to mention couple of interesting sightseeing attractions en-route from Jodhpur to Udaipur; the interesting Bullet bike temple, elegant Jain temple at Ranakpur & the fort town of Kumbalgarh.

Surinder Ji mentioned about an interesting temple along the highway from Jodhpur to Udaipur – A temple where a bullet bike has been worshipped for many decades. The story goes like this: One Mr.Omi Bhana (a landlord of yester years) was killed in a road accident, while he was riding his Bullet bike. After the accident, however, the bullet bike apparently came on its own and stood at its current place.

People hence believed the bike had super natural powers and constructed a temple. Like everywhere else, this temple has created an unique ecosystem as well. Shops selling garlands, prasad, toys, street lined up with beggars playing music, there was ample scope for kindness. Money can definitely buy you happiness, at least happiness for others, I thought.

We then drove and reached the Ranakpur Jain temple at 1pm. Entry is free, but camera (and mobiles) are charged 100. Google pay doesn’t work here; there is not even cellular network available, so cash is king. We didn’t have 100 bucks, but luckily had 10 bucks which we could use to deposit our mobile safely in the locker room. Temple was truly elegant; intricate carvings, great architecture, it was a great visit, a must visit if you are in this part of the world.

Surender ji recommended us to try the Amrai Valley restaurant for lunch. The rope walkway across a small water body was a great invitation.

Not every crowded, probably it was well past lunch time, we wondered. The waiter was enthusiastic, we ordered 3 roti’s and Chana Masala. Roti’s were soft, so fresh & good; Chana masala was awesome as well, we truly enjoyed our lunch, bill was around Rs.520/-. We thanked Surinder Ji for this place, it was good ambience around here.

We reached the Kumbalgarh forest retreat resort . The entrance & reception is at one place, rooms were another 200 meters away, had to drive there. Room was really good, with balcony overlooking a river & a mountain. Trees around were filled with Langurs and birds. For the first time ever, we saw 6-7 parrots in a flock out in the open. There were other birds as well, some black colored, some interesting shades of brown. After doing the history and geographical aspects of Rajasthan, this wonderful time with nature was quite a respite.

We took hot water bath, freshened up and went for dinner. Surender brought us to “Garh Kumbha” restaurant, looked interesting with tastefully designed sit out. The restaurant was empty; a worrying sign, although the folks there mentioned this place was normally crowded during lunch time. We believed them and ordered Dal Bhati Thali, which had 2 Dal Bhatis, daal, spicy chutney, Gatte ki subzi, paapad, rice, sweet laddoos.

Dal Bhaati turned out to be the best we had so far. Gatte ki Subzi was phenomenal taste! 300 Rupees of pure delight, what an investment in such a gastronomical experience. Our daughter enjoyed two bowls of hot n sour soup. The service was so nice & kind. After the amazing dinner, we also had ice cream at Baskin Robbins, tried two flavors Bubble gum and guava pink, loved it. We got dropped back to our hotel by 8pm, had a good night’s rest.

Breakfast at this resort was fantastic experience. Great views of Lake Tachela running around the Aravali mountain range. Poori Chana masala, upma and vermiceli were all tasty. Surender picked us up at 9:45am and took us to local museum, Rs.130 for adults, 50 for kids, it was quite informative; coins of yester ages, India & abroad, notes, weapons, etc. It was a good 45 mins visit, I would say its a must visit for history lovers. Finally reached the Kumbalgarh fort by 11am. Ticket Rs.40 per adult, kids free.

Good uphill walk with good views around, but generally not maintained well. Reached the top and came back within 1 hour.

Coming after the Mehrangarh fort visit, this didn’t look so good. It was 12:15 already, so we asked Surender to drive to Udaipur for lunch. He drove along with his usual story telling; this time it was about Maharana Pratap. He was 7ft tall, Bappa rawal was apparently 18ft tall, his sword alone weighed 600kgs. He also narrated story about how the local drivers get into fight & Rajputs always bring caste into these fights. Bhram bhatt being the one from the family of Bappa Rawal’s wife and always guided the Rajputs, so they were quite high in the hierarchy. He finally brought us to a local favorite restaurant – “Chappan Bhog”.

Initially the service was really bad, nobody tended to us. Later, once the Thali “show” started, the dishes came swiftly. We went for Rs.320 thali and it was very good. Surender dropped us at the entrance to Old city by 4pm. He helped to book one auto for us for Rs.150. The cars could not go into the old city where our hotel was located. The rock and roll ride was interesting. The auto driver was kind enough to go check at our Hotel Udaigarh and get the hotel staff for luggage pickup. As we walked along the narrow lane with atleast 3-4 street dogs, we wondered if we made the right choice to go for this hotel.

Once we entered the hotel though, it felt very nice. Mr.Veerendra singh talked very nice and brought us to our oom. He gave us a map to get around and list of information. Room was brilliant, loved the tastefully designed interiors, looked quite antique.

It was good that we would end our Rajasthan trip with this great stay. We took bath and went to reception to check on the Bagore ki Haveli for the puppet show. We reached the Haveli by 5pm, there was already a small queue. Rs.100 per adult, Rs.50 for kid. After the ticket, we walked around the Ghat nearby, it was good feeling. We decided to go for some cafe on roof top and we found this lovely Cafe Boho nearby. Phenomenal view, and we ordered lime drink, cold coffee and mocktail. We got treated with a brilliant sunset view actually.

What a great evening! Totally costed Rs.570 and then we went for the puppet show. The haveli was already crowded, although still 30 mins to go for the show, luckily, we found a decent place to sit. Show started promptly at 7pm. What followed was a brilliant show, showcasing Rajasthani folk dance, bit of puppetry, all in all a must-do activity in Udaipur. We then walked around, checked out souvenir shop opposite to Jagdeesh temple. Shwetha bought some trinkets, and we asked the shopkeeper about the temple, it turned out he was the priest there. He told us first go and have darshan, come back and I will tell you the story. There was passion in his words. We climbed the steep stairs and went inside the temple.

I truly felt some divine power inside the temple. For the first time in my life, the deity idol was making me keep looking at it, some sort of strong attraction. The temple was built on granite and nice architecture. Now, I was quite curious about the history of this powerful temple. The priest narrated: King Jagat singh was an ardent devotee of Jagdish of Puri & frequently visited Puri. Once he got blocked and could not attend the 15-day ritual and then wanted to build a temple in Udaipur. God came in his dream and told idol can be found at this particular hill, they dug up and actually found the massive idol. Idol at Puri was only till waist, so he wasn’t sure if it was same god. During pratistapan, the bangles will come, the god said. It happened. Built around 1615, took 25 years and 15 Lakhs of Rupees. Thanked the priest for his delightful storytelling and returned to hotel. Freshened up and went for roof top dinner at the hotel.

What a magnificent atmosphere. Great songs played in the backdrop, fantastic views of Lake Pichola and monuments, massive Indian flag fluttering at a monument, the whole feeling was truly out of this world, easily one of the best nights of our lives.

I am a very emotional soul, and at one point I felt like I would cry, just out of the sheer content and gratitude for this unbelievable evening. The food was awesome too; we loved the Laal Maas (Lamb curry) with Jeera rice and roti’s, the bill came to around Rs.1817.

On Day 7 of our trip, we woke up by 7am and went to roof top for breakfast, the view was still brilliant. Not a buffet breakfast, but good options available to chose from. We ordered Masala omelette, Paratha and pancake, everything was good. We started by 9:30am from the hotel and just 5 mins walk along the alley brought us to ticket counter of City palace Museum. Royal indeed, and pricey Rs.300. Palace was good, though we still liked Jodhpur Mehrangarh even better. Lot of kings and their stories from the house of Mewar. The current king still resides somewhere in Udaipur. Maharana Pratap section was very nice, his paintings, armours, etc. Other kings like Fateh Singh, Bhupal Singh, Swaroop Singh had different Mahals too. There was also one section on the women of the house, their decor, hygiene, etc. Lot of sections on music, art, photography, paintings, towards the end we did feel a bit bored. I still think 300 is expensive.

Next we went for the boat ride, need to take a passage walk and they charge Rs.30 to walk on this “private” street, crazy! After 10 mins walk, we reached the boat pier, boarded the boat to Jagmandir after some waiting. The boat ride was very nice and serene.

Passing up the Ganghour ghat, we also spotted our Hotel Udaigarh, other lake hotels and then the Taj, overlooking the Leela. Jagmandir area was very elegant, picturesque, lot of places for photo shoot.

We spent around 30 mins around this “island” and then took the boat back, called up the driver who asked us to walk until the temple area. We went for lunch at one “Padmini Palace”. Dal Bhaati yet again, you can never go wrong with this here, it seems. Veg noodles was also good. Bill came to Rs.607. We skipped the vintage car museum and went to Fateh Sagar Lake.

This place looked stunning, so beautiful. A must-visit when you are around Udaipur. Paintings on important Rajasthani monuments inscribed on the right side of the wall were nice. We took the speed boat ride, Rs.236 per ticket, it was a thrilling ride. We also took the horse ride for Rs.200, apparently the horse had cold, it was sneezing. We returned back from this place & stopped at popular lemon tea stall. The driver stopped us at one local painting shop, great paintings on silk, miniature paintings and Pichauli. We bought some good paintings.

He also brought us to the locally popular Karni Matha temple, seeing the crazy queue we skipped and asked him to take us to shopping area. From the place he dropped, it was mere 15 mins walk to the hotel, freshened up, started back at 5pm. We went to the sunset view at a roof top café, it was awesome. We then walked looking for Haathipol market. First stop was a leather shop, where we bought a good diary for myself costing Rs.350. Lot of shopping at Haathi pol market, flowery shirts, jackets, etc. Great masala chai near Jagdish mandir. Aishani had maggi. Nice little political discussions with the Chai vendor. We went back to the room and went to dinner (same roof top place again!). Decent cauliflower corn sabzi with Tandoori roti, soup was around Rs.557. Overall a good day, the final evening of Udaipur went very well, we took in as much lake views our eyes could take.

We woke up on the final day of this journey, and I decided to check the Ganghour ghat one last time for this trip.

It was a nice walk, bit cold. Lots of people already at the ghaat, very picturesque, clicked few pics. But lot of pigeons, and lots of photoshoots.

I walked back to the room after 10 mins. We freshened up, went upstairs for the breakfast and checked out. We kept the bag in the hotel, and went out for walk around the market. We booked one auto from the hotel to the place where taxi could pick us up. Surender Ji dropped us back to the Udaipur airport, we checked in and took our flight back to Bengaluru. And this concluded our fantastic trip to Rajasthan.