Udaipur: The Lake City (Well, Sort of)

After two nights in Delhi, we hopped a flight to Udaipur. We had heard that Jet Airways provided excellent service, but in these days of cutbacks in American aviation, the difference with this company was stark. We chose the veg option, a delightful dish of lentils served with a few pieces of naan. Not only did we get a bottle of water during the flight, they also brought us one before we took off, first class style. This wasn’t a big plane, just a turbo-prop, so the seats weren’t anything special. But the service was impeccable. I highly recommend the airline to anybody coming to India.

Udaipur is a big city, but nearly every city is a hamlet compared to Delhi. That being said, it is still a very buistling city. And it's not that there aren't lakes, there are two in the middle of the city. It's just that they are very, very low. So much so that they now appear to be more aptly described as swamps. The "islands" can be pretty much reached by land. The streets are tiny, and cows are everywhere in the streets. Walking the few blocks from our hotel, a small guest house near the Lake where James Bond did some boat chases in Octupussy, to the famed City Palace was a supreme task. Dealing with the touts along with looking out for your life as you dodge motorcycles, scooters, and motorcycles on a street barely wider than a single car can be quite tiring.

And thus it was that we walked to just the City Palace and then decided to take a drive up to the hills surrounding Udiapur to see the Monsoon Palace. (View from the Monsoon palace is pictured above.) It was about a twenty-five minute drives on a road with switchback after switchback. The palace itself is nothing amazing, it was never really completed, but the idea was quite grand. The goal was to build a weather observatory 13 stories tall to look out for monsoons, thus the name. There is a little café up there serving light snacks and drinks, but the key to this place is the view. It was simply stunning. We could see for miles down the valley, into the city and the surrounding area.

The next day we saw a few more sights of Udiapur, including fountains that were wasting untold amounts of water during a precipitous drought. It isn’t that I’m against fountains, I would just like to keep the waste to a minimum. And in this case, a few minor changes in the layout would have saved 70% of the waste.

Besides that, our second day was to include aryuvedic massages at the hotel’s spa. Spa is perhaps putting it generously, but the treatment rooms were just as nice as ones you would find across the states. But aryvedic massage is like nothing I have experienced before. I told him that my neck, shoulders and back could use some work, and he indicated understanding. Next thing I know, he’s getting a bunch of spiced oil and rubbing it in my hair. And rubbing, and rubbing. I was getting quite nervous there, I need all of it! Eventually he did get around to my back, but not until about 15 minutes of the 45 minute massage was spent making sure that all of my hairs were thoroughly coated in the aruyvedic oils. When I walked back into the room, Brian took one look (and smell) of me and said, I am not going to get one of those. He then spent the next hour trying to avoid the massage guy, before eventually blaming a language gap for the problem.

After another few tasty meals at our hotel, we packed up to make the drive from Udaipur to see the fort at Kumbelgarth and the Jain temples in Ranakpur.