Des and Kathy's Travels: Udaipur - Lakes & Palaces and Octopussy

Heading further south and with the day time weather becoming noticieably warmer we came to Udaipur. Udaipur sits on two adjoining lakes, Pichola & Fateh Sagar, with a bridged canal between the two and is pretty much surrounded on all sides by hills. Its a little like the Lake District in England only without the low flying aircraft. The southern lake, Pichola, has two island palaces, Jag Niwas & Jag Mandir, now hotels, that sit majestically on the water. You may remember Maud Adams looking particularly alluring in the James Bond film Octopussy and those scenes were filmed here at Jag Niwas.

When we got to the centre of town I have to say that it didn't look too promising and those images of Maud, delightful as they are, were far from my mind. The road to our hotel was blocked by, shall we say, an inconsiderately parked car. As a consequence we had to go around some small lanes, dodging bikes and rickshaws and come at it from the other side, on foot for the last 30 or 40 metres. On entry the place didn't look very appealing either, with just a very functional reception desk. Anyhow, we went through the mindless registration administration required for foreign nationals and went up to our room, using one of those elderly lifts with a manual 'pull across' articulated metal door. Our room, however, was totally fine with all mod cons; a ceiling fan, a fridge, a TV and a decent bathroom with hot water (albeit only between 7 & 9 in the morning and 5 and 7 in the evening). It was only when we went up stairs to check out the restaurant did we realise the big plus point of this rather unassuming little hotel: the view. The position of the hotel was at the northern end of Lake Pichola and from the rooftop restaurant the view of the City Palace on the shore, the lake with the two palaces and the hills beyond was quite magical. Once night fell and the palaces were lit up by thousands of bulbs and their outline reflected in the shimmering waters of the lake it was simply 'fairytale beautiful' and the trip was worth it if just for that view.

Whatever anyone says, the easiest way to see Udaipur is on foot. The roads around the principle places of interest are narrow, heavily congested and its easier to duck through on foot. I have learned that sticking my hand out with purpose, palm outwards, at the onrushing lunatics on bikes and in rickshaws seems to have some effect and they generally slow, stop or give way. If it doesn't look like they are going to then I add a shouted 'Wait!' or 'Be patient!' and this seems to generally do the trick and it saw us safely around here. I don't recommend sole reliance on this method and I always had somewhere for us to jump if we encountered a driver with either no brains or who just didn't give a shit. The undeniable truth that over 130,000 people die on India's roads each year was never far from my mind and it kept us on our toes. I still find it strange and saddening that in any other country a statistic like that would be viewed as a national disgrace, whilst here it is accepted with a casual shrug followed by an almost partisan 'That's India'. Shockingly even the newspapers report these regular deaths as 'mishaps', when of course they are in the main entirely avoidable.

Anyway, its seems that one can only get to the island palaces if one is resident and if one has a reservation. We weren't and didn't so we contented ourselves with views from the shore, though we did cross the canal and got a pretty close look from the other side. Again I am afraid our photos are not as impressive as the real thing but we were impressed and determined to have a couple of drinks at an expensive place on the shore and watch the sun go down over the lake, which we did. For the enthusiasts boat trips on the lake are available for about R400/- for an hour, departing from the City Palace.

We might not have been able to get to the lake palaces but the City Palace on the eastern shore is totally geared up for paying visitors. Again there is an audio guide available for R200/- (£3/ €3.5 / $4.5) which was very informative, so I'd recommend taking one. Built in the 16th Century with many later additions and covering over 5 acres (2HA) you can happily potter around here for a morning. Some of the rooms are fabulous and the inner courtyard which is on an upper floor but that has mature trees is cool and wonderfully peaceful. The views across the lake and the city are equally impressive. Note though that the palace is very popular and we found ourselves halting to let through bus loads of indian tourists all frantic to get through this tour as quickly as possible so that they could get on to the next one to do the same there. This was a feature we had first noticed in Mysore with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the local population virtually running through the building without stopping to take in anything of the scent of the building or its history, which I think is rather a shame. Anyhow, it was the same story here, so I'd suggest avoiding weekends and go in the afternoon rather than the morning. Also take water as the onsite coffee shop is outrageously expensive, even by English standards. Alternatively you could take out a mortgage and go for a coffee at one of the two luxury hotels that now occupy the Shiv Niwas and Fateh Prakash palaces in the complex.

There are plenty of inexpensive places to eat and drink within walking distance of the city palace but be warned that most have only open air rooftop restaurants, so that diners can get a glimpse of the lake . Whilst this might be lovely on a balmy spring evening ,at this time of year the temperature is 25C during the day but a chilly 4-5C at night, so if you intend visiting at this time of year I suggest you take a jumper.

We took a long walk down the east coast of Lake Pichola, as far as the courtesy boats to the posh lake palace hotels, where a kindly doorman from one of the hotels let us out onto his jetty to get some better views of the lake and to take photographs. This welcome concession was viewed less kindly by one of his colleagues who was trying to oils the timber of the jetty at the time.

Our next stop was Ahmedabad. We were to do this leg by train and so we bade our farewells to our driver, Haroon. He was missing his children so we let him go early. Once he had gone, and on closer examination of the ticket, we saw that the train would take 12 hours and 26 stops to do the 250km from Udaipur to Ahmedabad.This equates to an average speed of 21 kilometres per hour, about as fast as a bicycle. Despite our reservations and my earlier posts on driving standards, we decided to ditch the train and spend R250/- to go by bus, which would take only 5 hours.

Tune in for the next instalment as we have decided to dedicate a discrete blog to this interesting journey.