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So, the camel safari. One of the most recommended excursions for any trip to Jaisalmer. It was one of the few trips we didn’t arrange in advance, so we decided to ask our hotel if they offered a safari. The owner said that they did, and he quoted us 1700 Rs each (a lot!!) for a “non-touristic, music and dance safari”. It was a lot more than we were expecting, especially since our guidebook said it should only be around 1000 Rs. We negotiated down to 1500 Rs (ok, we aren’t the best negotiators), and the deal was done.

However, we weren’t entirely sure what we had signed up for. All we knew was that we were leaving at around 3pm, and that at some point we would ride a camel, and watch the sun set over the dunes.

A couple from Australia had also signed up for the safari that day, so we all got into the back of a small jeep and the driver took off. It was very dusty and thankfully we stopped after about 30 minutes to look at some cenotaphs. We didn’t expect to see a wind farm in the middle of the desert!

The site was pretty much deserted, except for a goat herder…

…and a few children begging. After we got the beggars to leave us alone, we enjoyed a few minutes of peacefulness while taking pictures of the monuments.

There didn’t seem to be any efforts made to preserve the site (as was the case with most, if not all, of the historical sites in India). Some of the structures were falling apart, or had been vandalized.

When we finished, we all got back in the jeep and drove for another 30 minutes or so to the next historical site, an abandoned desert village.

It wasn’t terribly exciting and we were glad to get back in the jeep. Little did we know we had another 45 min on the dusty roads before we would reach our destination. The “non-tourist” safari that we were on did not go to the famous Sam Sand Dunes. Instead we were to visit some less impressive, but ostensibly less crowded dunes. Hence, the “non-tourist” part of the safari.

When we finally reached the tent camp where the safari started, the scrub along the sides of the road was still thick and there was plenty of grass around.

Tent complex in the "dunes"

We were led to some chairs in a large concrete area, and we waited for what seemed like forever (but it was only 20 minutes or so). As soon as our camels arrived, we went to pick out our steeds. I think we both tried to pick the least cantankerous one – but it was hard, because all the camels were pretty cranky. Getting up on the camels was an adventure in itself – you really have to hold on tight. There weren’t any stirrups on our saddles, so riding the camels was pretty uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure it’s always uncomfortable, though.

Shana's camel from behind

The camels were completely covered with fleas. Ugh. It was really gross, but the 7 and 8-yr old kids who were leading our camels were friendly and distracting. Rob’s camel was not cooperative, so one of the handlers tied the nose of his camel to the butt of Shana’s camel. We didn’t think too much about it until some funny rumbling noises came out of Shana’s camel – from the wrong end. Luckily it was just air, but it happened a lot (and kept us laughing)!

The little kids led us on along a path for what seemed like an eternity, as we watched the sun getting lower and lower. We were supposed to watch the sunset from the dunes, so we wondered where we were going. Finally we all realized that the kids were leading us to a small village in the distance. We convinced the kids to skip the village and take us to the dunes right away so we could see the sunset.

The dunes were beautiful, though small, and we did make it there in time to rest a little and enjoy a nice sunset.

The kids and our camels

Our camels, resting

After the sun set, we headed back to the tent camp on our camels. In the center of the camp, there were a few dozen chairs set up in a semi-circle on the concrete floor. There were also a few flood lamps, which unfortunately attracted a small army of flying, biting insects. Some musicians and dancers came out and started to perform for us.

 They were ok. At this point we were quite hungry, but it would be another hour before the food was brought out. In the meantime we swatted at bugs and tried to enjoy the show. When the food was finally ready, a long buffet was set up with lots of different dishes. Our hotel owner, who had arranged the safari, had said something earlier about cooking the food before we left and then reheating it in the evening. Shana was nervous about that, so she stuck to the Cliff Bars she had brought (and some chapati). Rob tried everything (and survived – he didn’t get sick at all).

The trip home seemed especially long, because it was so dark and dusty. We passed several military trucks and a few motorbikes, but luckily there was very little traffic. It had been a long day, and we were relieved when we finally arrived back at the hotel at around 10pm or so. We wished we had skipped the camel safari, although at least now we can say we did it! After that, we were ready to leave Jaisalmer and head back to Jodhpur – our last stop before leaving the state of Rajasthan.

Next: our trip to Jodhpur, and then on to Agra (via Delhi)!

Jaisalmer Fort, just outside the entrance

The Jaisalmer Fort is one of the largest in India, with a yellow sandstone exterior that helps to camouflage the fort in the evening when the sun sets. It is the only living fort in India, and at least 2,000 people live and work there. Sadly, the fort walls are crumbling and it is suspected that the poorly built sewage system, overloaded by tourists and residents, is to blame. The fort in Jaisalmer still has some strategic importance for India since it so close to the border with Pakistan, and on our drive to Jaisalmer we saw many military trucks and caravans.

We decided to take the audio tour of the fort, which is supposed to be one of the best in India – and it was indeed very good. When we first walked into the fort, we found ourselves in a small city, not sure where to go next.

Inside Jaisalmer Fort, standing in front of the museum without realizing it!

After a few minutes of walking around, and noting the usual chai stands, street vendors, hotel signs, and stray cows and dogs, we figured out that we were supposed to start our tour in the Jaisalmer Fort Museum.

Closer look at the Jaisalmer Fort Museum

There weren’t many other tourists there, but there was a large group of Indian schoolchildren on a field trip. We let them pass us by so that we could take our time in each area of the museum.

Inner chamber in the lower part of the fort

The exhibits were fairly austere, and we mostly enjoyed just looking at the architecture of the old fort.

Gallery of Jaisalmer's rulers

Closer look at the portraits of the past rulers

Exhibit featuring several Hindu deities

Deity and painting. The room was very dim so it's hard to see, but the clothes on this figure sparkled with gold flecks

As we started to climb the stairs upwards, there were many excellent views of the hustle and bustle in the streets of the fort below us.

View from the Museum, looking down at a busy plaza inside the fort

Looking through one of the windows in the fort museum at the city below

There were even better views of the fort walls, and the city outisde the fort.

Rooftops of other buildings inside Jaisalmer fort

As we climbed higher and higher to the top of the fort museum, the views got even better, and soon we could see almost the entire side of the fort walls.

When we were finished at the museum, we spent a few hours wandering around the streets of the fort. We visited some Jain temples, where we were required to take off our shoes and leave them outside. We paid a shoe attendant a few rupees to keep an eye on them while we looked around inside the temple. Most of the people there were Jain worshipers or Indian tourists, and we didn’t see many westerners.

Inside one of the seven Jain temples in Jaisalmer Fort

Temple ceiling

Carvings on a temple wall

Workers restoring columns inside one of the temples

After we finished sightseeing in the fort, we went down to the city below to have lunch at Saffron restaurant (where we had dinner the night before). It was not very busy at lunchtime, and we made the mistake of ordering a tandoori non-veg platter, which was pretty gross. The paneer was ok, but the vegetable kofta and the meat pieces looked so unappetizing that we decided not to touch them. It was to be one of the last (if not the very last) time that we ordered meat in India. We ordered a pot of veg curry and some naan to tide us over, which was good as always.

When we finished lunch, we set out to find Patwa-ki-Haveli, an old haveli (a private mansion) that was mentioned in our guidebook. We had a bit of trouble finding it down a windy side street, but an Austrian tour group pointed us in the right direction. When we got to the haveli, it turned out that there were actually two havelis: a government-run one, and a private one with the same name. The touts outside the private haveli were really annoying, and we thought that the government one must be the right one so we bought a ticket and went inside.

The government run Patwa-ki-haveli

The inside was dark, dank, and empty, except for the dozens (or hundreds?) of bats that hung from the ceilings.

Inside the government haveli

Even more bats! Rob didn't like the bats, and I thought they smelled terrible.

Every room was the same… empty except for the bats. We were pretty unimpressed, and we decided to go across the street and pay another 150 Rs each to check out the privately run haveli.

Gazing up at the floors in the private haveli from the inner courtyard

Mirrored room in the center of the haveli, where we started our tour

Needless to say, the private haveli was much nicer, and much more interesting. Every room was decorated and had interesting objects or art inside.

Room/exhibit in the private haveli

Dining/tea room

Kitchen with old cooking pots

There was even an excellent view of the street below.

Looking out at the street in front of the haveli

When we finished looking at the havelis, we decided to go back to our hotel to rest before our camel safari. We walked down a few of the worst-smelling streets we had encountered to date, with open sewers on both sides of the road. The sewers, the piles of trash, and the numerous cow patties were hard to take. When we finally reached the main plaza, we were only too happy to jump in the hotel’s rickshaw and head out of town.

About halfway through our trip, we stopped at the Manvar Desert Resort for lunch, which was recommended by our guidebooks. When we first walked into the outer courtyard/dining area, we noticed a strong manure odor and then saw two women shaping patties out of an enormous pile of cow dung. We decided to eat in the inner dining room, which was very nice and smelled a lot better!

Manvar Desert Resort courtyard

The inner dining room

Rob ordered curry and rice, which was pretty good. Shana ordered chicken pakoras, which were excellent – like Chicken McNuggets with a spicy batter. She also tried to order eggs with no milk or butter, but they came filled with thick cheese! It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to avoid dairy in India. Dairy products are used in virtually every dish. Also, it doesn’t seem like there are any lactose intolerant Indians at all, so it’s hard to explain. Luckily the main cooking oil is ghee (clarified butter), which usually doesn’t contain any lactose. India is definitely a difficult place for vegans.

Anyway, our lunch was good enough and we were soon back on the road. Along the drive we stopped to take pictures of a herd of camels on the side of the road. We saw a lot of camels on our road trip, although this was the largest group we saw accompanied by a camel-herder.

Camels on the side of the road

After another few hours of driving, we arrived in Jaisalmer. We went straight to the hotel (Jasmin Haveli), and then realized that we had nothing to do for the next few hours before dinner. Our hotel was pretty far away from the main part of town, and we thought we were stranded until we found out that the hotel has a rickshaw on call. The hotel’s location wasn’t ideal, but our room was well-decorated and spacious.

Our room at Jasmin Haveli

The hotel outside our room

Cow walking down the street in front of our hotel

For dinner, we decided to take a trip into town to eat at Saffron restaurant (at Nachana Haveli). The town had a fair amount of traffic, but it was relatively calm in the market area compared to the other cities we had visited. There were a lot of cows, though.

Cows sitting together in the middle of the street

We were too early for dinner, so we had a beer at the Mandir Palace next door. We had the rooftop to ourselves, and we enjoyed excellent views of the Jaisalmer Fort. The Jaisalmer Fort is the only “living” fort in India, and approximately 2000 people live and work there. It’s also one of the largest forts in the world.

At Mandir Haveli

We spent a while on the roof at Mandir Haveli, taking pictures of the rooftops and buildings nearby.

View from the rooftop at Mandir Haveli

Close up of the cupola at Mandir Haveli

Another view of the fort, and some rooftops

When it started to get dark, we headed to Saffron, which turned out to be on a rooftop too (rooftop restaurants are quite popular in India). The candlelit tables were very romantic, but it was pretty difficult to see in the dark. We decided to just order two vegetarian thali dinners so we could try a few different dishes.

Thali at Saffron restaurant, Jaisalmer

The food was ok, but it didn’t live up to the hype in the guidebook. Still, the atmosphere was nice and we had a good view of the fort. After dinner, we went back to our hotel and tried to get a good night’s sleep since we had a full day of sightseeing ahead.

The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel’s rooftop restaurant, which also had great views of the fort (if you’re on a rooftop in Jaisalmer, you probably have a great view of the fort).

Rooftop restaurant at Hotel Fifu/Jasmin Haveli

View of the fort from our table

We took the hotel’s rickshaw into town, and then up, up, up a narrow winding street through the markets… almost all the way to the fort’s gate.

We didn’t stop to take too many pictures on the walk into the fort, because we were accosted by several beggars (and it was very hot).

Coming next: our visit to Jaisalmer Fort!

Clock Tower at Sadar Market

We wandered around the markets for a while, and then stopped for a special saffron lassi (yogurt drink) at the lassi shop called Shri Mishrilal in the clock tower. It was an interesting place: the tiny little shop was lined with seating and some tables, and a waiter walked around with several lassis for anyone who wanted one. There was no menu, just one kind of lassi. The shop was extremely popular so Rob decided to try one. It was topped with whipped cream, which made him a little nervous, but we decided that the place had such high turnover that it was probably ok (and it was recommended quite highly by our guidebooks).

After that we walked up and down the nearby streets, popping into stores to look at the wares and trying to avoid the hawkers that lined the sidewalks. At some point we found our driver, who followed us into a store or two. We asked him to go away because drivers get a commission for bringing tourists into shops, and we would get charged 30-40% more on anything we bought. We knew this already from reading the guidebooks, but a few shop owners took it upon themselves to let us know that this was indeed the case.

The markets were a little disappointing because the quality of the goods (even the spices and tea) didn’t seem very high, so we didn’t buy anything. We decided to go back to our hotel for a tea break before heading out again to see the Umaid Bhawan Palace.

Tea break by the pool at our hotel

Another view of the pool

We felt a little funny about sitting by the side of the pool on our India vacation – it seemed like a terrible touristy thing to do – but we enjoyed the break from the chaos of the markets and the hot sun. When we had recovered a little, we headed to the Umaid Bhawan Palace to see a small museum on the palace grounds before dinner. The museum was only a few rooms, and it was pretty lame as far as museums in India go.

Umaid Bhawan Palace

Umaid Bhawan Palace is a 347-room palace that was completed in 1943, and which has served as the principal residence of the Jodhpur royal family. As of 2005, it was acquired by the Taj hotel chain and it is now a very, very expensive luxury hotel (rooms start at around $1000/night). Non-guests are not allowed in the hotel unless they have a dinner reservation – which we did. Although it was a bit early for dinner, we convinced our driver to drop us off at the palace hotel so we could look around and relax a little. He didn’t think they would let us in early, but they did!

View of the palace from the gardens outside

The palace was amazingly luxurious on the inside, and the air conditioning felt great. We wandered around for a while and admired the opulence of the main rotunda.

The main rotunda in the hotel

The staff thought we were guests there, so we got a tour of the spa and indoor pool (which had gorgeous tiling), and the gym. We walked around the extensive gardens outside and admired the size and beauty of the palace. In the middle of the gardens, a private dinner for some VIP was taking place with several servants in attendance, and we had to be careful not to walk to close since they were guarded. We also found a guest services room where there was a Mac (!!!) with pretty fast internet. It was the only computer like this we were to find in India. We were very glad we had come over early for dinner.

While we were waiting for the restaurant to open, we spent some time relaxing in the bar, drinking wine and eating mezze (middle eastern tapas plate). When the restaurant, Risala, opened at 7pm or so (restaurants open late in India), we went immediately to get started on what was to be our most expensive dinner in India, nearly $200.

The service at dinner was excellent, which was in part because we were one of two tables that were dining at that time. The hotel seemed awfully deserted in general, and we saw few other people while we were there. The presentation of the food was quite nice but it actually wasn’t that good. We started with a pea cake appetizer, which tasted a lot like the Dr. Praeger’s veggie burgers that we buy at home. Then we had a lamb laal maas curry dish (their speciality). It was ok, but the lamb was a little tough. The naan was ok, and I vaguely remember some kind of chocolate dessert. All in all, it was mediocre, and we paid mostly for the luxury of the hotel.

While we were dining, fireworks went off outside. We rushed to the window to look, and we were told that the VIP we had seen outside had arranged the fireworks for his special dinner.

When we were done eating, our driver came to pick us up and take us back to our hotel. We were a little sad to leave the luxury of the hotel, especially the computer with the fast internet.

Leaving the palace, the car waiting area outside

We went to bed relatively early, since we were leaving the next morning to drive to Jaisalmer city, which is about 5-6 hours from Jodhpur. We’d seen pretty much everything there is to see (for tourists) in Jodhpur, and we were excited about heading far west to the desert.

View of Jodhpur City from the Mehrangarh Fort

We arrived in Jodhpur in the evening after a long car ride. Jodhpur is known as the “Blue City” because many of the buildings are painted blue. It’s not clear why there is a tradition of blue buildings in the city, but we heard that it was started by the Brahmins (upper-caste people) who used to live there.

When we first got into Jodhpur, it was nighttime, so we decided to go straight to dinner. We intended to catch a rickshaw into town, but when we wandered outside our hotel we ran straight into our driver, who was parked by the side of the road where he was planning to sleep in the car. He offered to give us a ride which we accepted. On the way, we stopped to take a picture of the clock tower, a landmark in the center of town where the open markets were. It was night, but the markets were still open so it was quite chaotic.

Clock Tower in Sadar Market, Jodhpur

For dinner we headed to Pal Haveli, a heritage hotel right in the center of town which has a good tourist rooftop restaurant called Indique. We had an amazing view of Mehrangarh Fort (the big attraction in town) from our table.

View of the Fort from Indique restaurant

I call it a “tourist restaurant” because it was one of those restaurants that was recommended first in all the guidebooks, with tourist prices and some continental items. Many of the restaurants recommended in the guidebooks were popular with both locals and tourists, but there were a few (like Indique) where we only saw Americans and Europeans. The food was reasonably good if a little too mild for our taste. We complained to the manager that the aloo (potatoes) were too bland, and he apologized and said it was just for foreigners. The tandoori chicken was good though – one of the better meat experiences we had in India.

Tandoori chicken and aloo at Indique

After dinner we briefly considered walking around the markets, but the crowds, speeding motorbikes, and large cow patties (in the dark!) were a little too much for us. We went back to our hotel, Ratan Vilas, to get a good night’s sleep. Ratan Vilas is a heritage hotel (old haveli) that is popular with tourists. We had a large, clean room with AC and a TV, and an enormous bathroom (with separate shower in a large marble bath) which seemed quite luxurious after our cramped space in Udaipur.

Ratan Vilas Hotel in Jodhpur

Our room at Ratan Vilas

In the morning we had our usual breakfast of tea, toast, and eggs at the hotel and then we set off to see the main attraction: Mehrangarh Fort. (Note: we stuck to a western breakfast at most hotels, because the alternative was usually a slightly scary buffet of Indian food that had been sitting out for hours).

Mehrangarh Fort is an amazing sight to see, a majestic fort about 400 ft above the city with thick walls and a winding road that leads to the city below.

Mehrangarh Fort

The road that leads to the fort

The main gate into the Fort

Walking into the Fort

We had opted for the audio tour, which turned out to be quite good. We had a good time wandering all over the Fort, taking pictures of anything that caught our eye.

Musician demonstration in the Fort

The architecture of the Fort was the most interesting part, but inside some of the rooms there were also exhibits.

Some of the rooms were also beautifully decorated, though hard to take pictures of because of the low light.

The views from the top were amazing, and we could see the entire city below.

After we walked through the entire Fort, we stopped for lunch at the only restaurant around – the one in the Fort (Mehran Terrace). Rob was adventurous and ordered a thali (set meal that comes on a tray), but I stuck with eggs and toast again. The restaurant wasn’t all that great, but it didn’t cause any problems later. Any meal that doesn’t upset your stomach in India is a good meal!

When we finished lunch, we had our driver take us a few km down the road to see Jaswant Thada, a centotaph (“empty tomb” built to honor someone). Jaswant Thada has memorials in white marble which commemorate Jaswant Singh II and successive rulers of Marwar. It was beautiful and there were not very many other tourists around when we got there.

Jaswant Thada

Small temple or memorial on the side of Jaswant Thada

The main building

It was quite hot that day, but we had finished with the main sightseeing so we decided to head down to the city to explore the markets, and visit the Umaid Bhawan Palace – see the next post for more about our trip to Jodhpur.

]]> http://currylovers.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/jodhpur-the-blue-city-part-i/feed/ 0 currylovers India_RS 164 India_SG 265 India_SG 251 India_SG 260 India_SG 416 India_SG 103 India_SG 375 India_SG 364 India_SG 276 India_RS 146 India_SG 289 India_SG 297 India_SG 301 India_SG 302 India_SG 303 India_RS 152 India_SG 306 India_SG 312 India_SG 313 India_SG 315 India_SG 320 India_SG 321 India_SG 334 India_SG 324 India_SG 339 India_SG 340 India_SG 348 India_SG 346 India_SG 367 India_SG 370 India_SG 373 India_SG 372 India_SG 374 http://currylovers.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/ranakpur-on-our-way-to-jodhpur/ http://currylovers.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/ranakpur-on-our-way-to-jodhpur/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:23:38 +0000 currylovers http://currylovers.wordpress.com/?p=225 Continue reading →]]> We left for Jodhpur early in the morning so that we could stop midway to see the Jain temples of Ranakpur. It takes 5.5 hrs to drive from Udaipur to Jodhpur, and we were glad we had arranged a nicer car (Toyota Innova) for the trip. The car was almost new and had seatbelts, which are pretty hard to find in India. One of the weirdest things we noticed in India is that in every taxi we got into the seatbelts and headrests had been removed (or hidden). Many people tried to convince us that it’s safer without seatbelts, and whenever we insisted on a car with seatbelts, people seemed to think we were completely crazy.

The road from Udaipur to Jodhpur was only two lanes, one in each direction. Cars on both sides pass constantly, so we often found ourselves staring at a large truck or car barreling directly towards us in our lane, wondering if it would get back over on the other side in time to avoid a head on collision. There were also plenty of rickshaws, motorbikes, and cows, and even the occasional herd of goats crossing the road.

We saw many motorbikes carrying entire families. We also saw women riding sidesaddle on motorbikes and holding babies, which seemed terribly dangerous in any circumstance, but especially so on these roads. We felt pretty safe in our larger car, and our driver was good so we didn’t find the drive particularly hair-raising… until we reached a very hilly area where the road had many switchbacks.

As we climbed through the hills, our driver pointed out some monkeys on the side of the road, so we asked him to stopped the car. Much to our surprise, several of them climbed on the car! One even refused to get off, until we started moving – you could really see the panic in the poor little guy’s eyes.

Monkeys on the side of the road

One of the monkeys that climbed on the car

Another fellow posing for us

We reached Ranakpur around midday to tour some well-known Jain temples before lunch. The main Jain temple in Ranakpur is very famous, and it has over 1400 exquisitely carved pillars on the inside. First we stopped at a smaller temple, where a guard insisted on taking our picture and then demanded money (a common occurrence in India, which we indulged occasionally).

In front of a smaller Jain temple at Ranakpur

The smaller temple from the outside

The smaller temple on the inside

Then we headed over to the large temple, which was quite impressive. There were a few tourists around, but most of the people there were Jain worshippers.

Jain temple at Ranakpur

The inside of the temple was amazing, with beautiful carved ceilings and pillars. We took so many photographs, but no one picture could capture the whole area.

Amazing detail on the ceiling

Another ceiling shot

Offerings at the temple

Leaving the temple

View of the temple from the side

Pretty flowers outside the temple

After visiting the temples, we drove a few kilometers further to Maharani Bagh, which is a tourist resort with a highly recommended restaurant. We weren’t sure what to expect, but the restaurant turned out to be wonderful (and there were even clean western bathrooms!). We ate in a large thatch hut with nice tables while a ravanhasta (Indian folk fiddle) player performed on the side. A large group of German tourists was already there, and the waitstaff were very attentive, so we could tell they were used to getting a lot of tourists.

Restaurant at Maharani Bagh

The food was excellent – pea and mushroom curry, a paneer korma, and the very best roti we were to have on the entire trip. They had three different kinds of roti: maize, millet, and whole grain, all of which were so tasty we ordered seconds. Also, the ravanhasta player let Shana play his instrument. It was surprisingly difficult, though, and it took a few minutes just to master Frere Jacques.

Ravanhasta player at the restaurant

After a very satisfying lunch we continued on the road to Jodhpur. The drive was pretty uneventful – which is a good thing in India – and we arrived in Jodhpur in the late afternoon.

View of Udaipur from the rooftop of our hotel

The electricity was off in the city for an hour or two (this happens every morning, and turned out to be the case in all the cities we visited) so we wandered around the deserted streets a little before going to eat breakfast at Cafe Namaste, a rooftop restaurant on a nearby street. We climbed four flights or so of narrow stone steps in an old haveli to get to the restaurant, but it was worth it to enjoy the excellent coffee and European-style pastries (especially the cinnamon bun, which was a nice contrast to all the Indian food we’d had). It was deserted when we walked in, but a few other western tourists showed up while we were dining.

We spent the morning at the City Palace with a guide. The palace was built by the maharaja in 1559 and it’s the largest of it’s type in the state of Rajasthan. It’s very beautiful and large, and it’s built on a hilltop with a view of the city. We hired an official guide at the city gate, and he turned out to be very good – we definitely recommend using a guide because the palace is so big.

Entrance to the City Palace, Udaipur

Just inside the gate of the city palace

View of the city from inside the city palace

Gate inside the City Palace

The two of us at the City Palace

Beautiful inner room at the palace

Rob with our guide at the City Palace

Another beautiful doorway at the City Palace

Side wall of the City Palace

Painting on an outside wall of the City Palace

View of the City Palace from the outside, heading back towards the main gate

When we finished at the City Palace, we wandered around the streets of the Old City for a little while.

School kids on the street near the city palace in Udaipur

Then we stopped for lunch at a small, inexpensive (but pretty good) vegetarian restaurant that had a great view of the nearby Jagdish Temple.

View of Jagdish Temple from our restaurant at lunch

Another view of the temple and surrounding rooftops from our lunch table

After lunch we walked around Jagdish Temple. There were not many other people around because it wasn’t one of the main prayer times. We were required to take our shoes off, but the stone was quite hot so we made a quick loop around the temple, taking pictures from all sides.

Walking around Jagdish Temple

Looking up at the temple

Small building on the side of the temple area

After the temple we walked down the street to the edge of the lake so we could get a boat tour around Lake Pichola. We ended up in a small crowded boat with group of Asian tourists, all of us jockeying for the best position to take pictures of the sights as they passed by.

View of Udaipur from our tour boat on Lake Pichola

Another look at the Lake Palace Hotel (luxury Taj hotel) from our boat

When we finished the boat tour we walked a block back to our hotel, and arranged for our driver to take us to Monsoon Palace to see the sunset. Monsoon Palace is an abandoned palace on a hillside high above the city, and it has magnificent views. The sunset wasn’t as spectacular as we had hoped but the view was definitely worth it.

Walking up the steps to the Monsoon Palace, and looking back at the palace grounds

Looking out over the countryside from the Monsoon Palace as we wait for the sun to set

The Monsoon Palace, Udaipur - some people went up in the tower although we stayed below with most of the other tourists

The view from the lookout point at Monsoon Palace

The sun setting in the distance

View of the side of the palace as we walked back down to the car

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the nearby Fateh Sagar Lake to take more pictures. It was nearly dark, and several other people, cows and street vendors were on the side of the busy road where we stopped, just hanging out.

When we got back, we went to Jagat Niwas Haveli again for a nice dinner. Afterwards we stopped into the haveli/store that was right next door to ours to admire some miniature paintings. We talked for a while with the owner, who was also the artist. There are dozens of stores that sell miniature paintings in Udaipur. However, he told us that his work is hanging in the City Palace (and showed us the news article to prove it). We liked his work, so we decided to buy a few pieces, which he insisted on signing. It took a while to negotiate the prices, which is typical in India – everything is negotiable (including hotels, as we found out after the fact!). We’re not sure we got a great deal but it was an interesting experience.

While Rob was settling up with the owner, Shana chatted with his wife Sushma, who holds weekly cooking classes. She gave a quick tour of the class kitchen and showed off her collections of spices and tea, and Shana bought a little Kashmiri saffron and black Assam tea from her.

We were exhausted (as always at the end of these long days) and so we went to bed to get a good night’s sleep before leaving Udaipur in the morning. We had previously arranged for a driver/car for the next few days to take us to Jodhpur for a day, and then to Jaisalmer, and finally back to Jodhpur. So, when we woke up in the morning, we made one last trip to Cafe Namaste for some excellent coffee and breakfast, and then we said goodbye to Udaipur as we started out on our five hour drive to Jodhpur.

Last view of Udaipur from the roof of our hotel

When we arrived in Udaipur, we had to take a major highway to get to the city, and we were immediately struck by how modern the road was compared to the roads we had seen in Aurangabad. Still, the Indian drivers completely ignore the lane lines, and you also see rickshaws and the occasional cow in the middle of the road – or people walking across the road even when the cars are all going 50km/hr.

Udaipur is built around Lake Pichola, and as we approached the city we could see many beautiful white buildings lining the lake.

Early morning view of Udaipur from the rooftop of our hotel

It turned out our hotel, Mewar Haveli, was in the Old City, which was right in the middle of the city and all the attractions. We chose Mewar Haveli because it’s a heritage hotel, and it was charming enough but a little below western standards. The room was ok and had a decent view of the lake, but it was fairly small and the sheets were stained with a few spots, which prompted a check for critters (we didn’t find any).  It was air-conditioned, though, and fairly clean.

Our room at Mewar Haveli in Udaipur

Another view of our room

The bathroom was quite small and the shower was right next to the toilet on the wall – there was no separation at all, so everything just gets wet when you shower. This turned out to be a normal set up in India, but it was new to us. Still, the view was nice and the location couldn’t be beat – and there was hot water and air conditioning. Also, our hotel had a cute rooftop cafe, of which there are many in Udaipur – the restaurants are all on rooftops to take advantage of the great views of the city and the lake. We didn’t eat there at all (we generally stuck to places recommended by the guidebooks) but we enjoyed the view.

Rooftop cafe at Mewar Haveli

View from the rooftop of Mewar Haveli in Udaipur

We had a very easy walk to the main attractions such as the City Palace and Jagdish Temple, which we would visit the next day. The streets outside our haveli, and throughout the Old City, were lined with touristy shops selling cheap scarves and clothes, lots of wood-carved figurines, and miniature paintings (a Rajasthani speciality).

The street outside our hotel in Udaipur's old city - the street is just big enough for a car

It was fun and challenging to wander down the twisty, narrow streets, looking into shops while trying to avoid cows, rickshaws, the occasional car, and the many motorbikes that roared past just inches away. Every vehicle belched a cloud of heavy smoke, and we were constantly working hard to avoid stepping in cow poop – but compared to Aurangabad, Udaipur was very clean and charming and had very little trash lining the streets.

Most of the attractions in Udaipur are reachable on foot, but we had arranged for a driver and car for the next few days for excursions and to take us to the next city. So, after we got settled at the hotel, we had a quick lunch at the Savage Garden restaurant (banana curry and falafel – a nice change from daal and curry!), and then we asked our driver to take us on an excursion to Nagda and Eklingji, two temple site that are both within 30 min of the city.

In Nagda, we stopped for a few minutes to see the ruins of the Saas Bahu, a 10th-century Vaishnavite twin temple. It was deserted and peaceful, but small, so we took a quick look and then jumped back in the car to head to Eklingji. Eklingji is a small marble complex made up of 108 temples, the first of which was built in A.D. 734. While we were waiting to get into the Eklingji temple we met some Indian ladies, checked out the local monkeys, and wandered around.

Women at Eklingji

The area in front of Eklingji temple complex - no cameras allowed inside

One of the many monkeys near Eklingji

When the temple complex opened, we headed inside with about 100 other people (all worshipers – we were the only tourists!). Men and women went in separately (women with heads covered), and then everyone walked counter-clockwise around the main temple (about 20×20), which houses a manifestation of Shiva. A group of musicians played music in the center area, while incense burned and people offered alms to the figures of the deities.

Outside of the main temple we wandered around to see the hundred or so other very small temples. Each temple (or shrine) was a simple carved structure about 5-10ft wide and 10-20ft high, with a deity in the middle and a small area for offerings.

After Eklingji, we headed back to Udaipur. We enjoyed a beautiful romantic dinner at the rooftop restaurant of the nearby Jagat Niwas Haveli. The haveli was quite a bit nicer than our own, though the rooms were twice as expensive. If we ever go to Udaipur again we will stay at Jagat Niwas instead – but at least we enjoyed two wonderful rooftop dinners there.

Jagat Niwas Haveli - rooftop cafe on the top

Rooftop restaurant at Jagat Niwas Haveli

The food was decent, with a very good aloo mater curry, and cold Kingfisher beer. The meat was a little strange (a little mealy but good spice), as we often found in India. We ended up eating vegetarian most of the time because the vegetarian dishes were far superior in taste and quality, and very satisfying.

Aloo mater (pea and potato curry), tandoori chicken, and naan

The view was amazing. The Lake Palace Hotel (the old palace, converted into a Taj luxury hotel where rooms costs at least $1000/night) glittered on the lake, and we had a nice view of the city palace too.

Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur

View of the palace from our dinner table at Jagat Niwas

On the way back to the hotel, we passed a few party rickshaws – speeding rickshaws with colored lights blaring Erasure or Depeche Mode (so strange!) with 2 or 3 people packed inside. They reminded us of the party buses that you can see around Boston and New York sometimes. There were also several street parties, which didn’t seem to attract too many people, but which played loud music accompanied by flashing lights in small spots in the Old City. We considered going to the late night prayer session at the nearby Jagdish Temple, but we were pretty worn out so we turned in early.  Coming next… day 2 in Udaipur.

The drive was beautiful, and it was also interesting to see how our driver skillfully used his horn almost constantly to warn other cars of our approach. Indian drivers use both sides of the road and pass frequently, but once we understood how things worked it didn’t seem so crazy. We were lucky to have an extremely nice driver, Raju, who spoke English well and was very interested to talk with us along the way.

The Ajanta caves were also carved out of cliffs (like the Ellora caves that we had seen the day before), but they date all the way back to the 2nd century B.C. The caves at Ajanta are known for both the sculptures and paintings on the inside. We had been advised to avoid the main entrance (where there were crowds and beggars), so we took a more scenic route from a nearby hillside. We had to hike downhill on a well-worn path for about 30 minutes to reach the caves, and although it was very hot we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, and the occasional monkey sighting.

Looking at the Ajanta caves as we hike down the hill

The caves seemed far more intricate and ornate than the ones at Ellora, and there were also lots more tourists – both Indian and Western.

Outside of a cave

Buddhist monk posing for us outside one of the caves

Same monk inside the cave

Beautiful carvings on the cave wall

Inside another cave

At the end of the day we went back to our hotel, and ate dinner at the hotel’s Asian fusion noodle restaurant by the pool. It was recommended to us by some German travelers who we met at the caves, but the entrees we ordered turned out to be so hot (Thai chilies) that we couldn’t finish very much. It didn’t upset our stomachs, though, and we had a restful night. The next morning we flew back to Mumbai, and then caught a connecting flight to Udaipur where we spent the next few days. Overall, Aurangabad was an extremely poor and depressed town, but it was worth it to see the caves of Ellora and Ajanta.