UDAIPUR

Udaipur was founded in 1568 by Maharaja(King) Udai Singh II. Legend has it that Udai found the site after coming across a holy man meditating on a hill near Pichola Lake which sits in the middle of Udaipur. The old man advised the maharaja to establish his capital on that very spot. Turns out the old mans advise was good. Udaipur is surrounded by lush forests, lakes and the protective Aravalli Range. Perfect place for a city. In the middle of the lake is what they call the Lake Palace. It is a very white creamy stone color and the prettiest palace of them all in the city. There is a royal palace that is perched on top of the city that we visited. It was quite extensively long and full of many rooms. We were told that there are still 12 to 13 members of the royal family that are alive today and still live there. Pretty cool site to see. The doorways were all very small. There were pictures of some of the early tribesmen that founded this city all along the royal palace walls. They were very small in stature but supposedly some of the fiercest warriors back in the day. The lake is very beautiful at night. The city lights up with all kinds of colors. Udaipur is considered the most romantic city in all of Rajhastan and it certainly did appear that way to us as well. Something about the way the various lights of the city were displayed over the water. Very nice! We stayed in a guesthouse that was perched on a hill above the lake. The guesthouse had a rooftop restaurant that served great food 24/7 that Katie and I frequented more often than we might should have. Maybe it was because the sunsets every night were so gorgeous from the panoramic birdseye viewpoint. The most hilarious thing about Udaipur was that almost all the guesthouses would show the movie Octopussy every night at around 7:30pm. Hilarious!! For those of you who don't know, Udaipur is a site that they frequently filmed that movie at and the locals are quite proud of it! I think Katie and I must have seen that movie atleast 3 times during our stay there. Hehe! On our last day there we got a special treat. A hillsman from a village outside the city came into town on his two elephants to let them bath and drink from the lake. Quite the spectacle. Even the locals stopped what they were doing to take a gander at these graceful animals. On our last day we also took a boat ride to an island just outside the city that Katie suggested which I am now so glad I agreed to. This island had buildings that were buttery creamy in nature and looked absolutely marvelous in the night lights. We decided to stay a while and have a couple of beers, which did not come cheap I might add, while we waited for our train to depart for Jaisalmer. But it was totally worth it in the end.