Udaipur: Rajasthan, India

Home to Rajastani royalty for ages, Udaipur is one of the most romantic cities in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Because of the three interconnected lakes within the town, Pichhola, Fateh Sagar and Swaroop Sagar Lake, Udaipur is often reffered to as the Venice of the East. Although we arrived at the end of the dry season and the lake was at 25% of its capacity, the town still lived up to its reputation.

We stayed at the Lalghat Guesthouse. Ghat means bathing steps, so were were near one of the ghats that lead into the lake. Our guesthouse was situated in a beautiful and charming old white building.

The City Palace
On our first sight-seeing trip in Udaipur, we visited the City Palace Musuem, former home of Rajasthan's Royalty.

The Folk Village
One of our favorite activities in Udaipur was visiting the cultural village. We were given a tour of a traditional Rajastani village layout and were entertained by several traditional Rajastani musicians. The music was groovy.

Udaipur Friends

On the first night of our arrival Francis had her eyes set on getting a Punjabi suit made for herself and roped Edward into it as well. Our Muslim tailor, Salim, owned the shop for 25 yrs. A few days later, after picking up our outfits, we joined him for tea and got a tour of his 300 yr. old home. The king gifted the home to his wife's great grandfather, who was an elephant warrior (trivia: the last elephant fight in Udaipur was held in 1951).

We also got to spend sometime with his 8 yr. old daughter, who gave us a mini-tour of her neighborhood. She had a thing for brownies, so we invited her to dinner with us. All she had was a giant brownie.

Daily life in Udaipur

Frankly speaking, the sites were only one part of our Udaipur experience. Just seeing everyday life was a big piece of the fun.

Stuck in traffic

The local pickup truck

Kitchen ware

[i]Construction workers[i]

[i]Socializing on the dry lake bed[i]

[i]Playing cricket on the lake[i]

[i]Behind the scenes, the kitchen of a local restfavorite[i]