This is a continuation of my diary from my RTW trip from October 2003. Udaipur is billed as the most romantic place in Rajasthan. It has a lake and maybe this is supposed to encourage romantic feelings after the desert. It certainly engenders more romance than the two burnt out vehicles on the approach road to the town from the airport.
Lake Pichola is a great setting and the edge of the walled old town that faces that lake is comprised largely of the City Palace. This looks out onto the Lake Palace, a building that seems to float in the middle of the lake and is now a hotel. Overlooking the town is the Monsoon Palace. These three were the homes of the Maharanah of Udaipur. He would move himself and his harem from one palace to the other depending on the season.
The Haweli (guest house) I had booked into was right on the lakeside opposite the City Palace and Lake Palace. When I woke in the morning the view was captivating. After breakfast I headed into the old town in a tuk-tuk hired from the hotel. The guide knew all the best places for good views of the palaces and the lake.
He was also able to fill me in on what was going on around the town. For example we passed a group of about 100 women in a cloud of colourful saris heading towards the lakeside. Apparently one of the women was recently widowed and the tradition now is that the women all go to the water and wash themselves after the cremation of the husband “as the man goes to fire, his wife goes to water”. A definite improvement on the former practice of suttee, abolished by the British too late to save the wives of the Maharajah of Jodhpur.
Two other things noticed in Udaipur – again the huge volume of cows – so many more than even Jaipur. We came across one bull in the tuk-tuk. It was running downhill straight towards us and our driver judged that it was sensible for us to get out of the way.
The second thing is the number of cinemas in the town. There are four in an area the same size as Soho in London… and all of them show the Bond movie Octopussy, EVERY NIGHT! Octopussy’s women-only pleasure palace / headquarters is indeed the Lake Palace of Udaipur, and the city is clearly proud of its’ place in cinematic history.
The City Palace was less interesting than the Fort at Jodhpur and after an hour spent looking at the repetitively decorated mirrored rooms, I headed back to the Haweli to check out.
As a little treat I had decided to spend the second night in Udaipur in the Lake Palace Hotel. Now you know you are in a posh hotel when they bring you a rolled flannel and a drink at check in. You know you’re in India when the flannel is cold and the cocktail is iced tea! You know you’re in a hotel in the middle of a lake when you need to take a boat to get there. You know you’re in a posh hotel in the middle of a lake when you get piped aboard a private motor launch and the luggage follows at a respectful distance in a boat of it’s own! You know when you’re in a hotel in Udaipur because you’ll probably have a breathtaking view of the Lake Palace. You know when you’re in the Lake Palace Hotel because all of a sudden your view is of the sprawling development outside the walls of the old town… not quite as breathtaking!
Lake Pichola is a great setting and the edge of the walled old town that faces that lake is comprised largely of the City Palace. This looks out onto the Lake Palace, a building that seems to float in the middle of the lake and is now a hotel. Overlooking the town is the Monsoon Palace. These three were the homes of the Maharanah of Udaipur. He would move himself and his harem from one palace to the other depending on the season.
The Haweli (guest house) I had booked into was right on the lakeside opposite the City Palace and Lake Palace. When I woke in the morning the view was captivating. After breakfast I headed into the old town in a tuk-tuk hired from the hotel. The guide knew all the best places for good views of the palaces and the lake.
He was also able to fill me in on what was going on around the town. For example we passed a group of about 100 women in a cloud of colourful saris heading towards the lakeside. Apparently one of the women was recently widowed and the tradition now is that the women all go to the water and wash themselves after the cremation of the husband “as the man goes to fire, his wife goes to water”. A definite improvement on the former practice of suttee, abolished by the British too late to save the wives of the Maharajah of Jodhpur.
Two other things noticed in Udaipur – again the huge volume of cows – so many more than even Jaipur. We came across one bull in the tuk-tuk. It was running downhill straight towards us and our driver judged that it was sensible for us to get out of the way.
The second thing is the number of cinemas in the town. There are four in an area the same size as Soho in London… and all of them show the Bond movie Octopussy, EVERY NIGHT! Octopussy’s women-only pleasure palace / headquarters is indeed the Lake Palace of Udaipur, and the city is clearly proud of its’ place in cinematic history.
The City Palace was less interesting than the Fort at Jodhpur and after an hour spent looking at the repetitively decorated mirrored rooms, I headed back to the Haweli to check out.
As a little treat I had decided to spend the second night in Udaipur in the Lake Palace Hotel. Now you know you are in a posh hotel when they bring you a rolled flannel and a drink at check in. You know you’re in India when the flannel is cold and the cocktail is iced tea! You know you’re in a hotel in the middle of a lake when you need to take a boat to get there. You know you’re in a posh hotel in the middle of a lake when you get piped aboard a private motor launch and the luggage follows at a respectful distance in a boat of it’s own! You know when you’re in a hotel in Udaipur because you’ll probably have a breathtaking view of the Lake Palace. You know when you’re in the Lake Palace Hotel because all of a sudden your view is of the sprawling development outside the walls of the old town… not quite as breathtaking!
I spent the time in the Lake Palace sampling the local gin and vodka, enjoying the delicious food, reading books, watching rugby and watching Octopussy. Yes, the Bond movie has it's own channel in the hotel and runs on a continuous loop 24 hours a day. It was fun to watch it, though the Palace Hotel is in it much less than you'd imagine for all the fuss that's made of the movie. I was able to spot the steps I'd walked up, the window to my room though etc etc! Thankfully I had arrived in a boat, compared to James Bond who propels himself to the Palace in a motorised crocodile! It’s not the best Bond movie, but it was filmed here and it made the stay here feel even more glamorous.
Comments
Post a Comment