Contiki Eternal India: Udaipur

We left Jaipur early the morning after a hectic, jam packed day highlighted by Holi, something I will always remember. This was our well needed rest day for our 8 hour drive to Udaipur. We made a few stops along the way for food and driver rest breaks, including a manor halfway between Jaipur and Udaipur for lunch and a pool break, which was helpful for us as we tried to (unsuccessfully) get the remnants of Holi off of our skin. After another three hours, we pulled into Udaipur shortly before dark. 

Udaipur was absolute chaos with no sidewalks and jam packed winding streets, more like the width of glorified alleys for two lanes of traffic with pedestrians walking along the sides of the road. It took a while to get used to, but our first experience happened just before dusk dark when we walked to our dinner spot. We left the hotel in a single file line following Yuj up a small hill, across a bridge, up another small hill, into a bougie courtyard, down some stairs, up some stairs to an amazing, riverfront view of Udaipur after dark. This was the setting for our dinner that evening. 

Dinner was very good, the garlic naan was garlicky, the cocktails were fantastic, and I tried new food - I got pineapple masala which had quite the kick. After about two hours, we headed back to the hotel. A rickshaw was less than $1, so I called one. It took a while to come and, just as we started walking, one came for someone else and I was able to squeeze in. The ride lasted 5 minutes and I started to head to my room before being convinced to go to the rooftop bar for one drink, which turned into over an hour long game of No Mercy UNO. The rules were very different than normal UNO, so it took over an hour for someone to finally win. It was after midnight and time to head to bed. 

The following morning, we had one of the best breakfasts we had had so far and hit the road for our walking tour of Udaipur, the hometown of our guide, Sunny. We wandered the streets before arriving at Jagdish Temple, a Hindu temple literally in the middle of Udaipur. It is one of the major temples in Udaipur and is still used today - we actually saw it being used when we were there.

I went in a side way with our guide while the rest of the group climbed a very steep staircase up to the main entryway, where we met up and took our shoes off. I was able to keep my orthotics on this time, thankfully, which made it much easier for me to navigate. The temple was very impressive and the detail carved onto the exterior was meticulous

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We grabbed our shoes and I met the group at the bottom of the steep steps and we walked up a hill, past a bunch of vendors, and into a courtyard for the City Palace. Similar to the City Palace in Jaipur, this was the seat of the kings of Rajasthan before India was a unified country. This palace, however, was a much larger complex and we were able to go inside. The views from the palace were so impressive and the architecture was similar to a lot of the other places I've seen in India, but unique when compared to other parts of the world I've been to.

There were courtyards with trees up on a higher story than the ground (dirt was brought up many levels to allow trees to have roots below the courtyard)..

We learned that one of the leaders towards the beginning of the 20th century was paralyzed at age 20, Maharana Sir Bhupal Singh, and actually had an elevator installed (which I got to ride). He even had a special toilet (which I definitely did not use) in his quarters.

Our tour concluded and we headed to lunch, another beautiful spot overlooking the water. The menu was a bit more eclectic, so I got Kung Pao chicken which was pretty good. After lunch, we had free time until dinner. I wandered around a bit by myself before meeting up with a few friends to grab an ice cream at the only place we could find, a Baskin-Robbins. They have 31 flavors halfway across the globe.

We then met up with a larger group to do a sunset boat ride on the lake. Upon arriving at the ticket office, we were told that the boat was leaving in 15 minutes, it was the last one of the evening (even though we'd originally been told it was running later), and it was a 15 minute walk away. We bought our tickets and sprinted, making it with about 5 minutes to spare. The ride was also different than we had thought in that it took us to Jagmandir Palace, a building on an island in the middle of Lake Pichola. It was an interesting treat and gave us an opportunity to get a bottle of water and use clean washrooms.

After the boat tour, we rickshawed back to our hotel to drop our bags off before immediately heading back down to the lobby to hop in a different rickshaw to go to dinner. The rickshaw rides were absolutely legendary, it's amazing how no one gets hit or run over because they weave through narrow streets that are also used by pedestrians at very high speeds. Instead of going to an amusement park, you can just ride a rickshaw in Udaipur!

Our dinner was in another spectacular venue, on the water overlooking the City Palace that we were at earlier in the day. The meal was fantastic and in another picturesque setting.

Sunny had arranged to have a point and shoot camera delivered by someone during dinner so I could take pictures the rest of the trip, after I split off from my group for a few days of relaxation, The person literally came to the restaurant with a point of sale machine and dropped the camera off with me. Sunny really went above and beyond for the group, including helping people negotiate fair prices at various markets as well.

After dinner, it was time to say bye to Sunny as we had a different local guide in our next city before hopping in another exciting rickshaw back to our hotel.