I want to share a beautiful travelling experience . UDAIPUR is a beautiful city dotted by hills.Very aptly said, Its ’KASHMIR OF RAJASTHAN’’and ’CITY OF LAKES’’. I have never seen such a beautiful city ever where in the centre of city , you have lakes and hills.Before coming to Rajasthan, i never imagined that a desert state like this could have such charming landscape inside it.
We visited a Warrior memorial park and an island park, both surrounded by magnificent Fatehsagar jheel and a landscaped garden called ’Rani ki Bawdi’’.
Udaipur is famous for its tie-n-dye chunris.
Also I noticed people(males)wearing earrings in both ears.We could not stop ourselves from asking them why a well ’suited-booted’gentleman or a jeans clad youngster would sport earrings in their ear pinnas!They explained to us politely that an earring sported by a man denoted in older times was a sign of higher intelligence and upper caste and it is still a tradition there to sport earrings or earstuds in both ears denoting their castes!Strange enough, an earring or earstud in a particular ear denotes in West(UNITED STATES AND CANADA) that a person is a gay and people like SALMAN KHAN wear it for no reason, just a fad and so many youngsters imitate it!Strange enough!Same things mean so different in different places.I wonder what would happen if these three group of people come across each other somehow and discover the reasons behind their similar fashion sense!A confusion comedy can be made on this.Any filmmakers or serial makers listening..:) thatswhy it is said Travel opens up your understanding to world, it broadens your insight.I wish I was in travel business and could tour whole of world!
In the evening, we reserved our tickets for a cultural event in kalasangam , a local auditorium to catch a view of rich cultural heritage of Rajasthan.They showed us a puppet show performed in water and puppets donning rajasthani dresses, a talented young girl danced with a kalash on her head with burning diyas in thali over the kalash and she danced on a thali.
Sukhadia circle , a famous landmark of Udaipur situated in heart of city , is made in remembarance of a local social worker.It has a huge pond with showers in between dropping from a great height and the view is spectacular at night with all the light effects on.You can also do boating there , but please do not take your boat near the powerful showers as you can risk your lives!The water can enter your boat and then you can be in trouble as we were!A boat hit intentionally at us for plain mischief and we were thrown right below a powerful shower, we were in great danger as boat was full of water, but the security system and policing is great there, we were pulled out of our boat very soon.
I also noticed its hot and humid in Udaipur during day, so please don’t forget to take your loose cotton clothing, caps and sunglasses with you.As there is lot to see by foot, please take comfortable flat sandals/slippers with you.But during nights, it becomes very cold, so please take your coarse bedsheets/shawls or comforters with you.
An amazing landscape I saw from terrace of our nine storeyed hostel at 6.30 am in Udaipur was a city neatly arranged in white distemper.Every single house has white distemper, it looks so nice to watch it and nobody breaks this rule.May be its connected to the hot climate there as white color gives some respite from hot scorching heat.
The food of Rajasthan is delicious.Rajasthan has a very tasty cuisine full of spices, but strangely its not very chilly, but its stomach friendly!I think its also related to climate there to keep you cool.
We ended our visit to beautiful Udaipur by visiting the famous Udaipur palace. We were led to the living room of King which is decorated with antique pieces, but the most interesting thing is a beautiful colored door sized art piece(painting)which is faked out, it looks like something else and actually it is something else!You have to go there personally to watch it, I don’t want to break the suspense!It was made to make the atmosphere funny and lively for guests upon its disclosure..The piece doesn’t give an inkling to what it is actually.Kudos to the man who made that and conceived it!I was really amazed to see this. The rear balcony of palace leads us to a charming view of a heritage hotel in midst of a huge lake.This famous hotel/resort is stark white in color and looks spectacular as if made of white marble.You can visit this hotel by a boat ride, but only if you have reserved booking there.The city is so charming that once famous actress REKHA called this place as her past life abode and dreamed herself of a princess , no wonder the beauty of city hyptonised her to say all this!The Palace and resort both are on banks of this unlimited lake and amazingly I didn’t find any signs of walls chipping or cracking, there is no effect of water on them, I think the building material has some antichipping properties which doesn’t allow palace walls to chip even after standing there for decades. People who cannot go to this resort/hotel can catch glimpse of it from palace or can watch old movie MERA SAAYA starring Sunil Dutt, whole film is shot here. Also our guide told us that some of the songs of movie GUIDE were picturised in Udaipur palace.our guide was very old and his dimpled smile reminded us of how he would have felt Waheeda Rehmaan dancing here!I realised at the end of my visit to Udaipur that whole of movie GUIDE was extensively filmed here and in Chittaurgarh(please refer to my review on CHITTORGARH), at one instance I felt as if I was moving in one of the frames of this movie!Babool trees are a common site in this area especially country side.Later on , I proceeded to the beautiful hill station MOUNT ABU, a 6 hours drive from Udaipur, about which I will write in my next review.
Thanks for reading my review.