Udaipur

The 15^th August weekend is always tempting for a break. The Eid holiday was a bonus which resulted in us getting a 6 day break for a 2-day leave. It was long enough to plan for a multi-city tour of Rajasthan. We planned to visit three places in the order of Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur i.e. fly in to Udaipur and fly out of Jaipur.

Day 0 We had planned our trip through yatra.com for all the hotel bookings and the local conveyance. That was to ensure that we do not need to fight over getting the right car at the right price with a reliable driver. As a result of this, we had our driver Ghanshyam waiting for us with an Indigo at the Maha Rana Pratap airport at Udaipur to take us to the hotel. We learnt that he would be driving us locally in Udaipur and then driving us on the long haul to Jaisalmer and then after driving us locally in Jaisalmer would drop us to the station where we would be boarding our train to Jaipur. It was almost 8 PM when we collected our luggage and set off for the hotel so it was dark outside and hence nothing much to see in a new city. My impression of Udaipur was that it’s a historic city with lot of palaces and lakes and hence mostly conservative. I expected most tourists would be of the conservative type and there will be little or no night life or places to hang out in the evenings. I was mistaken and pleasantly surprised as we reached the area where our hotel was located. I had known that it was on the banks of the Pichola lake but what I did not know was about the Lalghat area where it was located. We had to drive through the lanes and by-lanes which were undulating and on the way we witnessed a number of shops on either side and full of foreign tourists. The place looked as buzzing an active as any Mall road at a hill station. The lanes were full of hotels and every hotel had a roof-top restaurant over-looking the lake. We were booked in Hotel Devraj Niwas. The hotel wasn’t anything great or close to three-star standard so it kind of fell below our expectations since we thought paid a lot to yatra.com in order to get some standard. I guessed that the location was what we paid for and the hotel did give a breathtaking view of the Pichola Lake with the iconic Lake Palace hotel in its center. In addition, the primary attraction of the place, the City Palace was walking distance from the hotel so Ghanshyam told us that we should give a call the next day only after we are done with the palace visit. The hotel was mostly used by foreign tourists and the room was decent if not of three or four star standard. It had a swimming pool just for the sake of it right in the middle which was a little bigger than a bath tub. Nevertheless we were awestruck by the area as we never expected that it would be so lively and that too on a national holiday. We checked-in, kept our luggage and immediately went for a walk. We saw lot of tourists on the way mostly foreigners and probably the only Indians were the shopkeepers and us. Restaurants were mostly full and some places we could hear good music. And I was sure that it was not a dry day on the 15^th August in this part of the town. We walked till the gate of the city palace, checked out a few restaurants and decided to head back to the roof-top restaurant of our hotel by 10:30. This would reduce any worry of going back to the hotel late in the night. Our roof-top restaurant gave a wonderful view of the lake. The Lake Palace hotel was all lit up and so was the Jag Mandir at a distance. Most of the tables were occupied and mostly by foreigners. We were just the second Indian group on the roof-top (so much so that we ordered, the waiter asked his counterpart inside ‘Indian logo ke liye XXX’). As I said, the dry day was not quite dry at this part of the country even though the variety of liquor was limited. Only beer, Bacardi rum and gin was available so we settled for a Gin with Limca along with masala peanuts. The food was good and we loved the main course as well. Regarding the weather, we were skeptical about initially since it was expected to be hot but it turned out to be another pleasant surprise as it was almost as cool as Pune thanks to the clouds.  This made the roof-top dinner all the more pleasant.  In fact, it got a bit cold towards mid-night.

City Palace

Day 1It was a long day ahead of us in Udaipur. It started off with the complementary breakfast on the rooftop. We got the first day-light view of the beautiful lake and the sparkling white Lake Palace hotel. As we went up, the lake was calm and serene. Soon the boating started and the ripples came in. Under the clouds, the lake assumed a beautiful shade of grey.  After lazing around for a while we finally reached the palace gates at around 12:30. The entry tickets were priced at INR 70 even though we had to pay an extra 200 INR to carry one camera inside. Officially you can click only with that camera. On entering through the majestic gates, the first thing we noticed was that you can get yourself photographed in local Rajasthani attire with the palace back-drop. Asmi was too excited about this and we soon got into local Rajasthani outfits. Needless to say I was a bit embarrassed. We got ourselves clicked in four different poses and our total bill came to 1500 INR which included the soft-copy of the photos as well on a CD. I have no idea how good a deal was that but sure it was some fun to start with. We were told to collect the photos in an hour. We entered the palace and started the tour of the museum inside the palace.  The City Palace in Udaipur was built by Maharana Uday Singh and most famous for the legendary Rana Pratap Singh of Mewar. Needless to say, his memorabilia featured most prominently in the museum with more than one reference to that famous battle of Haldighat against the Mughals led by Man Singh. His bravery and subsequent escape on his iconic horse Chetak is part of folklore now and finds a prominent chapter in all history books of the country. It took me down the memory lane and reminded me of my history classes on the medieval period. I had visited this place once before with my mother and grandparents as a ten year old way back in 1988 but was not able to recall anything of that visit. I am not much of a ‘museum’ person so I was not able to be patient enough to go through the history behind all the other parts of the palace even though I could hear one guide explain to one of the tourists about the location of a popular bollywood song ‘Ghunghat ki aad se dil badka’ which was shot here. In addition a reference to a popular soap currently running was also doing the rounds. The palace gave us more views of the Lake Palace hotels from multiple angles and also a birds-eye view of the city. We finally completed the tour and returned to the base of the palace at around 3 PM.   Our next plan was to go boating on Lake Pichola. We purchased tickets and walked towards doing the same. The palace complex was huge and there was a hotel built inside the complex which looked as historical as the palace. The boat would depart at 4 PM so we had ample time. We roamed around in the garden, clicked photos on the lake side with the Lake Palace backdrop and finally embarked the boat at 4 PM. The boat was well maintained and had extremely comfortable seats.  It provided a good view on all sides and seats were not much above the water which gives the feeling that you are almost floating on the water.   As the boat left its shores, we got a breathtaking view of the palace from the Lake. We floated along with the City Palace on our right and the Lake Palace hotel to the left. Both the structures were worth a thousand clicks. As we moved with more and more architectural structures on the banks, it gave me a ‘Venice’ type feeling and some of the photos would make you actually feel that it is Venice. Soon we spotted a bridge and I almost laughed and said that had they built a marble structure on the bridge, it would resemble the iconic Rialto Bridge of Venice and we would get a complete Venice in Udaipur.

Boat-ride on the Pichola Lake

We turned around and moved in the reverse direction around the Lake Palace hotel towards the Jag Mandir. Now the Lake Palace hotel was to our left and the City Palace as well but at a distance. This was an even more beautiful shot and I managed to capture some wonderful pictures on my camera. We reached our first stop after a while which was the Jag Mandir hotel on an island. We disembarked from the boat and were told that there was a boat every 20 minutes so reaching back to the palace will not be a problem. This was another landmark place which was a hotel. The place had beautiful architecture and extremely well maintained garden. Many historical places have been converted to glamorous hotels thus the maintenance has been excellent. We decided to have a quick meal here and we were on the road for long now and hadn’t eaten anything after breakfast at our hotel.

Jag Mandir Gardens

We ordered a club sandwich which we shared and soon after spending some time in the garden, we boarded the boat back to the palace. We called up our driver Ghanshyam to get the car over at the gate where we disembark from the boat so that there was no walking back and hence minimum wastage of time. We took the car back to the palace gates since we had to enter and collect the photographs in traditional wear from the shop inside. Once we were done we were all set to drive around the city. It was a blessing as a bit of tiredness had crept in after the sightseeing tours and boat ride.  Thankfully the weather was kind to us all throughout. It was cloudy and pleasant and at the same time the rains held up. We could not have asked for more. We drove down first towards the other famous lake of the city, the Fateh Sagar Lake.

Fateh Sagar Lake

I remember on my previous visit here as a kid, we stayed at the Hotel Lakend on the banks of this lake. Ghanshyam took us first to the Rana Pratap memorial which was located on a small hilltop. Fortunately, we could drive upto the place so there was no uphill climb involved. This was another well maintained place and flocked by tourists. It had a magnificent statue of Rana Pratap Singh mounted on top of his favorite horse Chetak. The place provided us a of a beautiful view of Fateh Sagar Lake and the adjoining areas. Most of it we could see was all nature with greenery all around.

Rana Pratap Singh mounted on Chetak

I could never imagine that I would see so much greenery in Rajasthan but I guess the rains have ensured this at this time of the year. Ghanshyam told us of another garden close by which is popular among the tourists but we thought we had enough of gardens for the day. We decided to drive through the city and then head to the market place where Asmi would start her shopping. We did exactly that and Ghanshyam took us to one of his known shops where he claimed all possible stuff you wanted was available. It was dark by this time and also started to rain heavily. We spent a close to an hour and a half in the shop. I looked around the place a bit. After shopping we went to another hotel complex where there was a display of vintage cars each etched in history. After driving across the other side of the lake we returned back to our hotel area at around 8:30 and released the car. We planned to spend the rest of the time soaking the atmosphere of the Lalghat area around our hotel. The place was livelier than the previous day. Asmi continued to shop a bit and after walking around for a while we returned to the roof-top restaurant of our hotel. More options were available today as far as liquor was concerned and after a couple of whiskey pegs and a sumptuous dinner we decided to call it a day and retire into our room. The next day would be another long one involving a 529 km drive to the desert town of Jaisalmer.

Road to Jodhpur

 Day 2Ghanshyam had told us that we can call him only we are ready to set off for the drive to Jaisalmer since he would be having parking issues in the narrow lane where our hotel was located. Our initial research on Google maps told us that there were two routes to Jaisalmer – one via Barmer and the one via Jodhpur. Ghanshyam told us the day before that we would be going via Jodhpur though by-passing the city. That would be 529 kms and as per Google maps would take us around 8 hours.  However, Ghanshyam said due to the rains and other road constructions, it could take up to 9-10 hours. We planned to leave at 10 AM and assuming it would take 10 hours, we thought we would reach Jaisalmer at around 8 PM and enjoy the evening there.  As usual there was lazing around and delays and after having our breakfast we checked out and hit the road at noon. Expected time of arrival at this stage at destination was 10 PM which was late but still not too bad. We hit the highway where for a brief while we were on the road towards Mount Abu. That portion was a proper four lane roadway which I presume is a part of the Golden Quadrilateral. After a while though we headed towards Jodhpur, which was now a two lane road. We kept decent speeds and the scenery on both sides was all greenery thanks to the rain. We found drizzle in some stretches but overall it was rain-free even though the clouds made the weather pleasant. Our first stop was at the Jain temple in Ranakpur.

Jain Temple, Ranakpur

The place looked to be a big tourist attraction. Like most other places, we saw, the whole area was extremely well maintained. The temple premises included a beautiful garden, car park, canteen to complement the two beautifully carved temples. We found out that you were not allowed to go inside the temple in shorts and as a solution to that you could hire makeshift trousers which would cover up to your ankles. Asmi was in her capris and just about covered up to the knee so the security person gave a concession and allowed her in. The caricatures in the temple were an absolute marvel and overall the temple and the place was very photogenic, truly one of the marvels.  We resumed our journey towards Jodhpur which would be around mid-way. At around 4 PM, we stopped for lunch at a good tourist-friendly restaurant. Tourist-friendly because it had a huge souvenir shop which just about sold everything you wanted to buy in Rajasthan. Asmi did a bit of shopping while we waited for the lunch to arrive and soon we were on our way again. It was almost 5 PM and we were nowhere even close to Jodhpur. Probably a stretch where construction was going on delayed us. Suddenly I realized that this was quite alarming as we would be really late when we hit the final stretch towards Jaisalmer.  I became a bit apprehensive about a night drive towards Jaisalmer since the road is going to be nearly empty at that time and it might be almost midnight till we reach our destination.  I shared my apprehension with Ghanshyam and he said that there should not be any worry till Ramdevra at least which is around 110 km from Jaisalmer. Due to the annual festival in Ramdevra, devotees from all over from India were on their way there. Some were by foot, some by cars and I even spotted one person rolling on the ground. Sure enough I spotted many groups with a flag of a particular color moving in the same direction as us. There were hospitality camps at short intervals where the pilgrim party can rest, enjoy food and camp for the night if required. That relaxed me a bit and I thought I would only take a call at Pokhran as to when to call it a day and stay over or proceed to Jaisalmer. I estimated that we would reach Pokhran at around 10 PM, which was 184 kms from Jodhpur. (I was aware of these two locations as these were featured prominently in the cult film Sonar Kella).

We reached and by-passed Jodhpur at around 7 PM with still around 280 odd kms to cover. This meant that we took almost 7 hours to cover just half the way for 260 odd kms. That surprised me since I thought we kept good speed and took only a break of about one hour overall. Assuming that the road to Jaisalmer now will be of better quality and less traffic, midnight seemed to be earliest possible time to reach our destination.

The car condition was top-class and the driver reliable so I thought we will make it without fuss. However, the next 60 odd kms were not the best to drive on and we further slowed down with the speedometer not crossing 40 kmph. Once we took the final right turn towards Jaisalmer, we hit NH-114, 200 kms away from Jaisalmer, the road improved drastically and was smooth. This enabled us to consistently clock a speed of 80+ kms per hour. The distance to Pokhran was covered in quick time and we crossed Pokhran at 10:30 PM leaving us to cover around 100 kms more. We made a quick call to our hotel in Jaisalmer to inform them that we would be late and would arrive at half-past midnight.

We also ordered some food and told them to keep it ready for us. Soon after crossing Pokhran, Ghanshyam wanted to take a short dinner break at a roadside dhaba since he would not get any food in Jaisalmer. We waited for him for around half-n-hour. I took a walk and had a cup of tea. Since it was quite late and not much of crowd around, Asmi stayed put in the car. We set off on our final 100 kms at around 11 PM.

The road was smooth, traffic almost nil and speed was consistently at 80 kmph. Fortunately, it went all smooth and we reached Hotel Jaisalgarh at around 12:15 AM. The total journey from door to door thus took us a little over 12 hours. Hotel folks pleasantly greeted us to our room which was nice and comfortable and soon after they got us our dinner at our room. Finally we could call it a day after being 12 hours on the road.