Thursday, April 16, 2009

Thursday April 16 - Udaipur

We had a short journey from our campsite to Udaipur, about 4 hours - with a stop along the way for chai. Above the back 5 seats of theTruck, is a shelf which contains another 4 seats. This morning, Dan opened up the back section of the roof and I was able to sit up there for about 2 1/2 hours. My head just peeped over the items stored on the roof of the truck making it easy to duck for trees and hydro wires. The view was fantastic. We could see straight down the tiny tree-lined roads we were travelling along; we could see over brick walls and into courtyards where goats, cows, oxen and camels lay or stood munching on their straw, and we could see the beautiful facades of some of the buildings we passed. We passed slowly through some towns where political rallies were in full swing and our guide has warned us well to stay clear of political demonstrations as they can become violent, as evidenced by the "riot control vehicle" we passed ominously parked in one of the village squares.

We pulled into Udaipur around 11:30 a.m. and our hotel for 2 nights "Inder Prakash". The hotel is an elegant "persian" looking hotel, with beautiful black wood doors, windows and trim. The doors are secured with padlocks and there is a musket hanging on the wall , hope we don't have to use it! The ceilings are about 11 feet high, and there is a TV, a beautiful window seat overlooking Neharu Island Park in Fateh Sagar Lake. The lake was man made in 1678 by some Maharaja and the gardens can be reached by a autorickshaw. Once again in Udaipur we see the contrasts of India. Where the streets are busy, noisy and untidy, this lake at night time is beautifully lit and quite romantic with full value being made of the white palace like structure in the park. There were even fireworks tonight over the lake in celebration of the Congress Party's win in the area.

Udaipur, population 389,317 is referred to as the Venice of the East. The main lake is Lake Pichola which is flanked by the Aravilli hills. It is in this lake that you see the floating palace - Lake Palace - where parts of Octopussy were filmed. Tomorrow we are hiring a taxi to take us to see more of this city of opposites. Today, we went to the Internet, an ATM - this was an interesting experience with the security guard supporting a 12 gauge shot gun with hundreds of bullets slung around his shoulders - arranged our day tomorrow, and finally had dinner on the beautiful roof terrace overlooking the Lake where the bright lights of the gardens in the lake reflected their shadows over the shimmering water. It was dreamlike and quite romantic.

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