Udaipur - City of Lakes

Udaipur is the "City of Lakes", sometimes also referred to as the "Venice of the East".  It has also been dubbed the most romantic place in India, with Lake Pichola and the purple hills rising up around it on all sides.  Udaipur is also famous for its palaces, temples and havelis (mansions).  We flew into Udaipur the evening that Rachel arrived for her Easter break, and spent the first evening wandering around the streets and eventually having dinner at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the City Palace.

The following day we set off for the City Palace in the morning.  This is Rajastha's largest palace - actually a conglomeration of 11separate palaces - full of balconies, towers and cupolas.  The palace was started in the 16th century on a hilltop with a panoramic view of the city and surroundings.  Parts of the palace are still owned and lived in by the Maharana (king), the rest is a museum where you can see mirror-work, marble-work, murals, wall paintings and so on.  There is a great view of the lake and other palaces.  

After walking through the many rooms of the palace we walked down to the lake and took a boat trip on Pichola Lake.  This is an artificial lake created in the 14th century and since then small islands in the lake have been developed with palaces and temples on them.  Around the lake are ghats (steps where people bathe and wash their clothes).

The boat trip stopped at the Jag Mandir, this is a palace built on an island in the lake and is also called the Lake Garden Palace.  This was also constructed in the 16th century and today partly functions as a hotel.

Other places we visited on our first day in Udaipur were the Bagore-ki-Haveli (mansion) which has 100 rooms and has recently been partially restored and now houses displays of daily life, turbans and puppets.  We also visited the Jagdish Temple, right in the middle of Rajasthan.

Our first day in Udaipur also happened to be my birthday.  We went out to another lovely rooftop restaurant at the Jagat Niwas Palace.  The views of the sunset were superb!

The following day was Holi, so after our meal we went back to the main square outside the Jagdish Temple to join in the celebrations.  It was very crowded and not very safe - with a huge tree surrounded by firecrackers which were set off as the celebrations started.  We didn't stay long in these crowds.

We "played Holi" on our last day, followed by another lovely rooftop restaurant with amazing view (though not as nice a sunset as the previous day).  We ate at the highest rooftop restaurant in Udaipur.

My memories of Udaipur are mostly of the rooftop views - both of the surrounding mountains and lakes, and of the peeks into the ordinary lives of the people.

Rachel's Rajasthan

Rachel came to India for Easter, and during the time she was here we spent almost a week in Rajasthan.  We flew to Udaipur and spent 3 days there, then travelled to Jodhpur via Kumbalgarth and Ranakpur.  Rachel takes great photos, so I'm publishing some of them on the blog.

Women and Children

Windows and Doors

Buildings

 Daily Life

 Miscellaneous

Mattancherry - Kerala

On our last day in Kerala we took the ferry over again, but instead of turning towards Fort Cochin, we turned in the opposite direction towards Mattancherry.  This place, sometimes called "Jew Town" had a very different feel about it.  In Mattancherry we went around the Dutch Palace, which was actually built by the Portuguese but restored by the Dutch in the 17th century.  We were not allowed to take photos inside the palace.  There are many murals inside the palace that tell the story of the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha.  These are in the style of Hindu temple art.

While in Mattancherry we also tried to go to the Jewish Synagogue, but unfortunately it was a Jewish holiday and so it was closed.

The Backwaters of Kerala

Jill, Evelyn, Lex and I went on a boat trip around the backwaters of Kerala.  We actually went on 2 boats - in the morning we were on a very small boat and travelled along small waterways, hopping off at various villages.

The first village we stopped at was where women made rope out of copra (the inside of coconut husks).  The women go through a long procedure of soaking the husks to make them usable, and then twisting the strands into rope - which is actually very strong.  This is used in a variety of ways, including something called geotex which is put alongside the banks to stop erosion.

 

Meanwhile the "flesh" of the coconut is dried in the sun and then send to a factory.  The coconut oil is removed, leaving dessicated coconut.  The brown outside of the coconut can be used as firewood and as a fertilizer.

Clothes are washed in the local waterway

After visiting the rope making village and another village where different spices were grown (pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg) we took another boat over to an island where we had a local lunch.

After lunch we set off on a larger boat down a river.  It was a slow, but very relaxing, journey.