We do Udaipur!

Arriving at the Udaipur airport, we meet our local guide who puts us on a bus and takes us to our Oberoi (now we’re getting spoiled) hotel on the bank of Lake Pichola.

Garden at our hotel

Our tour director tells us what time dinner is available and that the rest of the day is “free time.” We are stunned! FREE TIME!! Who ever heard of such a thing on a Tauck tour? Hell, there must be at least 2, maybe 3, hours of daylight left and surely that’s enough to see some old palace or fort, or maybe the cow stables across the street.

Our guide at City Palace

Why that’s enough time to rotate the tires on some tuk-tuk! You get the picture. The pace of the tour is starting to catch up with us. Jane is recovering from a head cold and Capt. Larry spends all of his “free time” trying to keep up with the blog.

City Palace

So, for what is was worth, we had an enjoyable dinner with Dave and Linda and then turn our “free time” into sleep time.

The next morning we board our bus and set out to discover Udaipur. Nicknamed the "City of Lakes," because of the seven surrounding man-made lakes, Udaipur is a small city (pop. 451,000) in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

Palace gate

Founded in 1559, the city is the historic capital of the Mewar kingdom. Besides its lakes, Udaipur is a popular tourist destination for its massive, historic forts and palaces, museums, galleries, gardens, and architectural temples.  

Ornate palace doorway

Its economy is primarily driven by tourism, though minerals, marble processing, chemical manufacturing, and the handicraft industry are also contributors.

Our first stop was, naturally, the City Palace (no city is complete without one!) situated on the east bank of Lake Pichola.

Amar Vilas with tub

With construction beginning in 1553, this palace complex, which contains several palaces, was built over a period of nearly 400 years with contributions from several rulers of the Mewar dynasty.

Palace island on Lake Pichola

The palaces within the complex are interlinked through a number of chowks or quadrangles with zigzag corridors, planned in this fashion to avoid surprise attacks by enemies. Low doorways, high doorsteps, and a labyrinth of narrow hallways made navigating through the palaces challenging for us, and one could understand how the structural design could impede enemy attacks.

The Maharaja's bedroom

We toured various parts of the palace and finally came to the Amar Vilas, the uppermost court inside the complex. This elevated garden was built in the Mughal style as a pleasure pavilion.

Steep climb to the Jagdish Temple

With its square marble tub, Amar Vilas is the highest point of the palace and has wonderful hanging gardens, fountains, towers, and terraces. The palace was filmed as a hotel in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy.

A temple spire with carvings

We left City Palace and walked the street a short distance to the Jagdish Mandir Temple. This Hindu temple is in the City Palace complex and has been in continuous worship since 1651.

Elephant pillar carvings

The temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the Universe, and is the largest temple in Udaipur. This three-storied temple was made in the Indo-Aryan style of architecture and has beautifully carved pillars, decorated ceilings, painted walls and lush halls.

Hindu shrine

As we approached the temple we were greeted by two huge stone elephants at the entrance, and a really steep marble flight of steps. We struggled up to the entrance and were met with a musical Hindu chant performed by approximately 40 worshippers. We went inside the temple and sat down to listen to the mantra performed by the worshippers sitting on the floor.

Carved spouting drain

And just when you thought the chant was ending, they started it back up. After about 15 minutes, we got up and filed by the priest who “dotted” Capt. Larry for adding $1 to his collection plate. Outside the temple, we viewed the intricate carvings on the pillars and friezes and collected our photos. We left the temple and went back to the City Palace where we were given time to do some shopping in the palace’s gift shops.

Entering Saheliyonki Bari

Boarding our bus, we rode to the 18^th-century fountain gardens of Saheliyonki Bari, built as a pleasure park for the 48 maids of the Maharana’s wife. We viewed the fountains and kiosks, a lotus pool and marble elephants.

A garden fountain

As we were viewing fountains along the walkway, our guide fed us a story about the gods watching over the gardens and told us that if we clapped our hands, they would respond to us. We all clapped our hands and the fountains suddenly started spraying about twice the height as before.

Elephant fountain

Puzzled and amazed we looked to our guide who explained, with a gleam in his eye, that a 100 rupee bank note to the gardener would get the water turned higher. Oh, the Tauck touch! We viewed the rest of these lovely gardens.

Cruising on Lake Pichola

As we returned to our bus, we noticed groups of people standing by the walkway fountains clapping their hands and chagrined that the water wouldn’t go higher.

Party palace on Lake Pichola

We had lunch at a local restaurant and then returned to our hotel. That evening we boarded boats that took us on a sunset cruise of Lake Pichola, an artificial freshwater lake and one of the several contiguous lakes in Udaipur.

Our hotel from the lake

The lake's surroundings and the several islands within the lake have been developed over the centuries, with palaces, marble temples, family mansions, and bathing ghats.

Our guide at the temple

The lake was created in 1362 by building dams to meet the drinking water and irrigation needs of the city.

Need a shock absorber?

We ended our cruise at a dock where we were reunited with our bus which took us to our dinner dining place tonight—an 85-year-old ancestral home hosted by a local family.

How about some peppers?

The family running this restaurant has developed a sort of star status and they have hosted a number of famous celebrities over the years.

Going to market

We were served traditional Indian cuisine, and it was a perfect evening tainted only by “hissy fit” from the Amber Fort being seated at our table and Capt. Larry breaking a wine glass (which our hosts attested was a sign of good luck!).

Another wiring mess!

Back at our hotel, we collapsed into bed really tired from the day’s activities. The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast with Dave and Linda, and then took a tuk-tuk ride to the open spice and vegetable markets in Udaipur.

A popular street eatery

What a great place to measure the heart and soul of Indian culture. The markets were so colorful and we got to see and meet the people that drive the local economy.

Various foods for sale

Our guide interpreted a constant stream of information as to what we were seeing and our interaction with the locals provided a really special experience.

Need some shoes?

The market and the vegetable and spice offerings overwhelmed the senses.

More foods and shoes

Occasionally we would come upon a small temple which would be very colorful and ornately decorated. At one temple, we saw our guide remove his shoes, make an offering, and give a prayer to the god depicted inside.

Yes, cow's urine is the ticket!

We also heard some Indian beliefs or urban myths that appear to be widespread within the Indian culture, but not generally known outside that culture.

Another pharmacy

For example, as our guide would identify various vegetables and spices he would attach a description as to how or why the item might be used: this spice is good for arthritis; that vegetable thins the blood; this is good for the heart and blood circulation; that is good for blood pressure, etc.

A market cutie!

Everything consumed seemed to have an attached medicinal value and we wondered to what degree these beliefs might impede or delay modern medical treatment.

A little bit of everything

But we really had to take pause when our guide stopped at a shop, picked up a small bottle, and said: “We drink cow’s urine for peace, happiness, and well being (and we thought beer did that!), and recently it has been used to treat cancer.” Holy cow, Batman! Did we just really hear that!?

Spices galore

We need to immediately invest in this new Indian chemotherapy—product development costs have to be low and potential profits should be sky high! Jane wanted to buy some for family Christmas gifts.

Bulk molasses

Smiling slyly, our guide seemed to relish the shock value this produced on western minds.

More peppers and spices

We walked on until we came to a street where our guide stopped and announced: “India has a caste system: the priests to the east; the warrior caste to the north (where we had been shopping); the merchants to the west; and the untouchables (but we don’t really use the “U” word) south of this street.” He then went on to talk about the long history his family has in the warrior caste.

How about some chickpeas?

We sensed from his comments that democratic India still maintains strict social divisions, but this was a subject that they did not seem to want to debate with western attitudes. They may not use the “U” word, but they still think it.  

Take your pick

It seems hard to imagine how much needed social reforms can ever be implemented in an India that still clings to these deep social divisions that can be so easily demarcated by a street.

Minding the store

We didn’t venture into the “untouchable” side, but turned instead and found our bus for a ride back to the hotel.

Another little sweetie!

Lots of veggies

An Exhausting Tour of Jaipur

We arose the next morning, had breakfast, and boarded our bus for a leisurely ride to Jaipur, the capital of India’s Rajasthan state.

Crowded street in Jaipur

Founded in 1727, the Old City, or “Pink City” for its trademark building color—a pink stucco architecture used throughout. The story goes that the city was being visited by a maharaja from another state, so the Maharaja of Jaipur ordered that the city be painted pink to honor him, and the rest is history.

A bit of a jam!

Jaipur is considered to be one of the best planned cities and is a popular tourist destination that forms a part of the west Golden Triangle tourist circuit along with Delhi and Agra.

Hawa Mahal with its 973 windows

Arriving at our hotel, another lavish Oberoi property, we were able to organize some of our luggage, before we reported for some sightseeing.

Our first tuk-tuk ride

On our way to our first stop, the Hawa Mahal palace, we encountered a couple of street snake charmers who gave us a real show.

Dave & "Giggles" in the tuk-tuk

The Hawa Mahal palace (“Palace of the Breeze”) was originally constructed in 1799 to allow women of the court to watch the activities taking place in the bazaar and the surrounding streets from behind stone-carved screens, so they would not be seen by the public.

Need a drink? A public well

This architectural feature also allowed cool air to pass through, making the whole area more pleasant during the high temperatures in summer. It is constructed of red and pink sandstone and sits on the edge of the City Palace.

World's largest sundial at Jantar Mantar

Next we boarded the motorized rickshaws (tuk-tuks) to visit the Jantar Mantar monument. The ride through city traffic in these motorized trikes was interesting to say the least. The ride is rough (do they not have good shocks here!?), smoky, and claustrophobic both inside the tuk-tuk (very confining) and in traffic as we could literally reach out and touch passing motorcyclists, scooter drivers, and other tuk-tuk riders.

Cap. Lar's astrology sign- Aquarius

Located near the Hawa Mahal and the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar monument is a collection of nineteen architectural astronomical instruments that was completed in 1734.

Gate to City Palace

It features the world's largest stone sundial and is a UNESCO World Heritage site (imagine!). The instruments allow the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye, and the observatory is an example of the Ptolemaic positional astronomy which was shared by many civilizations.

Carved archway in the palace

It was very rewarding to see the accuracy of the sundial compared to our watches and cell phones.

Our last stop of this excursion was at the City Palace, which is actually a palace complex that includes the Chandra Mahal and Mubarak Mahal palaces and other buildings.

Chandra Mahal in City Palace

While the opulent, colonnaded complex has gardens, courtyards and museums, part of it (Chandra Mahal) is still a royal residence not accessible by the public.

Painted walls in Chandra Mahal

The palace was built between 1729 and 1732 by the Maharaja of Jaipur, who built the outer walls, with later additions made by successive rulers continuing up to the 20th century, and is an amalgamation of the traditional Rajasthan and Mughal styles of architecture.

The palace's Peacock Gate

We viewed the gardens and courtyards, and toured the museums with our guide providing historical information about what we were seeing.

Linda & Jane with palace guards

For lunch we were taken to the Narain Niwas Hotel where we (Capt. Larry at least) enjoyed a traditional Indian Andhra meal where various foods are served in individual dishes and the diner can “mix and match” the foods to their desire.

Street snake charmers

A lazy Susan in the center of the table allows various sauces and condiments to be shared. The lunch was enjoyable and the setting was really cool.

Lunch is served!!

After lunch we were seated in a courtyard for a puppet show that was put on by a Sikh father and son team. The elder demonstrated the Sikh custom of never shaving or cutting their hair by unrolling his mustache that was wrapped around his ears and proudly displaying its length to the crowd.

Sikh showing off his whiskers

Their show was whimsical and entertaining and we enjoyed it a lot. Jane purchased one of the puppets for a souvenir.

Puppet show

Indian pharmacy

We returned to our hotel and prepared for what was billed as “a special dinner extravaganza.” We boarded our bus just as it was getting dark. 

Greeted by a dancing horse

With everyone dressed in their best travel clothes, our bus picked us up and delivered us to the opulent Taj Rambagh Palace for our evening dinner.

Jane and the camels

"Follow me to dinner"

We disembarked to trumpets blaring and drums beating and a dancing horse swaying to the music. There were also camels and elephants lined up in full regale. This processional greeting went on for about 15 minutes, when the music died down and we were able to approach and pet the animals. Then the elephants and camels turned through the gate and led us to a stair case that took us to an

al fresco dining area overlooking a beautiful courtyard and garden below
However, before we ate, we were entertained by two dancers performing the kathak dance of northern India.

Kathak dancer

The dance was quite expressive and entertaining and very enjoyable. We dined on traditional (we think we’d like to try something non-traditional!) Indian cuisine, before taking a very short tour of the grounds and palace.

No Big Macs here!

After returning to our hotel, we collapsed into bed after an exhaustive, but event-filled day.

We were up early the next morning for our journey to Jaipur’s Amber Fort (need I say it!?): a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Gate to Amber Fort

Boarding our bus, we rode a short distance to the town of Amer, site of the Amber Fort.

View from the gate

The fort is located high on a hill overlooking Amer, and the narrow road to the top is not accessible by buses. Jeep looking knock-offs (made by Indian automaker Mahindra) transport tourists from the bus parking lot to the top. And here is where it got interesting.

Rampart and royal living quarters

There was another large tourist group that was lined up to take the jeeps as they returned from depositing tourists at the top.

Palace garden

With only 4-7 persons in each vehicle, it was going to take a while to move this earlier-arriving group. After about 5-6 cycles, our guide went over and spoke to the guy directing the empty jeeps.

Palace entrance

Low and behold, the next 4 jeeps were filled by our group to the angry leers of the other. But that is what always seems to happen when we travel with Tauck.

But the drama didn’t stop there.

Mirrored hall

The ride up was slow and we were in a traffic jam, not moving at all for long periods. We had covered three-fourths of the approximately 1 mile to the top in about 45 minutes. At the top, they would only allow so many vehicles to enter at a time.

Beautiful stonework

We were parked, waiting, when a fellow group member had a hissy fit and went into a ranting tirade about how his wife was suffering and needed to exit the vehicle. The wife said she was fine, and everyone immediately tried to assist her while this west-coast snowflake was becoming apoplectic and demanded to know where the bus was so they could walk back down.

Mirrored walls

Really, weenie? You don’t think your wife would be uncomfortable walking back down the steep grade over cobblestones and then 1.5 miles back to the bus once you’re down.

Mosaic and mirror work

This wimp was using his wife to mask his uncontrollable frustration at having to wait. There are good drugs that can help you with this, bozo! After the guide made a couple of frantic phone calls, it was decided that we all would exit the jeeps and walk to the top. And that walk was arduous for some members.

Our hot air balloons

Winded, we reached the top with Jane bringing up the rear and continued our tour of the fort and palace. The whole incident marred the rest of the day all because a real dickhead couldn’t control himself—and he never had the balls to apologize for his behavior.

Amber Fort is the principal tourist attraction in Jaipur, and is known for its artistic Hindu style elements.

Disappointed riders

With its large ramparts and series of gates and cobbled paths, the fort overlooks Maota Lake which is the main source of water for the Amber Palace. We toured the opulent Amber Palace which is constructed of red sandstone and marble and is laid out on four levels, each with a courtyard.

Typical farm equipment

The more redoubtable Jaigarth Fort resides further up the hill above Amber Fort, but is connected to the palace by an underground passage that would allow royal family members to escape to a fortress offering higher security should Amber Fort be attacked.

Street peeing together!

We found the mirrored walls and ceilings to be particularly interesting as they would glitter in candlelight. With our tour finished, we rode back down to our bus and returned to our hotel for dinner and bedtime.

Our last day in Jaipur and we are up at 0400 for a 0500 departure to ride a hot air balloon over Jaipur.

A flower market

This was something we were really looking forward to. Our driver headed for the outskirts of Jaipur and soon we were on some really unimproved rural roads that bounced us all over the place. Nighttime drivers in India always drive with their bright lights on, even in the city and with oncoming traffic. A fog hung over the roadway and we felt our driver would be better served if he dimmed his lights, but it didn’t happen. The road became so desolate and eerie that we began to think that we could be murdered out here and no one would ever know. Probably happens all the time.

The ubiquitous motorbikes

Relieved that we finally made it to the launch site, we exited the car, got some coffee, and received our standing assignment in the balloon’s basket. Then the head of the balloon service gave us some bad news; the ride was cancelled due to low visibility. They will go up if visibility is at least 800 meters, but the fog had reduced this to less than 500 meters.

Probably not OSHA approved scaffolding!

We were disappointed because this was something we had looked for to putting on our “Things We Have Done” list, but it wasn’t going to happen on this trip. We returned to our hotel and got ready for our afternoon flight to our next stop, Udiapur.