Conky Tonkin' with The Pfeifers: 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.