Travel-n-Shoot: Rajasthan - Royal State of India (Udaipur)

Day 9: Saturday, November 22, 2014

Today we started bit late in the morning (@ 10.00 am) as we have to visit only Jagdish Temple, Udaipur City Palace and Pichola Lake which are very close to each other. Got out of the room, completed morning breakfast and walked for 5 minutes towards Jagdish Temple. The temple is another example of beautiful carvings on marble stones. We spent 30 odd minutes and came outside. You walk for 2-3 minutes and will reach at the ticket counter of Udaipur City Palace. Entry tickets to City Palace is Rs. 115 per person and camera ticket for a single camera is Rs. 225 (That’s damn costly L). The palace complex consists of various halls such as Amar Vilas, Badi Mahal, Durbar hall, Fatehprakash palace, Krishna Vilas, Laxmi Vilas chowk, Manak Mahal, Mor Chowk, Rang Bhawan, Sheesh Mahal to be named. To tell the truth, I don’t remember which hall is which. Looking at the desktop models of palace complex, I learned that this complex was built in different eras by different rulers over the period of 300 years. It can take from 2 to 4 hours depending upon your interest in luxurious life of then Maharajas. It took us 3.5 hours to complete the City Palace tour. In my opinion, it will be better if you hire personal or audio guide. Light and Sound show can be attended at Udaipur City Palace.

By this time we were hungry and decided to go for lunch at Lucky restaurant. The food was tasty. We then went to Gangaur Ghat. Again this ghat not more than 10-15 minutes of walking distance from Jagdish Temple. I wanted to click pictures of Udaipur City Palace, Gangaur Ghat and Pichola Lake so we started walking towards Hanuman Ghat which is on the west side of lake. After passing few narrow lanes, we reached a spot from where I can get a nice view. I was clicking pictures using a tripod and one elderly person walked to me and asked, “Sir, are you a professional photographer?” I denied and said, “No, it’s only my hobby”. The person then said that he owns temple and if you go to the terrace of that temple then you gets an excellent view of the Lake and Palace. We followed that person and went to the temple terrace and indeed the view of amazing. But here comes the truth. Now that person asked for Rs. 100 as “donation” to use his terrace. We thought for few moments and agreed to give him the money. We clicked few pics and after 10-15 minutes one more person came with tripod and same story was repeatedJ. We witnessed a magnificent sunset over Lake Pichola and also got few excellent shots of Palace. It was time to walk back towards our homestay. We really enjoyed today’s day.

Day 9: Carving on Jagdish Temple

Day 9: Carving on Jagdish Temple

Day 9: Udaipur City Palace

Day 9: Sheeh Mahal or Palace of mirrors inside Udaipur City Palace

Day 9: Mor chowk or Peacock square inside Udaipur City Palace

Day 9: inside Udaipur City Palace

Day 9: View of Gangaur Ghat

Day 9: View of Udaipur City Palace

Day 9: Sunset at Lake Pichola

Day 9: Night view of Jagmandir

Day 9: Night view of Udaipur City Palace

Day 10: Sunday, November 23, 2014

For today, we hired an auto rickshaw for visiting Eklingji Temple, SahastraBahu Temple, Saheliyon ki Badi and Fateh Sagar Lake. An hour ride of about 22 km from Udaipur took us to Eklingji Temple. It’s a temple complex consisting of 108 small and big shrines. The complex is surrounded by high walls and you are NOT allowed to take camera inside the temple complex. If you visit these temple on Monday then you may see lot more people so I would suggest go on other days of the week. About 2.5 km from Eklingji, is another temple complex named SahastraBahu or Saas-Bahu Temple. We reached this temple at 12 noon. I read that it is local corruption in pronouciation that turned SahastraBahu (One with thousand arms) into Saas-Bahu (mother-in-law and daughter-in-law). The temple is now defunct and you will not see any idols inside temple. One can see beautiful carvings on the walls of temples. It seems that this place don’t see many tourist. An architectural jewel now in ruins definitely worth a visit. No entry fees here.

It was time to visit Saheliyon ki Badi which is nearer to Udaipur city. It is a garden and popular spot among tourist as well as local which is close to Fateh Sagar Lake. The most interesting thing to look for in the garden are beautiful lotus pools, marble pavilions and elephant fountains. Entry ticket is Rs. 10 per person. A 5 minutes’ drive will take you to Fateh Sagar Lake. There are few shops near to bank of the lake and we decided to have our lunch in one of them. We then bought two boat ride tickets of Rs. 60 to Nehru garden which is located on the island. This place is good to take pictures, stroll and to relax. We spent more than an hour here and headed back. The auto rickshaw driver dropped us at Jagdish Temple. We payed Rs. 750 as rent for today’s ride.

It was approximately 5.00 pm and we went to Lal Ghat from where we can take a boat ride on Lake Pichola. We here watched yet another splendid sunset sitting in a boat over the lake. A sight that need to behold. Boating charges were Rs. 125 per person. We then went to Bagore-ki-Haveli to watch a traditional Rajasthan folk dance and puppet show called “Dharohar” which means Heritage or Legacy. A group of women performed different folk dances which were really nice to see. But most astonishing performance was by a veteran dancer who started balancing with one earthen pot and a person added one more after she completed few dance moves. It was jaw-dropping to see 11 earthen pots balancing on a head and performing dance. Quite obviously she got deserving standing ovation! Bagore-ki-Haveli is adjacent to Gangaur Ghat. Ticket to the show cost Rs. 60 per person and Rs. 100 extra for the camera. We had dinner at Lucky restaurant and went back to our hotel.

Day 10: Carvings at SahastraBahu