Arriving in Udaipur after a 22 hour journey felt like a huge sigh of relief. Sitting by the peaceful lake, enjoying a wonderful Thali it felt great to know that we would be staying put put for a few days. No rickety buses, just our feet to carry ourselves through the winding streets. We had a great tim in the city; here’s our little list of things you can get up to.
Exploring the streets and markets
Oh, the streets! After our relaxing lunch, heading back over the bridge and into the hustle and bustle bought back a bit of tension. The streets are tiny, sloping, winding and jam packed full of auto-rickshaws and motorbikes incessantly beeping their horns at whatever cow, goat, cart, man, woman or child in their way. In fact they beep their horns regardless of the situation ahead of them. Just in case I suppose.
There seems to be only one rule: don’t get hit.
The tourist hub is small and we never had to walk far in any direction before the shops were selling pots and pans instead of hippie pants and postcards. A little further out, people often looked surprised but very happy to see us.
Once you get used to the chaos, it really is a great city to explore on foot. The vibrant markets are an assault on all your senses and the tiny lanes are full of character. Many doorways and walls have been painted and are so pretty that you want to take a photo, until you are almost run down by a motorbike that appears to be held together by duct tape. Be careful, but enjoy!
Take a boat trip on Lake Pichola
When a city sits next to two lakes, it would be rude not to take a boat trip, right?!
You can take a boat trip from the city palace complex to an island in the middle of the lake. Or, like us, you can save money by walking a bit further to another small jetty, and getting a 20 minute boat ride round the lake for just 250 rupees each. It gives you a very different view and the city looks truly spectacular from the lake, with hotels, museums and palaces all gathered around the water. This is the first time I really understood Udaipur’s reputations as the most romantic city in India.
Watch traditional Rajasthani folk dancing
Sitting on the terrace of Bagore-ki-Havelli, Matt turns to me and says ‘I’d love to stage a Shakespeare play here’. He’s right. There is a tree in the middle of the space and an open stage in front of us. Behind that are big empty windows and doorways, monkeys stairways and multi-story corridors. It is screaming out for a Renaissance comedy, but we were there to see something quite different: traditional Rajasthani entertainment including dancing and puppetry. It did not disappoint.
A compere led us through the evening, explaining the traditions behind each act in both English and Hindi. Some were incredible, some beautiful, some fascinating and some funny – we loved it all. There is a nightly show from 7pm-8pm. Entrance was 100 rupees plus an extra 100 camera charge. A fantastic show and a real bargain.
Visit the City Palace
This is obviously the city’s big attraction and it is a beautiful building. You can spend a couple of hours exploring it’s corridors, courtyards, temples and apartments. You can hire a local guide to take you round, though we decided not to as they seemed a little rushy and rude. An audio guide might have been good to give more information, although there were a lot of boards about explaining the history and the exhibits. But even without one, this was a really enjoyable museum and definitely a must-do in Udaipur
Walk up the sunset point.
One of our travel mantras: there’s always a free hill. If you’re on a budget, packed some decent shoes and like beautiful views you should walk up to Sunset Point. There is a cable car to the top which isn’t expensive but looking at it we thought we could walk it for free and it actually didn’t take long at all. Bonus points for achievement to! The walk was about 30 minutes from our hostel in the centre of town. The panaramic views from the top are incredible and it’s a great place to watch the sun set over the lake and the whole city.
