Day 12 - Udaipur

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Namaste!

Even in India, servers crash - apparantly ours did yesterday but fixed this morning.

Yesterday our drivers welcomed us at 9 o’clock this morning to take us down the mountain into the city of Udaipur where we picked up our guide and set off to the City Palace, still the home of the current Maharana of Udaipur.

The City Palace, the largest in Rahjasthan, was commenced in 1559 by the 53^rd King of the Dynasty and took 400 years to complete.

In Udaipur there were four main royal palaces – the City Palace (aka Winter Palace), the Monsoon Palace, the Lake Palace (aka Summer Palace) and the Pleasure Palace.

Udaipur is known as the Venice of India – due to a number of lakes. The Lake Palace and the Pleasure Palace are situated on islands in one of the lakes which is man made.

We took a turn around the Friends Garden which were laid out in 1734 for the Queen and her friends to visit. You’ll see a photo of a bouganvillea which looking at the circumference of its stems must be ancient.

There were three or four pool and fountain areas – all the fountains work on gravity – stemming from the lake above. We saw mango trees, travellers palm, neem and ashoka and surprisingly a row of sweet peas all neatly supported and just about to flower.

Our first lunch outside in the sunshine - four main courses and drinks - total cost 1480 rupees (22 Euros)

Then a boat trip on the lake taking in the sights from a different perspective – and cruising close by the Lake Palace and the Pleasure Palace.

Another wonderful day

Re Quiz J - Horse counts as one creature. Look more closely at the first horse. New Quiz - we've worked out the tree in the Friends Garden, but have you?

Nous amenons des chillies avec nous et des autres epices- aujourd'hui nous irons au marché - plein de legumes et fruit a voir que nous connaissons pas. Les curries que nous mangeons sont épicé mais pas trop fort. Ils disent que ils mangeons plus fort ou 'chaud' ou 'ca pique' au Sud de l'Inde.

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Photos

Udaipur hotel
Fateh Garh - our hotel

Udaipur hotel
Norm wreaks havoc with ancient artifact

Udaipur hotel
Three quarters of team at hotel gate

City Palace
dommage ils n'ont pas un cabaneau

City Palace
Mirror mirror on the wall

City Palace
Always interpreted as a god

City Palace
Kings Guard

Udaipur
Skyline view of city

Friends Garden
Glad we don't have to prune this

Friends Garden
We don't have a clue - anyone recognise it?

Friends Garden
Inerpretation required

Lake Cruise
Heads and shoulders, knees and toes

Lake Cruise
Washday Blues

Lake Cruise
City Palace viewed from lake

Lake Cruise
Echappé de l'étang

Comments

[Margaret and Alan]

Udaipur looks lovely
Just imagine living in one of those palaces never mind having one for each season! Quiz J: what kind of bird is it? Today's quiz: Is it a kind of honeysuckle? We look forward to the witty comments and marvellous photos every day.

[rob and jen]

just do not know
Good day to you all ,hope you are ok.The nearest tree we could find to the photo from Friends garden is the cork tree but the colour of the flower is cream not yellow.Back to the quiz-horse one an unidentifiable object on his mane,horse two a bird on his mane and on the wall well some sort of lizard. j.x x x x