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Published: June 18th 2010
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A Mirage: The Lake PalaceUdaipur is a rather classy area of Southern Rajasthan, it has to be said. We therefore arrived in suitable fashion, in a private car, oooh! The Lake Palace which floats on Pichola Lake here featured in classic James Bond film 'Octopussy' and I can see why, it is breathtakingly stunning location-wise. It has a sort of film magic about it looking like it's floating in it's own little world in the centre of this serene lake, far from the hectic streets (well not so hectic on Indian standards!).
As we arrived all this stuff which looked like confetti started to fall over the cars, i'm not sure if it was ash or blossom or what but it made a lovely entrance to Udaipur. As we drove up a very steep hill (in first gear I think) we were going about the same speed as a large troop of school girls in an ultra-smart navy blue uniform. They seemed to be enjoying whatever this floating stuff was too and their laughter carried into us and seemed to lighten our mood following the long warm drive from Pushkar.
Well, the hotels just seem to get better. This place was gorgeous and
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Rajasthani dancers one of Papi's favourites. All I remember was that someone took our bags and we drifted into this cool oasis of cool sandy-coloured marble. There were low sofas covered in beautiful fabrics and the place smelt great with several incense burners. We had not even seen the best bit yet! Papi encouraged us to go straight up the multple flights of marble stone stairs to the rooftop restaurant. We had an amazing view of the Lake Palace as well as over the town and shores of Udaipur. We could not tear ourselves away from this beautiful view and there were multiple attempts to get THE perfect shot. We retired to lovely clean, bright-white sheeted rooms, with very good showers again (bonus!) and got ready for an evening out to a traditional Rajasthani dancing and puppetry show.
Arriving at around sunset in a gorgeous carved wooden open air stage, the venue was full, some sitting on chairs, some of us cross-legged on the floor. There was a palpable excitement building as the drums beat. Each act was explained first in English which was very nice although some of the terms must have been lost in translation and we ended up
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Dressed up elephants in politely-suppressed giggles! Full points for effort though! The dancers were superb and their happy faces gave away that they enjoyed the performance which makes all the difference I think when watching a show of this sort. There were many different types of dancing, fast in groups, balancing pots, some on fire, some stocked up in massive piles balanced on the head etc. One older lady who I must admit I thought was copping out a bit by sitting on the ground, actually impressed everyone a lot by hitting various bells all over her body to make a rhythmic tune! Very unexpected and cool to watch. My favourite bit though had to be the traditional Rajasthani puppets which were manned by a very talented young man. Each move of the puppet was accompanied by a very shrill whistle and as the dance increased in intensity and the moves became more complicated the shrill whistling rose to illustrate it. The puppets body parts also came apart quite alarmingly and it ended with the puppet upside down juggling it's own head back and forth between it's feet. It was amazing to see close up and looked like some weird kind of magic!
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Chilling at Jagmandir Island It kind of spooked and thrilled us all!
We clapped a lot, then wandered around Udaipur locating the various internet cafes and shops for the morning. After a delicious meal at the rooftop restaurant with plenty of alcohol flowing we sat and looked out onto the twinkling lights of the palace now definately levitating in mid air in the dark! Was it this magical place or the alcohol? Bit of both. We sat chatting and laughing until the dogs of Udaipur started to howl eerily to each other in what became a chorus. It was also a fullish moon......
Next morning we hot-footed it down to the Udaipur city palace and got on board a boat to see Pichola Lake and obviously to snoop close up to the Lake Palace! There were plenty of people out on the lake even early in small canoe-like boats. There were some luxury recliner type boats tied up for the V.I.Ps staying at the lake palace, tempted to hi-jack one! We then visited Jagmadir Island, another place which seemed like a film-set. The beautiful courtyard was flanked by richly dressed waiters who were eager to serve us despite our less-than filmstar-like appearances!
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View from hotel rooftop We enjoyed the views out over the lake whilst sipping 'sweet lemon' and watched the stone elephants guarding the establishment being dressed in lovely purple velvet covers! This place was amazing, just how you imagine it would be like to be a Maharaji or Maharani! Well, I can always dream.
Anyway, time to move on from picture perfect Udaipur. Next we are to visit Ranakpur before our onward journey to Jodhpur!
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