Blogs from Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 7

Accommodation - LaLit Laxmi Vilas Palace Weather - Sunny & blue skies - 28C During our journey to Udaipur we stopped at Ranakpur the site of one of the largest Jain temple complexes in India. Set within the wooded hillside of the Aravallis mountains the central Chaumukha Temple was built in 1439, and is in stunning condition, composed of 29 halls supported by 1,444 ornately carved marble pillars, none of which are alike. On our journey we also saw examples of rural indian life, with an oxen-operated persian style water wheel, a camel carrying dried sugar cane stalks, a village water pump and a visit to a Bishnoi village. The Bishnoi tribe follow strict conservational religious beliefs, protecting the flora and fauna, strict vegetarians and live in tidy small hamlets. The married women wear ornamental nose ... read more

With our next destination, Udaipur, we had one main thing in mind…..relaxing. Surrounding Lake Pichola, with its heritage hotels, Hindu temples and impressive Rajasthan City Palace with water lapping at its footings, this town promised to bring us what we were looking for. Booking into our preferred hotel, the Mewar Haveli, we were fortunate to snare what seemed to be their best room. Three floors up and with large windows dominating two of our four walls, we had stunning views of the lake. This included a great view of the Taj Lake Palace Hotel (from the Bond movie Octopussy), as well as the equally and dare I say even perhaps even more impressive (certainly in the dark), Jagmandir Island hosting another floating hotel on the lake. All this was very impressive, however it wasn’t until our ... read more

We took a train from Jaipur to Kota, and then hopped on a local bus, which cost 20 rupees (or about 40 cents), for the one-hour ride into Bundi. We liked Bundi immediately. It is a smaller, walled city that is built into the hillside, with a large fort and palace that hang high above it. The buildings are all painted blue, and as we drove into the city towards our guesthouse, we could see large langar monkeys jumping across the rooftops. We stayed in another great place; again with a rooftop overlooking the city and with a view of the palace behind us. From the rooftop you could sit and watch dozens of monkeys jumping back and forth between the buildings, walking casually along the railing right in front of us. Very cool! After checking ... read more

Kumbhalgarh - Location Its location had always been Kumbhalgarh's greatest advantage. Because it was virtually inaccessible in the 15th century, Rana Kumbha of Mewar built this great defensive fortress on a 3,500 feet (1,100 meters) high hill overlooking the approaches from Ajmer and Marwar. Today, precisely because it is within easy reach of Udaipur, Jodhpur, Ajmer, and Pushkar-yet off the well trodden tourist routes-Kumbhalgarh is an attractive destination. Kumbhalgarh - History In Kumbha's time the kingdom of Mewar spread from Ranthambore to Gwalior, including vast tracts of present-day Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Mewar's rulers became patrons of all that was best in Indian martial and fine arts, architecture, and learning. Of the 84 fortresses defending Mewar, 32 were designed and built by Rana Kumbha. Of these, Kumbhalgarh with its 36-kilome... read more

A day which has earned an entry all of its own. We began the day with what shall forever more be remembered as the ‘sweat death breakfast’ on the rooftop of our guesthouse. Turns out when there is no breeze it is rather warm in Udaipur, even at 8am. If only someone had warned us it might be hot. Oh wait…After ten minutes of alternating between using the menu as fan, hat and elbow mat to prevent frying our elbows on the molten metal table we surrendered to the shade to finish our sweat droplets with muesli fruit curd-the incredibly appetising Indian term for yoghurt. We have managed to, with a combination of extensive gesturing, saying the same sentence repeatedly in increasingly louder and with varying inflections and haphazard missing out of selected words (as has ... read more