Udaipur - 19th , 20th Nov

19th November 2007 (Monday)- Udaipur

Visited Udaipur City Palace – It is definitely a must see – with the mirror room, another room with blue and white ceramic work , stained glass etc etc etc … The part I liked best was dressing my baby in Rajasthani dress and getting her snap in front of the palace. They do not allow us to take any other snap other than the one they take !! That was disappointing but still the photo of her with the dress was cute !!! She too loved it ! :):) It also distracted her from her crankiness for sometime … :):) There is also a light show in Udaipur City Palace…. We caught a glimpse of it on the way back from Crystal Museum …
We loved the Crystal Museum .. (which is next to the City Palace) the entrance price is steep ( Rs 525) but it was worth it …. The crystal was clean, gleaming and maintained so beautifully … Just sparkling … it is good to know that we can take care of our heritage well given adequate funds …
The Lake palace is a hotel ( can be seen from the City palace ) and booking for dinner there needs to be done around 24 hrs before which we did not know. Jag Mandir is also a restaurant – going to this place is not as difficult. The view of Jag Mandir is better from another point in Udaipur called the sunset point / Dudh Talaya .. especially at twilight …
The people of Udaipur are very very very friendly … no matter how many times I re-iterate that I think it will be less. When we entered the city a youth came to us and asked us if we were looking for directions ….. other ppl got down from their vehicles to give us directions … Another affable soul not only told us where to go for a memory card but also helped us find a parking space plus reverse park there !!! Amazing !!!! At the crystal museum we were not made to feel like we would snatch the pieces (which happens in quite a few places actually !!!! :) ) All in all .. a very good place ppl wise ..

20th November 2007 (Tuesday)- Udaipur
Visited Saheliyon ki Bari – which was a garden for royal ladies … our baby had a nice time there …. So many fountains and open space to run about … :):) The water fountains work on water pressure and not electricity .. There is a small science museum kind of place inside which was fun too … couple of crazy mirrors and its reflections .. brought about gales of laughter from Nakshatra ! :):) There were some interesting puzzles too … :):)
Moved on to Sajjan Niwas Garden and enjoyed the mini train ride … it goes via the zoo – where u can see the bear, tiger, cheetah, peacocks etc ….. the zoo is closed on Tuesdays …. So we could not have a closer look …
Sunset point at Dudh Talaya was good … as mentioned before Jag Mandir looks much nicer from this point .. u can get camel rides here too ..
Rajasthani thalis at Rs 18/- can be found near hotels at the Chetak circle …. a known landmark
It is a good drive around the Fathesagar lake .. just put ur vehicle in 2nd gear and enjoy the scenery … very pleasant ..
Lots of places to take snaps ….!!!! :):)
Our bad experience in Udaipur was at a shop called Regal at Bapu Market … God knows what he tried to do while copying our snaps to a CD .. all he did was corrupt all the snaps …. We would instead suggest take a laptop or sufficient memory card for all ur snaps ….

Udaipur Driving/Roads

The roads in Udaipur are very narrow almost felt like only 2 wheels were touching the ground at any point of time ..!! It is easier to take local transport ( even though they charge quite a bit ) since u can reach your destination faster !! If taking your 4 wheeler definitely learn reverse parking ! :)