20091031 - Rangoli Team Trip to Udaipur - Day 1

This Rangoli Team weekend trip to Udaipur was arranged by Susanne and Eva long before we actually set foot in India so we have been looking forward to it for quite some time. Finally the date has come…

Udaipur is a major tourist attraction and also referred to as ´Venice of the East´. The James Bond movie ´Octopussy´ has been filmed in Udaipur (Lake Palace in Lake Pichola), which is the reason why there are still so many cinemas in the city featuring this movie. The old city is built on tiny hillocks and raised areas and it´s narrow streets are full of twists and turns. On Friday evening around 22:00 o’clock (after a 4 to 5 hour drive) we arrived at our well decorated hotel where we enjoyed our cold beers at the rooftop terrace with a view over Lake Pichola. Lake Palace was lit and the atmosphere was perfect.

Saturday morning we went sightseeing with a guide. We visited the most important sights.

Jagdish Temple
In order to enter this temple (built in 1651), we had to climb up quite some stairs. When we arrived at the top of the stairs, we could see the astonishing stone carvings in the outside of the temple. Inside the temple, devotees were singing. The songs, accompanied by drums, had a slightly trance/ecstatic rhythm. One lady was passionately dancing in front of the black statue of Vishnu (one of the Hindu Gods).

City Palace
City Palace is the home of the Maharaja, currently converted into a museum. At the entrance there were four ´elephant-parking-spots´. When the palace was still in use, four elephants used to stand here in order to welcome any visitors. The palace was full of marble and it was huge. On the top floor there was even a (religious purpose) fountain with some seats around it for the people (like in a park) as well as one for himself. There were windows decorated with colourful Antwerp glass, walls decorated with Delfts blue tiles and ivory doors.

Lake Pichola
We went for a boat ride on Lake Pichola, a large artificial lake with two islands in it.

Lake Palace
During our boat trip, we passed Lake Palace. This Palace became famous when it was featured in the movie ´Octopussy´ (James Bond). It is currently functions as a top end Taj hotel. Until recently, it was possible to visit the hotel for a drink only now it is only accessible for hotel guests. However, there was another palace in the lake that we visited (after all, a Maharadja needs more than one home) which is currently hosts a restaurant.

Nehru Garden
At a very good lunch (fried chicken breast stuffed with cashew nuts and cotton cheese; an old Indian dish), we went to Nehru Garden. According to Wikipedia, this garden was inaugurated on the birth anniversary of the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Anyway, the garden had many fountains. One of them was really nice with four elephants spraying water from their trunk (Dutch: ´slurf´) towards the statue in the middle.

The attached video provides an impression of our sightseeing trip.



After this rather exhausting sightseeing trip, I went for a well deserved Ayurvedic Massage. Nice and relaxing :-). Too bad such a massage is not available in Ahmedabad for a reasonable price…