Udaipur

I arrived in a sleeping Udaipur after having taken the night bus from Jodhpur, on a very bumpy journey, at 4a.m. totally exhausted. I waited until daylight and then took an autorickshaw to the hostel that was recommended to me by the wonderful people I met in Jodhpur. Funnily enough I am the only person staying here for this night, so I was lucky enough to have the owner of the hostel offer to show me around some of the places in Udaipur.

So after a bit of rest, a shower and some breakfast, we set out to explore the less trodden paths of Udaipur.

Udaipur is a city surrounded by mountains and lakes, some artificial and others not. During the dry season the lakes dry-up and when the monsoons come, the lakes fill up. Apparently the last time the lakes totally dried up was six years ago. Since the monsoons have now started here in India, there is some water in the lakes, though not yet as much as there will be at the height of the season.

First we went to the Monsoon Palace, one of three palaces used by the Maharajah; there is also the lake palace for the summer and the city palace for the winter time. The palace is set at the top of a hill in the middle of a nature reserve - now administered by the government. The palace itself has so much potential, but is not really well kept; however, the views of Udaipur, the mountains surrounding it and the lakes are amazing.
The palace was constructed by Maharajah Sajjan Singh in the late 19th century and was originally used as an observatory; it later became the Monsoon Palace and a hunting lodge for the Maharajah.

After the Monsoon Palace we went to one of the lakes, called Tiger Lake, an artificial lake which is surrounded by mountains and offers a stunning landscape. This lake is not one of the two big lakes which border the city, but is further out in the country side. Children were swimming and a bit further on, women were washing their clothes in the lake.