Mr & Mrs Wanderlust : Chilled time in the white city, Udaipur

Transport

So we had booked a night train from mumbai to udaipur but unfortunately we hit a spot of bother and due to our tickets not being confirmed we decided to not take the risk of boarding the train on a general ticket,

so we end up going on another night bus costing 2500 for both of us. Thankfully it ended up being he nicest night bus we have used since being away! It was clean and comfortable and thankfully the roads were forgiving, so it enabled us a fairly good nights sleep!

Accomodation

While in Udaipur we stayed in Udai Haveli Guesthouse which was a great location right near Lake Pichola, budget friendly and the staff are really friendly (especially Vicky). He was great at helping us with planning our days, helping us with being able to know when people were conning us, offering suggestions on places to eat, helping us buy 'secret beer' and he even helped us rush to the tuk tuk carrying our bags for us on the last day!

Morning yoga

Abi was lucky enough to be able to do yoga in the mornings and tried 2 different places; Nukkad Guesthouse & Prakash Yoga. Both are at 8am for 1 hour and run on a donation basis. The classes are both very different in style with Nukkad being more relaxed and Prakash more traditional. Abi said It felt great to get up early and do these classes and she would really recommend anyone wanting to keep up their yoga practice to attend.

Wandering the windy streets

Our favourite part of Udaipur was certainly the beautiful windy streets filled with gorgeous art, clothing and homeware shops alongside many cafe's and restaurants. On our first day we took a walk around the town, accross the lake, to either side. the town is one of the cleanest we have visited, and its not too busy, less intrusive honking than Mumbai. On our walk we stopped in at Edelweiss cafe where we had the best chocolate brownie we had had in India for only 60 INR, it was firm and dense unlike some of the others which are closer to a chocolate cake, than a chocolate brownie.

We continued walking and came across Ashok arts, where Abi stopped for some henna on her hand it was commented on that it was a good one, we were advised that to make henna last longer you should apply sugar water whilst it is drying. This took about 15 minutes to d o and we continued to walk around the art shops, before deciding to go to the Queen Cafe, the other side of the river, crossing the pedestriian footbridge, it is only 200 yards after the bridge, and the food was exceptional. Meenu came and spoke with us. The restaurant is in Meenu's parents home, and it is tiny, but the food is good value and delicious, Abi had the pumpkin curry, Gary had the tomato curry and we had the kasmiri pullao, everything was amazing and great value, you cannot fault Meenu's cooking skills, she also runs a tour from the restaurant and cookery classes around the corner. She is definitely a busy lady, but is down to earth and easy to talk to. Her English is exceptional, and she is excellent with tourists. We had already booked on a cookery course, with Noble Cookery class.

The next morning we were up early to visit the white palace in Udaipur, which has many artefacts, and lots of unique features, we hired a guide for 300 INR (it was cheaper than getting two audio guides) he gave us lots of information on the history of Udaipur and its rulers, and talked us through stories of battles that have commenced in Udaipur. The palace was nice and grounds were good, but the museum was not quite so awe inspiring as the Mysore Palace, which leaves you awestruck. This palace tour took approx 2 and a half hours.

Once we had finished we walked out to Noble Cookery class which is just off a side street by the crossroads near the palace. Only a few minutes walk. When we arrived, we were greeted by Rajni who had a smile beaming from ear to ear. She was a lovely lady and a great cook. The food she taught us to cook was amazing, very tasty. and it was plentiful, we left so full we didn't want to eat for the rest of the evening. we started the cookery course around 2pm and finished around 7pm. In which time we had learnt a variety of dishes, and eaten them all!! After the cookery course we took a leisurely stroll back to the hostel, trying to walk off some of the food!!

The next day, Abi's alarm went off to go to yoga, but we had been burning the candle at both ends for a few days, so we switched it off, and had an extra hour in bed, we got up and did a bit of blogging, before walking to the end of the street to a newly opened Green Grass Cafe for a Lassi. The owner was a very nice man who couldn't do enough for us. he talked us through everything in Udaipur, and made sure we had sample'd its many delights, even offering to cook us a special dish and bring it in the next day. Unfortunately we were booked up the next day, so had to refuse his offer, but his understanding of food and nutrition was second to none. he is right next to Prakash Yoga, and is open in the mornings for fruit juices, healthy porridge etc, so after your yoga class you can stop in for healthy food and a morning shot of righteousness.

We meandered the streets till around 5pm where we found the info on the government boat for a sunset cruise of lake picchola, it was nice, takes around 45 mins, but doesn't stop at the posh hotel in the lake like the private lake tours. Nevertheless there is quite a price difference, the government boat being 300-400 INR and the private boats being 700 INR(after 2pm, however you can stay at the island hotel as long as you like and can jump on any boat back to the mainland) I would recommend the sunset tour, the views are beautiful of the mountain range, and the hotels look stunning when they put their lights on. We finished our boat cruise at 6.40 and quickly rushed around the corner to watch the cultural show at Bagore Ki Haveli. This was really interesting, with fire dancers, and ladies dancing with huge pots on their heads, whilst dancing on glass. After this we visited the Queen Cafe again, although the food wasn't so good the second time, we met a very interesting Australian couple who we kept chatting to until late.

On our last full day in Udaipur we went to Green Grass cafe for breakfast, and then later went to the cable car, we took a rickshaw to the site which is about 3 km from the main tourist area, it was cheap and we got to the cable car with a couple who we had become friends with. we hired a personal car, whcih was 480 INR for the four of us(the standard price for a lone traveller is 85 inr) , the private car meant we did not have to wait. the views from the top were beautiful and we spent around 30 minutes at the top admiring them and being entertained by a pair of large playful monkeys. the rickshaw had waited and gave us a lift down the hill. ont he way back Abi stopped for some shopping and got a leather handbag and matching purse for 600 INR. Then we stopped in a travel agent and booked our bus to Jodhpur, and onward travel to Jaisalmer! we used a company called Tips and Travels, who only charged 30 INR for each ticket we had booked on top of the ticket price.

The stand out point of Udaipur is the SHOPPING!!!!! they have lots of little boutique shops selling souvenirs with beautiful tailors that can make made to measure shirts/suits and dresses as well as leather shops, furniture shops and in particular art galleries. Udaipur is famous for its minature art. It really is amazing looking at the paintings that are great but then when you take the time to look closer with a magnifying glass you really can appreciate the level of detail that has gone into painting them! Abi even had one of the artists paint an incredibly detailed elephant on her thumb nail!!!

Overall we felt Udaipur was incredibly charming and you can see why they say it is the 'Venice of India'. Its romantic and was a lovely place for us to spend some time together.

Us in front of the palace: