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We woke up at 7:30 a.m. We took showers in our luxurious bathroom with an awesome rain shower head. We got ready and went down to breakfast at 9. Everyone was so kind and eager to help. We opted for the buffet (fresh juicy watermelon, pineapple, cereal with buttermilk, muffins, and cheese). While I was at the buffet they took my bag from the floor against the wall and placed it on a little stool all its own! Now that's service! Craig got a cheese, onion, and mushroom omelette with bacon and sausage made to order. I tried the sausage and it was delicious. A waiter served us fresh lime juice and brought toast and warm fresh muffins when they came out of the kitchen. There were gorgeous views of the lake from our window-side seat. It was a relaxing delicious breakfast in a beautiful setting.
After breakfast we made a quick stop at our room and then took the boat over to shore, arriving just in time for our 10 o’clock rendezvous with Mukul. Our first stop was a tour of the lakeside City Palace, which is visible from our hotel room. Udaipur was chosen as the seat of the Mewar empire in the mid-16th century. The Mewar dynasty is the world's longest-ruling dynasty, dating back to AD 566. They trace their lineage back to the sun god, and there are many sun motifs to be found within the palace. The Udaipur City Palace is the largest royal complex in Rajasthan, consisting of 11 palaces. Detritus from last night's fireworks display littered the grounds, but workers were actively cleaning it up as we arrived. The palace complex's 30-meter-tall walls towered over the lake. Strands of festive lights cascaded from the walls. These lit up the palace last night for Diwali. We bought our tickets and entered the palace. We saw an exhibit of the armor of Chetak, an Indian folk-hero horse. Chetak was the fastest horse of Maharana Pratap. During a battle with the Mughals in 1576, Chetak wore an elephant mask so that the Mughal's elephants would think he was one of their babies and therefore not try to behead him using the swords attached to their tusks. A placard proclaimed, "Chetak was the favourite horse of Maharana Pratap. He bore his master to safety in spite of his one leg being injured in battle of Haldighati. Thereafter he breathed his last." Udaipur continued fighting off the Mughals until 1587, at which point Akbar gave up on conquering them and instead shifted his attention to the Punjab. Chetak's elephant costume was on display and there are numerous paintings depicting his brave deeds. We saw the famous "empty throne" on display in one of the palace rooms. Local legend (and the placard at the museum) claims that the maharana Fateh Singh defied King George V of England by refusing outright to report to his court when he visited India in 1911. Mukul told us that it was true that Maharana Fateh Singh didn't report to George V's court, but that he had feigned illness to save face because he didn't want to sit in a chair subordinate to the king's throne. We wandered outside to the Badi Mahal (Garden Palace). We sat on park benches next to a marble pool in the nice courtyard which was shaded by trees. In one room some birdcages were suspended from the ceiling. There was also a hutch of box-like cages which used to house carrier pigeons. We entered the Kanch ki Burj, a room whose every surface was covered with a mirror. Red mirrors zigzagged across the walls, and there was a reflective ceiling dome that looked like an inverted disco ball. Antique ivory doors led to the Moti Mahal, which had mirrored wall surfaces and stained glass windows. We saw some stained glass windows that not only had geometrically shaped stained glass patterns, but also incorporated figures of royal men and women. It was gorgeous and incredibly detailed. All of the mirror work in the palace was done locally. We went into the Chitram-ki-Burj tower, and every interior surface was elaborately painted by Bagta and Chokha (the same artists who had painted our bedroom in Deogarh Mahal). They were painted between 1778 and 1828. Some of these paintings depicted scenes of courtly life and battle from impossible perspective, for instance the palace looks like it has been run over by a steamroller, but its inhabitants are standing on top of it. It is a strange 2-dimensional effect. Sometimes paintings even represented time lapse (four images are shown in one painting tracing a bear’s movements when it is really only depicting a single bear over time). The amount of detail was amazing. Flash photography was prohibited, so I was unable to get any photos that do the gallery justice. We saw the vani vilas, the first special library to be built in Udaipur by Maharana Sajjan Singh in 1875. Kaviraj Shyamaldas wrote The History of Mewar here. We saw examples of a past Maharana Bhupal Singhji's wheelchair (really an armchair on wheels) and indoor toilet in the royal quarters. There was an elevator installed in 1938 to make the palace more accessible for him. We saw a metal sculpture of the sun (ancestor of the Mewar Dynasty) with beams radiating from its face which looked like swords, and angels adorning it with garlands. We went out to a courtyard with a black and white checkerboard terrace. It had nice scalloped archways which framed views of the lake and the hills beyond. The walls were decorated with beautiful murals. The Mor Chowk courtyard contains three mosaics of peacocks commissioned by Sajjan Singh in 1874. These were 5000-piece mosaics fashioned out of glass and colored stone. They looked like they could have been made of emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. Some of the detail in the peacock feathers was so fine that it almost seemed impossible that a human could have cut slivers of green glass that thin. This would be our last palace tour of the trip, so we savored the experience of walking through various passageways to rooms which were richly decorated. We thought on the fact that we have ourselves been treated like royalty for much of this trip, and that we would soon be going home to our commonplace everyday life. As we left the City Palace, we passed two small cow dung figures on the ground which we had passed on our way in. Between then and now, they had been adorned with flowers and incense.These were associated with post- Diwali festivities. Mukul told us that his first job was translating for the Maharana of Udaipur Maharana Baghwat Singh (the father of the current maharana, Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar) and teaching French at the Maharana Mewar Public School, which we saw right next door to the City Palace. We got back into the car and Rajendra drove us out of that part of town. The traffic was unbelievable and we were stuck for a while. The roads were gridlocked with cars going in every direction. Motorcycles and animals filled any gaps between cars. The sun was shining off silver and gold garland deorating the streets for Diwali. After what seemed like a long wait, the right piece of the puzzle moved and the traffic dispersed. We drove along one side of the lake and saw a lot of Indian tourists gathering with their families. Kids rode merry-go-rounds and cows bathed in the lake. Next we went to Mukul’s friend Arun’s house. Mukul had gone there yesterday bearing Diwali sweets and Arun had wanted to meet us. Arun's property was an oasis in the city. Once you left the street, you were treated to a property full of greenery, with trees, plants and flowers. He and Mukul share a common passion for gardening. We were taken on a tour of the property. We climbed a metal spiral staircase, and were shown from room to room upstairs. The rooms were each quite unique, with stained glass windows, antique carved wooden furniture, embroidery, paintings, hand-knotted rugs, and other unique pieces of art. His home could have been a museum, there was so much interesting here. There was even an outdoor shower amongst the greenery. The house contained a lot of books, and it was clear that Arun was an educated Renaissance man like Mukul himself. We went back downstairs and sat in the serene courtyard. Arun's nieces and sister made us a delicious lunch of tasty eggplant, fresh poori, lentils, and rice. They fed us sweets as well, until we were about to burst. They told us that there is no law that you have to eat sweets last in Rajasthan. They kept filling our plates and Arun joked that if the guest says no more, it means they are still hungry. If they say "No...No...No..." it means there is still room. Only if you shout “NO!” does it mean that you absolutely can't eat any more. I tried playfully shouting "NO!" when they kept piling desserts onto my but it didn’t work - they kept feeding me! We had a very enjoyable visit. Then we drove 23 km out of town. Along the way we passed a roundabout which sported a statue of Chetak the heroic horse. The drive was quite scenic, passing green mountains and valleys. We arrived at the town of Nagda to visit the Sas-Bahu temples, a pair of Hindu temples that dates back to a century before the Khajuraho temples (900 CE). They are named Sas-Bahu, which literally means mother-in-law and daughter-in-law They are similar in style to the Khajuraho temples. The outer walls contain carvings of scenes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. There are also some erotic carvings on outer walls as well. There were very few tourists there and we were able to enjoy the site at our leisure. The interiors were very elaborately carved on every surface. Sadly some figures were stolen from a ceiling frieze - only the feet remain. After this we drove back to town and went to Sahelion-Ki-Bari (the Maid of Honour Gardens). They were built by Maharana Sangram Singh II between 1710 and 1734, for the entertainment of his bride and the 48 maids of honour who accompanied her to Udaipur as part of her dowry. The gardens had nice water fountains and kiosks, a pool of lotuses, and marble elephants which spray water. The water was not flowing when we first arrived. It is simply too extravagant to run precious water all day in an area where it has been exceedingly dry lately. However, Mukul tipped the caretaker and he swiftly turned on the water, which sprayed into the air and made the temperature quite pleasant. The caretaker followed us around turning up the volume of water as we walked through, and then turning it off afterwards. We were lucky to be able to see the garden the way it was intended to look, but we were also sympathetic to its environmental impact. As we were preparing to leave Craig and Mukul went into the men’s room. A young woman with a baby and her friend approached me and asked where I was from, etc. I must have seemed more approachable by myself. One of their names was Jyoti, which is the name of one of our co-workers. She appeared to be delighted when I pointed this out. I enjoyed chatting with them. Then we went back to Lake Pichola and Rajendra dropped us off at the jetty from which boat tours depart. It was 4 o'clock, and we saw a crowd waiting to board a boat. There were so many people that we wondered whether we could find a seat. Silly us underestimating Mukul! He had lined up a private trip on his majesty the Maharana's personal boat! We bypassed the crowds and boarded a boat which had wooden seats. It was awesome. We cruised around the lake, passing the City Palace, various ghats, and hotels. The late afternoon light made the architecture around us absolutely glow. It was a gorgeous sunny day with white puffy clouds in the sky. We stopped at Jag Mandir, an island palace which had been constructed beginning in 1615 under Maharana Karan Singh. Red, white, and gold flags fluttered in the wind above statues of elephants with trunks raised. Not being especially nautical people ourselves, it is always a bit of a novelty for us to approach and arrive somewhere by boat. Our captain pulled up at the Jag Mandir dock and we disembarked. Shah Jahan and mumtaz mahaltook refuge here for 4 months in 1623 when he was revolting against his father Jahangir, and became good friends with Maharana Karan Singh. We entered Gol Mahal (circular royal chambers where Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Muhal had stayed) and and saw several exhibits. One was an alabaster model of the Taj Mahal, similar to ones we had seen for sale in Agra and one that we had seen in a museum near home. There were colorful paintings on the walls and ceilings. We went outside and sat at a table in the courtyard established by Maharana Jagat Singh I. We enjoyed capuccinos which were very light and flavorful (sometimes we find it to be too strong). When Mukul saw the bill he said “What a rip-off!” The Shri Mishralil Hotel in Jodhpur with its 17 rupee lassi this was certainly not, but the location was everything. We all laughed. We boarded the boat again. We were scheduled to be done by 5:00, and by 5:01 we were back at the dock. Mukul certainly runs things like clockwork, but at the same time, we had felt like we were the ones setting the pace. It had never felt rushed. We said goodbye to Mukul with plans to meet again tomorrow for our departure from Rajasthan. We took the boat back to the Lake Palace and returned to our room. Everything we had left out had been lovingly placed onto a doily (in the case of Craig's travel alarm clock) or on emroidered floormats (in the case of my backpack and a carry-on full of purchases). We had never seen anything like it. We enjoyed the amenities of the room and started to get everything packed. This would be our last night in a hotel, and we needed to pack everything up to prepare for the long flights home. The turndown service came almost immediately. They turned down the bed, placed our slippers at the bedside, placed chocolates and orchids on a tray on the bed, and even placed my sunglasses on a little velvet lined tray! This place is unreal! We wished we were able to spend the evening with Mukul, but he wasn't allowed at the hotel since he wasn't a paying guest. We had plenty to do to keep us busy, and decided to order in-room dining so that we could just relax in our bathrobes without having to dress up to go to the fancy dining room. We ordered murg tikka masala chawal, achari paneer tikka, garlic naan, a Kingfisher beer, and pineapple juice with vodka. Our butler arrived with white gloves and immaculate uniform, and he set our table with a table runner, flowers, and a candle. He served us an appetizer of buttermilk with spices. He even presented CD's to us on a tray, to be played in the CD/DVD player. We passed on the Kenny G disc and chose the more appropriate Desert world music. Everything was delicious and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner. The food was fantastic and we felt especially pampered on our final night at the Lake Palace. We had a dessert of yoghurt with chocolate bark. We finished up at around 10:30. They came to collect the room service dishes, and we went to bed at 11 o'clock. |
           
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