Udaipur - the Low Down

Wednesday 7th May

- the streets of Udaipur

we had heard Udaipur called many things; romantic, stunning and (as is repeated here ad nauseum), the setting for Roger Moore's Octopussy. but we had not heard it described as the windy city, which it appears to be. there are always breezes, it would seem, once you get past the third floor of a building, but our introduction to this was a noisy and violent gale overnight that shattered our sleep and was almost certainly responsible for cracking the full length of the large window pane next to our bed. having windows on two sides of our room also ensured a thoroughly rattley night as the strong gusts did their utmost to get through, while they also assisted the night-long lightning flashes squeeze under our irritated eyelids. the glass also meant that the room has heated up a great deal during the day, so we also had to content with an uncomfortably warm sleep, exacerbated in Edd's case by what may have been some low level heatstroke. regular power cuts deprived us of our ceiling fan and any way of cooling down. between us we received little sleep and much frustration and we did not venture out of the hotel until after a brief breakfast at around 10am.

famed for its lake setting and striking royal palace complex, the largest such agglomeration in Rajasthan, what struck us first was the near-absence of lake. in the height of the off- and dry season as we were, the offshoots of the lake that bordered the quieter Hanuman Ghat area of the city in which we stayed were mainly dry. algae and floating green scum rather detracted from the romantic image that is known worldwide.

the view from the old city's ghats of our side of the waterway - the Panorama hotel is the tall white building.

the Lake Palace was still surrounded by water, but in places you could almost walk out to it.

further off, the Jag Mandir, the lake's first island palace building, had fared better in terms of its watery surrounds. the city's highlights were certainly picturesque, but the same could not be said for it taken as a whole. successive hotels could be seen rising up, trying to outdo one another with partial or full lake views, or by having the highest rooftop restaurant possible. many of the house structures were unattractive blocks added piecemeal at different times and in varying stages of finish so that, at its worst, aspects of Udaipur reminded you only of a lake-bound Benidorm. but then your eyes would be drawn back to the City Palace complex and you would forget all about that again.

the City Palace complex, with bathers at the ghats below, Udaipur.

deciding on an orientation and planning day due to our significant lack of sleep, it became apparent quite quickly that due to this, low level heatstroke or something else, Edd was having a sense of humour failure morning. the narrow streets of Udaipur have bad motorcycle and rickshaw traffic, with the occasional car thrown in, and almost all of them seem to lack pavements, making getting around a tedious, slightly dangerous and always horn-filled experience. the bustling guest houses and restaurants in the more touristy districts crowding in as they do above you ensures that there is nothing to release the noise.

the Jagdish Temple is a central point of reference and the tallest city building after the palace complex. you can see its spire like carved shikhara from a good distance away, even if it is often competing with rooftop restaurants for attention.

we grabbed a drink in a glass bottle (always cheaper, as they re-use all of them, just as we used to in Britain) but walked off after paying the printed cost when the proprietor tiresomely tried to add a spurious tax onto the cost. he told us not to come back - a first in such a friendly country - and we were happy to cross such a poor establishment off our list of possible venues. this plus two or three assumptive, forceful offers of marijuana from touting rickshaw drivers were merely exacerbating Edd's really rather bad mood, amplified by near-constant, insistent cries from shopkeepers to sample their wares, far from the 'hassle free' shopping experience we had read about.

we managed to find Thomas Cook for Philippa to change some travellers' cheques at no additional cost, which was a notable success on a morning such as this! we considered eating in a guesthouse / restaurant by the 'Tibetan Market' - filled with mass-produced tourist t-shirts, rather than what we had been hoping for - but left without ordering when we reviewed their tourist-trap prices. we eventually ate - ironically, considering our views on the skyline - in the tallest restaurant in town, a wondrous pineapple lassi and a fruit salad helping to begin to save the day.

the view from the restaurant, across the rooftops of Udaipur,
with the City Palaces complex on the right.

donkeys, overladen as usual, in the streets of Udaipur

kites soared and floated by at our elevated height, effortlessly riding the air currents as they sought out prey. we'd certainly seen fewer pigeons here than elsewhere! we used the hotel's internet for a short while, but it was slow and in common with most places in Udaipur, for some reason forbade uploads from its creaking equipment, so again we could not put any photos up onto this blog. with a good idea of the old city's layout, now, we went back home and tried to get some more sleep in the afternoon, although the excess of glass in our room did nothing to keep down the temperature.

we stayed longer in the hotel than we had planned in the afternoon, trying to rest and catch up on our journals, with limited success. eventually, we went out again to window / shop, once more crossing the footbridge that connects our spit of land to the old city and leaves you free of traffic for a few moments.

teams of people were sifting through the rubbish that had replaced the water, here, at least until the monsoon period. cows grazed the algae, while laundry was washed and people bathed on one of the two large ghats. as we had seen the gushing pipes and drains that flowed into the lake, neither seemed an especially attractive option.

the Jagdish Temple at sunset, Udaipur

the shopping trip lifted our spirits. Philippa was successful with a few new items and also gave in some of her British trousers to be copied in silk by a tailor. wonderfully, we found a lovely chemist with good English and a paternal air who stocked the additional anti-malarials that we needed, the first place that did so in a few weeks' - and several locations - of looking. Edd even got in on the act, buying a couple of silver rings that he liked from a sweet man who haggled with him for about 10 minutes just to bring the price down by an eventual R250 - clearly it was indeed low season in Udaipur! known for its silver, the city remains best recognised for its paintings - you really can't escape the things, although few if any have reached the level of those we bought in Jaipur.

after all of that, all we wanted to do was go home, have dinner and try again to sleep. the backdrop we have at the restaurant is stunning, which helps, but the lakeside location means mosquitoes, something else to consider. satiated, it was only left to pick up our laundry - washed and pressed, a real relief after two poor excuses for a dhobi in a row at previous 'homes' - and crawl awkwardly under our mosquito net into bed, hopeful of better rest than last night.

the City Palace complex is earmarked for tomorrow, while Edd is aiming to be in an improved mood! India can be a maddening place at times and it's easy to let it get to you with a few successive incidents. but there is so much here of worth to distract you from these irritations, we hoped and expected the palace complex to assist in setting us right again.

our very best to all

edd & philippa