Udaipur....licious!

After our magical night under the stars in the desert, we were back in the car again with our new buddy and driver Raj. We had a one night stopover in Jodpur on our way to Udaipur. After spending about 7 hours in the car, and coming from such solitude in Jaisalmer, I wasn't really ready for the loud, hot, polluted and crowded streets of Jodpur. So like bad travelers we pretty much spend the rest of the day chilling out our hotel, which was actually quite luxurious and had the added benefit of a pool (much needed in this heat). We haven’t really planned to go to Jodpur any, opting to spend a few more nights in Udaipur and Pushkar, so I didn’t feel too bad about the whole thing.

We did venture out of our hotel room to go find the Samosa House, a little street stand that every local we had met in Rajasthan so far claimed the best samosas in the entire WORLD. And if the locals are saying it then it must be true – they did not disappoint! This little street side stand pumps out 80,000 a samosas a DAY. We even hit it up again the next morning on the way outta town.

In front of our lap of luxury in Jodpur

A few more hours in the car and we reached Udaipur, a pretty town by Indian standards, that wraps around the banks of Lake Pichola. We dropped out bags in our lake view room (our man Shafi at Destination India Travel really hooked us up),  and looked out of our bay window loaded with ornate Indian pillows onto the lake …… ahhhhhh Tranquility. 

Inside our suite

Looking down the canal near our hotel

After getting cleaned up we headed out to explore the narrow streets winding around the lake and just let ourselves get lost in the maze. We watched the kids and families bathing in the Ghats (def.; series of steps leading down to a water body, usually a holy river) and then took in a night of cultural Rajasthani dancing.

Wandering the colourful, narrow streets

Entertainment at the Ghats 

Cow staking claim to the stairs at the Ghats

Beautiful dancers

Group dance

We had arranged a cooking class for ourselves the next day with a wonderful man that runs classes out of his home. First on the agenda was teaching us how to make Chai tea. Once that was done we sat us down to enjoy our chai while he headed out to the market to grab what we needed to cook with for the day – nothing but fresh food when you are cooking with Giteen (no idea of that’s how you spell his name). About 30mins later he came back and we spent the next 3 hours preparing our feast for the day;

•         Vegetable and chilli pakodas
•          Channa Masala
•          Aloo Ghobi
•          Veggie Rice
•          Chapatti

After preparing the feast…….we ate the feast (obvi) and it was delicious!! Who is going to be brave enough to come to my Indian themed dinner party when we return….. I dare you!

prepping the pakodas

Final Channa Masala

Jonny learning to roll chapati 

After lunch we look a little late afternoon fiesta…..the 40 degree heat warrants that, and then we headed out to the City palace to explore the grounds. The palace in Udaipur is by far one of the most well maintained that we have come across and the fact that it is perched onto of a hill overlooking the lake just adds to its beauty. After exploring the grounds for a while we took a sunset boat cruise through the lake. We got to take in yet another beautiful Indian sunset – amazing.

After our boat cruise we wandered through the streets a while longer and stumbled upon the Lotus café. We had read good things about it in the lonely planet so we decided to grab a small dinner there. This place had a great vibe, little tables, low lighting and zero 7 

playing over the speakers……and too top it off they had vintage connect 4! So we spent our last night in Udaipur chilling in the lotus café, playing connect 4 with some Kingfishers….for those wondering I beat Jonny 5 games to 1.

Visiting one of the islands as part of the sunset boat ride 

looking back at the palace

Amazing sunset over the island hotel

Sunset from the boat

The look of defeat at the Lotus Cafe

Udaipur was a wonderful spot and really opened our eyes to the kind of natural beauty that does exist in India which is not often attributed to India.

Our next stop is the hippy, holy town of Pushkar for some reflection over the holy Ghats.

Namaste

OOO_Talia