Udaipur Diaries

Flight scheduled @ 5:30 in the morning.

Well I must admit that internet has made our life much easier; easy to book a taxi that picks you up from your door step and the advantage of web check-in where you can walk in like a king. Although I could not pretend to be one, sadly because, i had to seek assistance from the counter (as I was not sure which direction I was supposed to head to). Damn on me. As this was my first time travelling via Terminal 2.

I boarded the plane, took my seat. Till now everything was normal, I was happy as well as excited, my fellow passengers were enthusiastic. Some of the passengers were from abroad; I could read some Canadian travel group from the back of one of the T shirts the troupe members were wearing.

As the flight was moving towards the runway, it started to drizzle. Till now the overall view was fascinating and romantic. I plugged in my ear phone with a grin and tried to take the advantage of reserving the window seat.

The plane took off, piercing the dense cloud and flying forward –to put this in a very poetic manner, but suddenly the plane started to shake. All those exciting / happy feelings flew away in a friction of second and some inauspicious thought filled my tiny little mind. Kicking all those thoughts aside I joined the chorus of laughter with the co-passengers (while in group usually we don’t express fear). The plane kept shaking at discrete interval, my heart beat was faster than usual; outside it was completely engulfed with darkness, it was a completely bizarre experience for me. If the situation would have been prolonged for even a minute longer, I would have freaked out and started screaming (I guess).

View through the window

Once the plane was stabilized, the flight attendant started serving us with breakfast. I asked for a veg food, so I was provided with Idli, curry and Upma. I was just done with Upma when the attendant came in rushing and started collecting the food tray as we were about to land. She apologised that owing to the bad weather service time was delayed, thus, had to cut short.

Minutes before landing, I enjoyed the changing landscape, the majestic view that the country side offers, the movement of tiny little vehicles, even human are worth seeing and wondering what are they up to.

Finally, by 7:05 the plane landed at Maharana Pratap Airport in Udaipur. As usual people were in rush to jump out of the plane, even though the doors were not open. Well, one thing that I have noticed about the foreign travellers is that they wait till the gang way gets cleared. One might argue that because they have giant bags to carry and wait for, so they take all the time they can afford to. But what about our Indian families whose luggage’s are often so huge that they use two trolleys? I leave this onto readers to come up with their own satisfying conclusion.

I had a hotel booked in the heart of the city through my friend. But I was not sure how to reach there. Well these days Google and its magical apps come to your rescue readily. The only thing that distant you from Google is the data pack. Well I had a data plan, so Google was a good companion of mine here. Mr Google informed me that the distance between the airport and the hotel was 22 kms. I had no other option than to book a taxi. The option for booking a taxi at the fingertip was void here as no taxis were available so I had to opt for prepaid taxi booking. The prepaid taxi cost me Rs. 600 to reach the hotel,  where as it cost only Rs. 358 for 32 kms here in Mumbai.

Since it was early hours in the morning, the traffic was easy to evade and drive through the narrow lanes of the old city. The taxi dropped me at the door step of the hotel in about half an hour.  I checked in the hotel. The hotel had a nice panoramic view of the Lake Pichola and the City palace of Udaipur, is this resulted into the name of this hotel? (I guess so)

The tiredness of early morning flight and taxi travel had driven me intensely towards the bed. I dozed off for more than 3 hours. As soon as I woke up, I took shower, rushed to the restaurant upstairs and ordered for something to eat. The cold water shower, the broad day light and the magnificent view of the old city had refreshed me, and I looked forward to explore the city.

After making a quick query from the receptionist I took the road and started walking. It took me just 15 mins to reach the City palace. The roads heading towards the palace are quite narrow, In fact, the entire old city has the same dimension which i realized later on while i was walking across the old city.

To highlight in brief:

• Built by Maharana Uday Singh II, the palace displaces artist’s marvel. The delicate mirror  and marble work ,colorful glass mosaics and silver work.
• If one goes to the tip of the palace on one side you can view the entire cityscape. And on the other side the floating palace, Hanuman ghaat (lakes) and even the Monsoon palace.
• The palace is located very strategically, from defense point of view and also for the aesthetic view.
• It takes minimum of half an hour even if you simply browse through (meaning skipping the details provided for every items / pics/ utensils / war gadgets and even story behind each room, doors and windows).

It appears to me that the mountains are embracing the entire city. The entire view is very soothing and mesmerizing. The cold breeze tickling the body and the majestic view of the landscape could give anybody a goose bumps, or say,  could calm one’s mind, body and Soul (Provided you can ignore the murmuring crowds behind you).

The view during day and night are magnificently different. One has to have both the views Otherwise no point visiting such a beautiful place.

[More to come: About the food; Visit to Monsoon Palace; Zoological Garden; Panoramic view of Fateh Sagar lake, Pichola Lake and many more]

Note: This is my first blog post, so, please provide me with your valuable comment/suggestion. What ever comes to your mind.