We stayed for 3 nights at Kumbalgarh, and
visited the magnificent Kumbalgarh Fort, however after 2 nights we realized
there wasn’t anything much to do in and around the resort so we decided to take
the car and head out to Udaipur one morning. Udaipur is almost 3.5-4 hours
drive from Kumbhalgarh. However one advise do not take the Mount Abu road
especially if you are travelling post sunset as it is believed to be unsafe and
there are chances you might end up getting robbed.
Udaipur is a stunning city of Lakes and
often referred to as the Venice of the East. I am sure you would remember
watching Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram leela and the stunning shots of the area
in and around the lakes in Udaipur. I was always fascinated when I saw the
beautiful pictures of Udaipur while surfing the internet so was quite excited
to visit.
We reached Udaipur around 11 in the morning
and parked inside the City Palace premises and headed for breakfast at the
Palki Khana, a restaurant located inside the City Palace. The place is small
and cute and cozy. A huge bottle of Chivas Regal in one corner grabs your
attention the minute you enter. The place is quite expensive, since the
restaurant belongs to a 5 star Heritage property adjacent to the City Palace by
the name of Shiv Niwas Palace. However since we did not have much of a choice
we decided to sit back and order. We ordered two types of sandwiches with some
Coffee. The Veg Sandwich was a Mumbai style sandwich and the non veg one was a
Ham and cheese sandwich served with a generous portion of Fries.
The food was good but not great.
Nonetheless all fuelled up, we ventured to take a look at the magnificent city Palace.
The property is very stunning and when you see the view of the lake palace from
the back side of the City Palace, one just keeps staring in awe. The View of
the Lake palace in the middle of Lake Pichola and the Shiv Niwas Palace on one
side and the Jagmandir Palace on the other is a delight to watch. The trip to
seeing the City palace can be quite tiring and time consuming, so would need to
be sure what you want to do with the rest of the day. We figured we would
definitely go on a boat ride at sunset in the Pichola lake, so because we had
loads of time at hand we visited the Fatehsagar Lake which by the way is an
utter waste of time. The visit to te lake began and ended in 5 minutes. So we
googled what to do next since the boat ride was at 6pm, so we visited Shilpgram
which is their version of Delhi’s Dilli Haat only that its more expensive.
The Shilpgram has same stalls like Dilli
haat where Artisans from across the country sell handicrafts and art work
specific to their state. We got free in an hour so went to a small museum ext
to the city palace which was a waste of time again. However the boat ride in
the Lake pichola made up for the lost time. It is an experience in itself.
Watching the breathtaking view of the Jagmandir Palace, Lake Palace and the
Shiv Niwas Palace from the boat was orgasmic (please pardon my French here).
The sight of these beautiful monuments at sunset during the boat ride is
splendid.
We also stopped over at the Jagmandir
Palace where famous actress Raveena Tandon got married a few years ago. The
property is quite unique and very very beautiful. Udaipur is one destination I
recommend you visit atleast once in your life time.
