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.
We left Udaipur post Sunset and the next day we went to Haldi Ghati and visited the Maharana Pratap Museum, which once again is quite a let down. But the mud is actually yellow like turmeric / Haldi as the name suggests. We followed the road trip to our next destination Jaipur where we stayed for two nights. I have separately given account of my road trip to Jaipur in another tripoto article. Make sure you read that too
© Follow Sam on Instagram - Search for sgkatoch
© http://whatsamsaysabout.blogspot.in/
© What Sam says about________ ?
© https://www.facebook.com/whatsamsaysabout
