Udaipur

Udaipur - what a fabulous place! Way back in the seventeenth century the ruling Raja of the area decided to create some lakes. For the first time in the world, rivers were diverted to create seven lakes, all connected, so that the water flowed from one to the next, to the next. Then he built palaces by the lakeside and the city of Udaipur. The palaces are big, imposing and look out over the lake graciously. The old city of Udaipur, the part nearest to the lake has steep, narrow tiwisting roads, temples and beautiful old hotels. Wherever you look there are domes, spires and minarets, round, scalloped doorways and windows, rooftop restaurants and mosaics.

I caught the overnight train from Aurangabad to Mumbai. A lot of passengers had tickets but no booked seats. In India if you have a ticket but no booked seat you have two choices: sit on the floor of the corridor or charm some passengers with booked seats to let you sit in their compartment. One of these charmers had hit on the young couple in my compartment and sat with them (thus preventing them from setting up their middle bunk and getting some sleep) and chatted until four in the morning, when he arrived at his stop. This effectively put a stop to me sleeping too. Then at six am the rest of the people in the compartment woke up and started chatting and laughing at the tops of their voices.

In Mumbai I discovered that my train to Jodpur would not stop at Udaipur and I could not get a train from Jodpur to Udaipur. But I could get out at Ahmedabad, spend the night there and get a train to Udaipur from there. So that is what I decided to do. But. . .on the way to Ahmedabad, in an incredibly full train, with several charmers in our compartment, my boots disappeared. All the passengers in my compartment searched under the seats, up and down the corridor but to no avail. I complained bitterly. They told me that I should not leave my boots on the floor. People steal things of value, they said. But my boots are twenty years old, I said. They can still sell them, they said. And you should lock your luggage to the bottom seat, they said. Then they gave me food to eat and offered me water.

After a few hours someone came into the compartment saying that there were boots in the toilet. They were my boots. They all congratulated me on this lucky turn of events.

In Ahmedabad I rented a room in the station and slept like a log until six am. But when I came down to the station entrance the station police told me that my train had been cancelled. Standing right there, beside the station police was a rikshaw driver, who told me that my only solution was to get a 'luxury' bus to Udaipur. He told me there were no local buses. I didn't believe him but couldn't be bothered to go to the local bus station and find out. So I ended up paying 300 rupees for a bus, and at this point he said OK I didn't have to pay for the ride to the bus booking place. I could just give him my train ticket and he would reclaim some of the money for it. So I reckon this guy got money for my ticket and money from the bus booking place.

However there was a dual carriageway most of the way, so the journey was fast and we were in Udaipur by eleven o'clock. I booked into a little old hotel with a winding stairway, few rooms on each floor but many floors - narrow and tall. Then I went off to explore. After a short while I found myself at the entrance to a palace. So I went in.The palace was huge, many storied and imposing but beautiful. The interior of the palace was surprising, with narrow, winding stairways and passages opening out into little intimate courtyards with trees and fountains, covered walkways, scalloped archways and carved marble pillars. Everywhere I looked there were hand painted blue and white tiles, pictures created out of inset semi precious stones and sparkling glass and mirrorwork mosaics. Later I met some tourists who said this was not their favourite palace. But it was everything I had hoped for.