Udaipur: The City of Lakes1. My first stop in Rajasthan, Land of Kings Ah, Udaipur... The City of Lakes, Palaces, Temples, Forts, and Lakes! This city was certainly a stark contrast after an overnight train out of electrifying, madcap Mumbai. It was the historic capital of the kingdom of Mewar and has been acclaimed as one of the most visually romantic corners of India. Prosperous, bucolic, culturally rich, and garden-like. There's no place quite like it on the subcontinent. 2. The City Palace of Udaipur Built on the banks of Lake Pichola, this beautiful compound was once the living quarters and administrative centre for the Maharanas of the (still surviving) House of Mewar, who ruled this corner of India for centuries. The exuberant, almost theatrical palatial complex was built over a period of nearly four centuries and provides an excellent view of the surrounding city. Its showy granite and marble façade, its celebrated glasswork, its storied paintings, and its countless, delicately handcrafted nooks and crannies are terrific to behold. It is astonishing that so much of it has remained intact over the ages. I’d describe parts of the City Palace as almost painfully beautiful. At one point on my tour of the palace, I nearly teared up from the exquisiteness of the artwork and architecture. It sounds silly but it’s true. Maybe it was just the mood I was in, I don't know. Point is, the palace is a must visit. 3. The best meal of my India trip so far? Maybe. It was certainly the most fun. I had an all-you-can-eat vegetarian thali at the famous Natraj Restaurant — visited by none other than Anthony Bourdain himself when he came to Rajasthan. One of many Bourdain-related food pilgrimages I’ve done throughout my globetrotting. You’d try and be modest with the refills and they’d just throw food at you. The (somewhat bored) waiters all wanted to talk to you while you ate. I shook hands with every single one of them and felt like a z-list celebrity. An aside: whenever I say I’m from Australia, the conversations I’ve had with Indian locals tend to revolve around only two topics: bushfires and cricket. The former is upsetting to talk about and the latter I have no clue about. Very occasionally they’d ask me if it’s true that Sydney women are the most beautiful in the world. This has happened multiple times. Very strange. 4. Photos from the other side of Udaipur Depicted here: Donkey jams on the road, narrow alleyways (where mopeds race down at breakneck speeds), sleepy rooftop scenes, wedding processions, and fascinating Rajasthani folk dances (the firepots are used in the Chari dance for auspicious occasions and the stack of pots are used in the Bhavai dance to show off the balancing skills of the women in the community). One morning while in Udaipur, I hopped on the back of a scooter with my guesthouse owner (no helmet, obviously) and zipped down to the local market to buy some mutton. The butcher, squatting in blood-stained jeans, was wildly hacking at a goat leg on a stump with a rusty knife while a small boy was tossing squirming chickens — three in each hand — into a cramped pen. I cast my mind back to when I was on the train out of Mumbai, and I recall watching the street kids celebrating Makar Sankranti (which marks the end of the winter solstice and the start of longer days) by flying kites. They flew them into overhead powerlines and they flew them while playing on the train tracks. And all over Udaipur, day labourers stand far above the ground on precarious bamboo scaffolding with no safety equipment, renovating old heritage buildings by hand for a pittance. I think India, like so much of the Global South, is a simultaneously thrilling and frightful place for travellers precisely because the motto is “safety second”. Take it or leave it, lean towards it or turn away from it, it’ll always be there — countless stories of daily close calls, routine near misses, and humdrum narrow escapes.
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AuthorMing is an economist, traveller, and creative writer from Melbourne, Australia. He’s a nebulous collection of particles on the lookout for a good corner to sit with a book and a cup of coffee. Archives
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