Most Romantic City in Rajasthan?
Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, 2008-10-11 12:00 by Laerke
Against our better judgment we boarded a sleeper bus from Bundi to Udaipur, the road was badly potholed and the suspensions were long dead, so we were in for one bumpy night – often you had to cling to your bunk or else you would have ended up with the people who slept on the floor of the bus! When we finally arrived in Udaipur I felt like my brain had been rattled loose inside my scull.

Luckily we found a really cute place to recuperate from the bus journey, the Anjani Hotel, our room has a huge bathroom with a tub and peacocks painted on the ceiling, the bed is a four poster bed with pink fabric hanging from each corner - there is even a little nook with pillows where you can read. Flowers are painted over the bed and there is a band of elephants and camels depicted on the lower walls. Cosy and a mile away from the somewhat gloomy rooms we sometime end up in.



There was a Hindu festival in town at night, where boys and girls of all ages partook in a dance where they were banging sticks together. There were lots of people, and the street had been decorated with lots of silver tinsel and blinking lights.

From our favorite café, where they served tuna sandwiches and apple pie with ice cream(!) you can almost look down to Lal Ghat which is a great place to hang out, cows wander aimlessly around, women do the washing, kids run around and play and sometimes a mahout takes his elephant down there. So even though Udaipur is a busy city with too much traffic and exhaust fumes, it still have oodles of charm and you can find lovely places like this down by the ghats from where there is also a terrific view of the Lake Palace, which seems like it is floating on the water.



One night we went to a “cultural show” in an old haveli, it was actually quite good. All the performances were accompanied by live music, there were women who danced with pots with fire on their heads, puppets dancing, a peacock dance and a woman who danced with a big water pot on her head – and they kept putting more and more on, in the end she had 10 water pots balancing on her head! Pretty impressive. Of course they all wore traditional colorful Rajasthani dresses.