My first real view of Udaipur was from the rooftop of my hotel, Dream Heaven Guest House. Lights of the City Palace and various havelis — palatial homes on the waterfront — were reflected in the waters of Lake Pichola.
The rooftop restaurant was perched high above the water, up a small hill and then up several stories. Lights of the city were in all directions, glimmering in the lake.
They say that Udaipur is the most romantic of Indian cities. Probably appropriate with Valentine’s Day tomorrow, except that my sweetie is far away and out of reach.
Udaipur is probably the most touristy place I’ve been in India so far, more so even than Varanasi. Deservedly so, given its beauty.
My hotel is across a footbridge from the main part of the old town. The bridge has gates at both ends that only allow pedestrians through. It’s the one place in Udaipur that’s free of the infernal motorcycles that ruin the experience elsewhere.
Traffic was congested getting to my hotel and the auto rickshaw driver was unable to get me through to the footbridge as police blocked the access. Instead, he had to take me on a round-about route, but dropped me at my hotel.
The reception was up at the rooftop restaurant, so it was a difficult climb with my bags before I was sent down again to my room. No elevator — just narrow winding hallways and narrow stairs with low ceilings.
Today, Friday, I explored the winding streets and bazaars of Udaipur on foot, deciding to give a pass to the numerous museums that would have been interesting if I had more time.
I also did laundry by hand in my bathroom, then took my washing down to the water to dry on the banks in the sun as some of the locals were doing.
As I write this, I’m on the rooftop restaurant of my hotel, sipping a large Kingfisher lager beer and watching the night descend on the city and the lake.
I was also able to research the problem that has prevented me from copying photos from my memory card using my netbook, and believe I have now solved it so that I won’t be dependent anymore on unreliable internet cafes. It was a case of my aging netbook, which uses Windows XP, not being able to read SD cards with a greater capacity than 16 GB. By downloading a patch from Microsoft, I should now be able to access my photo files without having to search out an internet cafe with Windows 7. Hurrah!
