Udaipur

Our first internal flight from Delhi to Udaipur, very impressed with their security, you can’t even get into the airport without a valid ticket.
Udaipur is known as the romantic city and with its location on Lake Picholato and Lake Palace, I can see why. It was also the setting for the James Bond film ‘Octopussy’.

 

 

Our hotel for the evening is the beautiful Amet Haveli, overlooking the lake.

Our Room.



The view



The rest of the day we spend visiting the old Hindu temples of Sas Bahu all of which seem to have incredible carving and surrounded beautifully by lakes.

 

 The evening meal was right on the edge of the lake and as it grew dark the fruit bats began their flights across the water. We are really getting a taste for the local cuisine which varies region to region, I will never say it’s just a curry ever again.

Next morning we start with a tour of Udaipur, visiting the Jagdish Temple which enshrines a black stone image of Lord Vishnu as Jagannath, Lord of the Universe.





Then a visit to the City Palace which is the largest palace complex in Rajasthan. The main part of the palace is now a museum with a large and varied collection of glass, porcelain figures and miniature paintings. The parking bays at the front of the palace for elephants was definite first for us. From the palace we headed out onto the water for a boat trip on Lake Pichola the views were beautiful. We hopped off at Jag Niwas, the Lake Palace,















 and strolled around the gardens taking in its wonderful setting. After another romantic meal overlooking the lake we walk into town to see one of the Hindu festivals taking place. The colours of the girls costumes are fantastic , and every shrine is festooned in glittering tinsel.
 

 We get up bright and early next day to revisit Saheliyon Ki Bari, or Garden of the Maids of Honour, this ornamental garden was part of yesterday’s tour, but it’s main attraction is its fountains, water spurting stone elephants and lotus pond, all of which don’t look much when they decide to switch off the water for maintenance! As you can see from the pictures they turned it back on and it was well worth a revisit.

 

 

 Back to our car and driver D.C, for the long drive to Jodhpur (275km).  On route we visited a Jaen Temple. 

 

 

 

 



Amritsar

 

 

We are off to Amritsar 200km from Dharamsala

 

 

. The first thing you notice about this place is the number of military bases on the outskirts. This evening we head to watch the Wagah border closing ceremony at the Indo-Pakistan Border, which is an hour away the the city. This is an entertaining ceremony, watched by hundreds of visitors, where guards from each side try to outshine each other with their elaborate posturing. It takes place each day at sunset and the ceremony concludes with a firm handshake and the lowering of flags on both sides of the border. 

 

 

We stay the night at the Holiday Inn and next morning visit to the spectacular Golden Temple, the holiest of all Sikh shrines. This fascinating temple complex is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in north India. The gleaming central shrine seems to float at the end of a causeway jutting out into the Amrit Sarovar tank. The tank is claimed to have healing properties and thousands of pilgrims flock here daily to bathe in these holy waters, we decided to abstain from this activity, but we did visit the central shrine, for some reason they allowed us to bypass the hundreds of pilgrims waiting patiently to get to the shrine. The people here are so kind and generous with their time and actions.

 



 

We spent a wondrous hour looking around the huge kitchens where they provide free meals every day, an amazing forty to fifty thousand meals are served here a day, all done by volunteers and donations.



 

The tour also included a visit to Jalianwala Bagh, site of the infamous Amritsar massacre of 1919, today it is a national monument surrounded by gardens. The topiary shapes of soldiers shooting rifles is a grim reminder of what the British did here hits you hard in the gut, especially after experiencing the goodness of people at the temple.

 With the usual efficiency we were dropped off at the train station then put on the train ( Shatbadi Express again) back to Delhi. Met a man on the train who knew our guide in Shimla, both were actors and had worked together, in a country this big we thought that was an incredible coincidence!