We travelled to Udaipur by car and our driver, Aziz, was also the same driver we had the previous two days as he brought us into the desert, spent the night and then brought us back to Jodhpur and on the third day to Udaipur.   So glad we had him, even though his English wasn’t great,  because he was so calm behind the wheel in this crazy traffic and terrible roads.   Our trip took about nine hours as we had a couple of stops along the way and a short lunch.  Our first stop was in Rankapur to visit the Jain Temple built in 1439, actually that was the year the building started – not sure when it was finished.  All the carvings are from milk white marble and it truly was something to see.

Jain Temple in the middle of nowhere……built in the 15th century

The picture on the left was where we stopped for lunch at a resort and the one on the right is the famous Fort  Kumbalgarh built around 500 years ago and it has 360 temples,  all of which we did not visit!  The stone fence was 36 kms long and we had quite the hike to reach the top.  An couple of hours later we arrived in Udaipur, approximate population over 600,000.  It was highly recommended as one of the neatest places to stay in India so we all agreed to adding it to the list……and so glad we did!  Tourism is quite big here, as is agriculture, but the handicraft and  cottage industries are becoming increasingly important to the economy.  In 2009 it was voted the best city in the world by Travel and Leisure magazine and is known as a favourite wedding destination not only for Indian nationals but foreign nationals as well.  We did experience a couple of wedding celebrations in terms of the noisy music, the parade, and groom on the horse right outside our hotel…..India is indeed the noisiest place in the world!   They do have a lot of fun, however, when celebrating and picture below isn’t great but just put on some loud Indian music as you look at it and you will get the idea……..if you don’t have Indian music just play some rap music that you hate very loudly………and oh yeah, dance!!!

Indian wedding parade with loud music and people dancing in the circle – they do have fun!

Of course while here we had to visit another palace, The City Palace, which was monstrous and glorious and also the local museum.  The truth is I am getting tired of visiting palaces, forts and temples and have all the info scrambled into my brain and no longer can distinguish one from the other in terms of information stored – and we’re not even half done!   And Sri Lanka is still to come!

We’re like rock stars here! Can’t count how many times people come up and ask you if they can have their picture taken with you – on this occasion it was a whole class who were also visiting the city Palace

On our second day in Udaipur we took a well-deserved break from forts, palaces and temples and decided to walk around Fateh Sagar Lake which was fabulous, reasonably quiet and took us three hours.

A camel joined us for part of our walk

Another request for a picture-happy to oblige!

Jim and Yves cooling off in our Hotel Lavitra pool after our walk around the lake – Dawn and I were as well but decided to share a cool one on the roof top patio from where I took the picture

Udaipur has been great and we truly have enjoyed our stay here!  It’s been the cleanest city yet and you can actually walk around without looking at your feet, in fear of stepping on something dropped by a cow, dog, pig, sheep, etc.  We’ve had good food generally, and sometimes excellent food, and so far no intestinal problems, thank the Lord!   We’ve been pretty cautious with what we ate and drank and the plan is to continue with this as it’s been working so far.  The weather has been excellent and  not too hot although this will change as we’re headed further south.  It hasn’t rained since we’ve been here and that’s not a good thing but typical.   When we were in Jaisalmer the hotel owner told us it rains approximately fifteen minutes a year – yes, a year!   Water is pumped in from Delhi and while we were checking out of our hotel the water truck arrived – as you can imagine water is at a premium and often hot water is available only early mornings and early evenings so showers have to be planned!

Time to say goodbye to Udaipur and Aziz who will drop us off at the airport as we head to Mumbai for a couple of days – wonder what excitement awaits us there!

Aziz taking us to the airport as we head to Mumbai – what a super young man he is – and a hard worker!

All dressed up for our last dinner date in Udaipur