Can’t believe it is April by the way! We pulled into Udaipur this morning. This is considered the green belt of Rajasthan. We are more in the hills and they have many reservoirs that have been created starting hundreds of years ago which are solely filled by rain water during the monsoon season. On these lakes the Maharanas built summer palaces and retreats. Upon disembarking fro the train we were met with the usual fanfare…drums beating, decorated horses, adorned with scarves and sprinkled with rose pedals. It makes you think you might be somebody and crowds gather because they think we might be…Sorry to disappoint but we are just tourists coming and treated truly like royalty due to riding aboard the Maharaja Express. I haven’t seen anything like it, nearly embarrassing. Don’t go anywhere without a band and rose pedals here ;)
Our first outing was aboard a small boat on Lake Pichola where we walked around the summer palace and getaway for the Maharajas. The island is covered by gardens and this summer palace sculpted with ornately carved marble structures and some lovely gardens. It is now a popular Indian wedding spot- which you can only imagine how fabulous it would be lit up at night and filled with colorful saris. Following our exploration of the island palace, the former movie site of the James Bond film Octopussy and now owned I believe by Taj Resorts. There are several very nice hotels on the lake too, including an Oberoi which looks beautiful.
We walked through the streets and up to the City Palace which is still partially occupied by the former Maharaja’s family. Inside the palace they had one of the largest cut crystal furniture displays including a crystal double four posted bed, the only one of it’s kind in the world. Typical of Indian and Hindu superstition the king at the time had ordered all custom designed crystal pieces for his palace from England. The day they arrived in Udaipur he died. The crate wasn’t even opened and put in the basement. 100 years later when they were cleaning out the basement, possibly for getting it ready to be open to the public post independence, it was discovered, opened and assembled. Today it is the largest exhibit of cut crystal furniture in the world. It was really pretty amazing. Unfortunately we weren’t able to take photos but the pieces were really one of a kind.
For lunch we went into one of the Palace ballrooms and were served lunch. Following we opted for a short shopping outing. There were several of us that wanted to visit one last handicraft shop. We stopped in one that had a variety of everything but a large display of the local painting style. They paint miniature paintings from the tail hair of a squirrel which is so tiny they can include beautiful details. Many of the paintings are painted on camel bone. The camel bone is ground and then mixed with some kind of gum like substance and made into sheets that act as canvases. The result is when light shines through the back the painting glows. Sam picked out the Taj Mahal and Kingfisher paintings and I chose a peacock. We saw many of these paintings displayed in the palace as well. The larger paintings are also in fine detail and with gilded accents which make them shimmer. They tell whole stories almost like a small film.
We returned to the train mid afternoon and joined a set of 7 year old boys and their parents from NYC and played the local game Karoom- not sure the spelling. It is like pool with checkers. It was fun afternoon playing games and visiting with this family. They both had really interesting stories. Merriam migrated from Afghanistan when she was young with her family who had been diplomats and she has lived all over the world and mostly in Middle Eastern countries. Her husband is Persian and he left Iran when he was younger and actually was sent to boarding school when he was young in India. They are both such interesting and nice people and their rowdy boys are clever and “sharks” at this table game and love to play with Sam.
Near 6 pm. about an hour before we were supposed to leave I decided I wanted to see if I could find something with the family crest from Udaipur on it. The crest is awesome. It is a sundial with a mustache on it. The Maharaja family believes they are descendants of the Sun and they worship the sun. They are also of the warrior caste who sport long and decorative mustaches. Hence their family crest is actually a sun with a long swirly mustache- love it!
This area is known for these miniature paintings painted with the hair of a squirrel's tail. We picked up a couple at on of the shops.
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