A long time memory of a short trip to Udaipur.
I have been to Udaipur for many a times for official work, I had seen Udaipur, from the eyes of professional, but this was the trip to feel Udaipur as a tourist.
It was a mini vacation in office and as well schools due to weekend merged with Dussera holidays, making it a four day off from the routine office life, i.e. 08th Oct 16 to 11th Oct 16.
Before this mini vacation started, there was a lot of buzz in the office as to where to spend this golden mini vacation. I too started to indulge myself into the flow and began research on holiday destinations. I knew that the time is not too long (4 days) to plan any long trip. Kerala, is still in my list of “to be”, but only 4 days are not enough for that magnificent place. I had in mind a place where we can go and come back with relaxed mood within four days from Vadodara.
I had already made and given a plan to Udaipur to my colleague once, hence that plan was already with me. So we planned for this nearby destination.
As our parents stay in Ahmedabad, before we started our trip to Udaipur we went to meet our parapets. We actually started trip to Udaipur on 9th Oct, spending 8th Oct at Ahmedabad.
Day-1: 09.10.2016:
After early breakfast at my parents’ home at Ahmedabad, we started our road journey to Udaipur at 7AM in our Swift Dzire.
We took the route of NH48 to Udaipur via Shamlaji.
The road is very well maintained 4 lane highway. You can enjoy landscape throughout your journey. It becomes more beautiful as you start climbing hills towards Udaipur.
Making few stops for taking pictures, we reached our Resort by 11:30AM. We had booked “The Amargarh” resort. It’s a huge beautiful resort on NH-48 itself, just before main city of Udaipur.
The entire resort is built with kota stone and marbles and has been given a look and feel of typical Rajasthan built. It has a big swimming pool, spa centre, gym and game room.
Once you arrive at resort, you are welcomed with tradition music of Rajasthan, tika and flower garland with welcome drink.
After check-in into hotel we took rest and after getting fresh, we headed towards restaurants of the resort.
As it was already 3PM by then, we decided to visit only city palace and Lake Pichola on first day.
First I thought to use local cab service to visit local Udaipur city and keeping our car in resort itself. However, the local cab dealer informed us that due to union issues pick from outside city area is cannot be done. Hence I changed my plan and decided to use our own car.
First we reached City palace with the help of Google map navigation. Roads inside Udaipur city attraction points are too narrow and crowded. Dare to drive own car if you are confident about your driving skills. Parking charges at City palace are 150/-INR and ticket to visit City Palace museum is 250/-INR per Adult. 250/-is charged to use any sort of camera inside.
We visited the city palace museum and came out by 5.00PM. The view of Udaipur city from the City palace is magnificent. This is why these palaces are made and used by Maharaja’s to keep watch on city.
We enjoyed calm evening, sitting on the lawn of city palace garden, watching this magnificent structure.
Next we headed towards Lake Pichola.
As it was Sunday and also a part of long weekend it was more crowded. Somehow we found a place to park our vehicle.
There was no time to enjoy luxury boat ride as it was more crowded than usual days as per local guides. Somehow after a que we got tickets to a boat ride of 20 mins in Lake Pichola.
There are two types of boats to take ride of. Boat with sofa set costs 250/-INR per head and general boat with side sitting arrangement charges 125/-INR per head.
The time we reached Lake Pichola, the first ready boat was 125/-INR boat. We got two tickets and reached to our boat.
As it was an evening time, the atmosphere was cool by then, it added plus point to our boat ride. 20 mins, out of the shores and on the lake was full of enjoyment. You start to relax with the flowing water sound and touch of the cool water of Lake Pichola.
As the lake it at back side of City Palace, i.e. “Peeche” in Hindi, so it is called Pichola.
During the boat ride you get to see Taj Palace, Oberai Palace, Jal Mandir and magnificent view of city from the lake side.
With our soul filled with new energy and joy we returned from the perfect out of lands journey on the waters of lake.
For the locals of Udaipur, its an evening walk and rest place, so it is more crowded in evenings. But the real joy of boating is only in the evening, when sun starts to settle down after the long day heat.
With this beautiful thought, we decided to end first day as to get more time self and relax.
We returned to Amargarh Resort by 7.30PM. In the night time, the beauty of Amargarh resort comes out more glorious way. As the decorative colourful lights illuminate the resort in unique way. It feels that it’s one more stop of tourist attraction in Udaipur.
After getting fresh in room, we had a walk around the resort’s beautiful pathways, swimming pool area etc.
As we were little exhausted we ordered the dinner in room itself and enjoyed the food while taking about the fun we had the entire day.
Day-2: (10.10.2016):
I woke up early at 5.30AM in the morning, while my wife and daughter were yet asleep. I decided not to disturb them and went out to enjoy morning of hills. In the daily busy life we seldom get time for our soul to enjoy the morning sun in relax mood. It was really a cool morning and the view of hills in the emerging sun light was really spectacular.
In today’s plan we had Gulab Baug and zoo in our list first item.
After an early breakfast at restaurant we took our car to Gulab Baug. At least here the parking is free and without rush. Local public of Udaipur uses this establishment as morning walk and exercise. We roamed around the park and enjoyed the cool morning with lush green plantation around. There is a small zoo inside, which accommodates very few cages for peacock, langoors and Deer, along with two or three cages of birds.
When we came out of zoo and park and reach near to our car in the parking area, one auto rikshaw fellow asked us if he can make us visit local places in auto with reasonable fare. Actually this is also a good idea as these auto rickshaws are used by many tourists and foreigners also as a mean of local site seeing vehicle. As I observed the narrow crowded streets of Udaipur, using this mode is really worth against using our own car.
The private vehicle can be parked here (as there is no parking charges) and then auto can be taken to roam around and after site seeing, we can get dropped here again and we can use our car to return to hotel/resort.
The auto wala started his offer with 600rs. But I did not enter into bargain as we had already decided to use our car as we had already covered crowded part in first day. However one can bargain to its talent and make worth use of this mode of local site seeing.
Next we had in our list was, “Sahelion Ki Badi”
This is a small garden and fountain park to enjoy a small amount of time. This was made by Maharaja’s for their Queens/Maids for their enjoyment, hence the name as per that.
At the entrance if you clap loudly the fountains start raising. As per local guide it was this named “Welcome Fountain” as to welcome queens once they enter this garden.
You can get your picture clicked and printed in traditional dress here in this park. Next we headed towards Fateh Sagar Lake. It was towards afternoon by this time and sun was showing its strength. Boating in this atmosphere was not a good idea hence we decided to roam around the lake in car only. There is a nice wide road around the Fateh Sagar Lake (Moti Magi road-Rani Road). You can have a good view of lake while driving around the lake. It was also a good experience. We stopped the car as we liked and clicked photos with lake. Next we had in plan was Monsoon Palace, built by Maharaja to see clouds of monsoon prediction. As per a local guide, they wanted to build 13 storey structure here but it was never completed.
We started climbing hilly steep road towards monsoon palace. However, the road was not good and we decided to exclude from the list and made u turn towards lake again. We had the Shilpgram in our bottom list of plan as there is no much listing of this place in Udaipur attraction.
However as it was getting hot afternoon we decided to give it a chance. We reached Shilpgram with the help of Google navigation and by that time it was 11.45AM The parking is free and ticket per adult is 40/-INR only and the camera charges are 50/-INR As we entered the gate, Mr. Pandit (a local guide) met us and asked if we wanted a local guide. He told he was government approved guide for this establishment and would guide us for next 2 hrs with his fee of 150/-INR. I did not negotiate and agreed to hire him. He was a soft spoken Rajasthani toned guide.
He explained us about the purpose of this establishment and contribution by local artists to develop this village every year for tourists to showcase art and culture of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
You can see actual traditional houses made by artists, which you can find in actual in Jaisalmer, Gujarat’s Kutch and Goa.
The village re-creation is really beautiful and realistic. It is not be missed in the Udaipur tour. It was a right decision to give it a chance.
Gol museum (Round Museum), displaying local art of Gujarat and Rajasthan and local shops establishment to sell handicraft by local artists was also worth visiting.
We were also lucky as we reached there a right time when artist play local songs and dance at a stage in Shilpgram.
We took our seats and the program began.
Watching live performances of folk songs and dance is always in my top list and that day I got that golden chance without planning.
It was really a soul energising 1 hr of the folk songs and dance performances by Rajasthani and Gujarati artists. Not to be missed.
After that unexpected good time spot, we headed back to our resort for lunch and rest.
In the evening we visited the lake Pichola again, as to enjoy the sunset on the water. One can visit to Bagore ki Haveli in the evening as there is a cultural program from 7PM to 8PM daily. As we had our cultural dose in Shilpgram, we cancelled Bagore ki Haveli from day-2 list. In addition to that we had cultural evening at our resort also from 8PM to 9PM. We enjoyed the dinner and took rest overnight.
Day-3: (11.10.2016): Time to return:
After our breakfast at resort we checked out at 8.30AM and headed back towards Vadodara.
However, coming straight back to Vadodara was never in my mind. We took “Polo Forest” en-route.
It’s a place in Vijaynagar inside Gujarat. We took route of NH-48 and then to SH-48 to reach Polo Forest.
The road towards Polo Forest is worth enjoying and in addition to that, frequent picture perfect spots force you to step out of your clutch and accelerator and make to sit in the near the water bodies between lush green forest area.
Flowing water and cool breeze make your day perfect. With this enjoying journey we returned back to Vadodara via Himmatnagar, Ahmedabad and NE-1.
Thanks for reading...
From,
Samarpan