Connecting the dots...

Hotel Taj Lake Palace. It was the Summer Palace where the King conducted his durbar with higher officials only. After India’s Independence, the Princely states throughout the country were asked to hand over their properties to the Indian Government. The Maharana of Mewar was allowed to retain some of the palaces one of which was the Lake Palace on Lake Pichola.  Most of the palaces have been converted to heritage hotels - HRH group, http://www.hrhhotels.com. The Summer palace was leased to Taj hotels.

The hotel has retained most of the original structure. Lots of rooms have been added but royal family’s rooms have been retained as suites. The Heritage Walk conducted by the hotel gave us a glimpse of the hotel/palace’s history and architecture. Everyday the Heritage walk starts at 4pm. This is followed by a sunset cruise which takes you around the lake and a visit to Jagmandir. This is then followed by entertainment by the local artists. Maharana Mahendra Singh oversees the day-to-day activities of the hotel right from the restaurant’s menu to the uniform worn by the staff.

Though most of the photos of the hotel is on their website http://www.tajhotels.com/Luxury/Grand-Palaces-And-Iconic-Hotels/Taj-Lake-Palace-Udaipur/Overview.html…still we couldn’t just stop ourselves taking some pictures...

This beautiful courtyard has a restaraunt northern side. This pool during the Maharana days, was filled with holi colored water for the royal family and their guests to celebrate the festival. From where we took this picture, the king used to be seated overseeing the celebrations. A small Ganesha temple stands in this place.

The corridor around the pool are lined with rooms on one side and restaraunt on the other side.

This area was used for Ministers and other officials to assemble before the king. There is a courtyard to the left. After the courtyard is the Durbar hall. Now this area is used as the “Bar”.

This was the king’s seat :-) which is kept intact.

The attention to details when doing structural changes and adding rooms to the palace, is so good that one can only imagine the entire hotel to be a palace in totality :-) Our room was at the end of the terrace. Next to our room was the Suite, which was the present Maharana’s room. The interior of the room including the furniture and the decor is maintained as it was, to give authenticity.

From here one gets the spectacular view of the Winter Palace. 

The terrace also overlooks the courtyard below.

Sunset cruise - The boat takes a ride along the portion of the lake which is lined by Havelis and ghats. 

Jagmandir island - Contrary to its name, there is no temple in the island. It was built for holding lavish parties of the royal family. This has been converted to a hotel run by HRH group. The island has a beautiful garden. It has played host to many of the celebrity weddings and concerts. History is that Shahjahan was given refuge in this island when he ran away from his kingdom. 

http://www.hrhhotels.com/grand_heritage/jagmandir_palace/index.aspx

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jag_Mandir

After watching the beautiful sun set on the lake and the Aravalli range, it was time for us to get back to the hotel for the evening entertainment. The guests are entertained like how it would have been in yesteryears. Every evening live music and dance by local artists entertained the guests.

With this we have come to the end of our stay at Taj Lake Palace. The following day, we left at 9 am and drove 14hrs to reach to our own little palace at 11 pm.

We had our share of obstacles but we were able to sail through it to complete the road trip. With all the technology available to us, what really helped us at the crucial moments was the guidance from the local people. 

There is a lot we learned from the trip. If one is planning a trip during Diwali, be prepared for huge traffic jams since the whole of Gujarat literally shuts down and is away vacationing. Added to this, most of the schools in Mumbai and suburbs are closed for 2-3weeks. On our way back, many of the highway dabhas/restaraunts were also closed due to the same reason. During our stay at Udaipur, we saw that all the roads leading to the palace were choked with tourist vehicle. Most of the tourist attractions are located in and around the palace. It is best to get accommodation in one of the many hotels along lake Pichola , thereby one can walk or take the local transportation. Staying in HRH group and other five star hotels have their fair share of advantage to avoid the crowd.

The National Highways are still not animal free !! We were faced with herds of goat, sheep, cows and an occasional  camel crossing the road. This was more common during the sunset when these herds are returning back to their farms. One also has to be alert for vehicles coming towards you rather than driving in the opposite side of the divided highway !!

Everyday of our day to day life, we plan and schedule our activities. It feels good to let loose and do things on the go :-)

We hired the same guide who charged us a nominal fee of Rs.250 for 4hrs. As planned, we met up with the guide at 8:45 am. We hurried up to the ticket counter and paid Rs.560 per person for the special entry ticket. There were a few groups of foreigners along with us. We could enjoy the palace with peace and quite, without the shoving and pushing that happens in any crowded place !! 

The entry timings and fees details can be found at

http://www.eternalmewar.in/museums/city-palace-museum/index.aspx

This is the Toran entrance. We were told by the guide that - “the bridegroom will announce his arrival by hitting on this Toran”. 

The entire palace has been built across many generations. One can see  European, Mughal, Rajesthani and Chinese influence on the architecture.

The narrow galleys and alleyways inside the palace were designed such that it would be difficult for an army to attack.

The palace was built on top of a mountain ridge. The king had a bird’s view of the summer, winter palaces and the city below.

At the highest elevation of the palace, was the king’s garden and courtyard with a swimming pool in the center.

a friendly face at the security screening before entering the palace.

We also visited the Crystal Gallery for a ticket price of Rs.300 (without audio guide).

http://www.eternalmewar.in/museums/crystal-gallery/makers.aspx

The crystal gallery is a private collection of dinner sets,perfume bottles, serve ware and cutleries made of crystal. The collection also has crystal  furniture like cot, throne, foot rest etc. Photography is not allowed in this floor. A little history behind this collection is that, the Maharaja who ordered this specially made for him died by the the shipment reached India. It was in the godown for hundred years or so. It was the current Maharana who decided to keep it on display for the public.

The floor below Crystal gallery is called “Durbar Hall”. Durbar Hall has a good collection of photographs of Maharajas. The hall can be rented for holding business conferences or functions.The hall is lit up by huge chandeliers. 

 The crystal gallery ticket fee includes a drink at their lounge. The lounge has a row of bay windows overlooking Lake Pichola. We  had a choice of hot cup of tea (earl grey tea bag and not the indian tea), coffee or milk served along with cookies. It is nice way to wind down from all the walking and history lesson learnt in the day.

The current Maharana Mahendra Singh has retained some portion of this palace as his residence and office.

The guards are on duty when the Maharana is attending to his office work.

The royal family resides in the top floor (the one with the white colored shamiana )

After an exhausting walk through the palace, we decided to back to our palace (Taj hotel) for an afternoon nap :-)

Will write more about the hotel and our last evening of our stay at Udaipur, before we headed back home to Thane.

Udaipur - There is a good number of website where one can get all the information about the city’s tourist attractions and accomodation options.

http://www.rajasthantourism.gov.in/Destinations/Udaipur/Udaipur1.aspx

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/rajasthan/udaipur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udaipur

As a part of the hotel package we were given :

1) half day tour of the city by hotel car along with a guide.

2) entry tickets for the city palace.

3) heritage walk of the hotel (summer palace called Jag Niwas), boat ride on Lake Pichola to view sunset and visit Jag Mandir island. This was then followed by an evening of entertainment by local artists.

4) Rajesthani thali dinner for 2.

Apart from these, from our personal experience there were other benefits for staying at the hotel.

1) At the entry gates to the Palace, hotel’s and guest’s vehicles are given priority entry. This is particularly advantageous during tourist season when the whole area is congested.

2) The hotel guests are given a special visitor card. This card allows you to enter any gate with ease. This card also allows you to walk along the palace at night when the palace gates are closed for tourists.

3) The boat ride to and from the hotel is by itself an added attraction. There is normally a long queue for the boat ride on the lake for the general public. 

On the first day of our stay, by the time we were ready it was almost 10 am. We were advised to upgrade the city tour to a day tour at a nominal charge. This way we could get away from the tourist crowd thronging the Palace and its museum since we had a delayed start of the day. A tour of Saas-Bahu temple at Nagda and Eklingji temple was organized, both of which are roughly about 30 kms from the city. If time permits we were told that we could also visit the Vintage and Classic Car Collection of Maharana of Mewar.

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We started the day with a visit to Saas-Bahu temple at Nagda. This is a Vishnu temple belonging to the 600 AD. The temple is in a quite place away from the hustle bustle of the city. The temple is constructed on a raised platform alongside a lake and a small garden. The temple is maintained by ASI (archeological survey of India). The intricate carvings and its location makes it worth visiting. There is no entry fee. 

Our next stop was Eklingji temple. It is a Shiva temple where the main deity Eklingji is a lingam with four faces. It is a functioning temple and cameras/cellphones have to be switched off. The temple security strictly enforce this by constantly prowling around the temple premises. Eklingji temple is the deity of the ruling King of Mewar. We were told that a representative of the royal family visits the temple every monday to offer prayers. We offered flowers to the deity and exited the temple around 1pm.

We wanted to have authentic Rajesthani thali. Since we had planned to visit the Vintage Car collection, we decided to have lunch at the restaurant in the same premises. On reaching we were told that there was a 1hr wait !!

It was 2 pm and we were hungry. We discussed our options. Again being the holiday season, we would face huge crowd wherever we went. We decided to eat at a Pizza place which we saw near the entrance. As we got out of the gate, on the opposite side we saw a good crowd eating at a line of mobile vendors. The hotel staff is instructed strictly not to take guests to any street vendors. But from the sight of it, the food was fast moving and the place around was fairly clean. We also brought our driver and guide along with us for lunch.

As we were having chaat items ordered from one vendor, we could smell melted butter and awesome aroma of parathas from the next vendor. Oh mine wish we had taken a photo of the parathas…variety of hot thick parathas straight from the hot tawa served with a 1 inch block of butter !!  This defenitely was the highlight of the day. 

Sai Baba Center - After returning to the hotel, we were told that even the staff sometimes orders food from here ! everybody knows but still a secret kept from the guests !

After a sumptuous lunch, we went back to the Vintage Car Collection. 

1) The entrance fee is Rs. 150 which includes a drink.

2) The Vintage cars are kept in the garage. It is the Palace’s garage.

3) Most of the Vintage cars are in working condition. We were told that once a week, the cars are taken out for a ride.

This is the Phantom II car used in Octopussy movie.

The horse carraige is used by royal family during festival parades. It was exciting to see the words “Simpson’s Madras” inscribed inside the lamp :-)

Next we decided to give a shot at visiting the Winter Palace but only to turn back after seeing a huge queue to enter the palace !! The guide advised us to take advantage of “premium ticket”. By paying Rs.560,( the regular entry fee Rs.50), one gets an early entry of one hour before the regular scheduled opening time of 10 am.

We went back to the hotel just in time to view the beautiful sun set on the lake.