Rickshaws swerve around the bends tipping the fruit stalls over, oranges roll on the street. It is not any more quiet at the lake either. Boats manically chase each other and James Bond is shooting at the bad guys.
Enybody who has seen Octopussy knows that. In real life the rickshaws drive no no less madly although the boat float around much more calmly. And no shooting. As in the movie, two palaces float on the lake. In the white marble one is a luxurious hotel and restaurant (which Bond would have loved), in the other one is god knows what (which Octopussy would have loved). They won't let you in the restaurant if you are wearing tee-shirt and flipflops are unthinkable and dinner will cost you few thousand rupees. Again very Bond-like. The food is nothing much they say though, the lake is half empty and choked in green algae. In last few years it did not rain much and locals who throw rubbish in it just in front of a giant sign Protect the lake do not help it either.
On the shore looms typically Rajput-style extravagant City Palace. Stained glass, fine lattice works, mirrors, mosaics, wall paintings. But then the palaces in Europe are no less opulent. On the contrary. It seems we had more money even back then.
At the square near the City Palace is one „art“ shop next to each other. In front of the temple fake sadhus and beggars rattle theis alm-tiffins, stalls sell suspiciously cheap water (must be stolen or recycled) and armies of rickshaw drivers tout transport–hashish–opium. In this order.
But walk few paces away and take few turns and you get lost in the old town. Its bazaars and winding backstreets do not see many tourists. Old men hang on the doorsteps smoking beedis. Women inconspiciously hang in the shadows just inside the doors, occassionaly working. They do not want to be photograhed – but they want. Only not too much and so nobody sees it. They enjoy it enormously though and if it was not such a suspicious activity they would be running after tourists screaming „One photo, please“ just like small children.
Peace: I stayed at Queen Cafe with Meenu and her family. More like a homestay than a guest house. Very nice people. And the food! Those banana and pumpkin curries! Stuffed green tomatoes! And probably the best chocolate balls in India. It's near Chand Pol, not far from Panorama Guesthouse which is in every guidebook.
Few pictures
White marble palace floating on Udaipur's lake.
Palace courtyard (of that in the city, not that on the lake).
Palace courtyard (of that in the city, not that on the lake).
Old town.
Old town.
