Udaipur

Let’s start back where I left off…  While you were all eating BBQ and enjoying the fireworks, I was on a retreat with FSD. Basically it’s just a chance for all the interns to get together; there are no real retreat-like activities.

We headed south to the city of Udaipur, which is still in the state of Rajasthan, but completely different from Jodhpur.  It’s bigger, and more liberal… And hilly and green. It rained every night we were there and was sunny during the day.  It was still hot, but the rain was amazing! 

There is supposed to be a lake (Lake Pichola) in the middle of the city, but because of years of draught and water shortages, it is virtually gone. Now you can walk across it, minus a few larger puddles.  So a few of us headed out in an attempt to make it to the Lake Palace, which is now a supposedly amazing hotel.  I say supposedly, cause we never made it out there, a guard stopped us and told us we had to take a boat across. That’s right… There is no water in the lake except for a small strip leading from the main land to the hotel entrance.

 The "lake" and the Lake Palace (the white building in the background... the building on the right is a temple).

Kids playing in the lake.

Cows grazing in the lake.

Nevermind the hoity-toity hotel, we headed to the City Palace instead.  It was beautiful and huge and while all the rooms are empty, it’s still easy to see how amazing it was back in its prime. It was an on-going project that was initially started by Maharana Udai Singh II, the founder of the city, in the late 1500s and then added onto by subsequent leaders.  Here are my favorite photos from the City Palace...