Udaipur in Rajasthan is widely claimed to be India’s most romantic city. It surely looks romantic with its elegant, ornately turreted buildings, and fairytale palaces and hotels seemingly floating on the glassy calm waters of Lake Pichola.
Our stay here proved to be a cultural as well as sightseeing experience. On Thursday night at the Bagore-Ki-Haveli we attended an authentic Rajasthani dance performance along with Rajasthani puppetry. To my surprise, the latter was excellent and the whole show was great. The following night we continued to indulge in fine culture, attending a guesthouse roof-top screening of James Bond’s Octopussy.
Now I know what you’re thinking – Agent 007 and Rajasthani folk dancers make unlikely bedfellows indeed. But surprisingly, there is a close link. Udaipur itself, for Octopussy was filmed here, utilizing the magnificent palaces, local auto-rickshaws souped up to enable them to do wheel stands as they roared around the narrow, winding alleyways, and the brooding mountain-top Monsoon Palace across the valley to the west. Octopussy turned out to be a very silly show, one of the worst Bond movies, but it was fun picking out the local Udaipur landmarks and seeing auto-rickshaws move as we’ve never seen them move before (and dreading the thought of ever being in one moving like that). Nearly every guesthouse screens Octopussy – every night!
We took a boat ride on Lake Pichola to see up close the mirage-like luxury Lake Palace Hotel, originally the 18th century home of Maharaja Jagat Singh II. Further down the lake, on Jagmandir Island, is another former Palace, this one now used as a function centre and tourist boat stop-over point. Returning to shore we inspected the soaring City Palace, Rajasthan’s largest, and former home to 22 Maharajas over the centuries, but now a labyrinthine museum. Our day ended with dinner at the Whistling Teal, the first restaurant we’ve ever seen with a large cattle grate at the entrance to prevent unwelcome bovines wandering in. We scampered across, chose a candle-lit table overlooking the lush courtyard lawn, and after studying the menu we ordered the Murg Masala, Rajasthani Dahl and Palak Ki Sabzi.
Udaipur, Rajasthan. What a great place.
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