Long weekend trip to Udaipur
Travel,  non-bookish feature

Long weekend trip to Udaipur that turned into one week break from blog and life

Hello readers! I hope you all are well. I’m back after an unexpected one week break that followed Long weekend trip to Udaipur. It wasn’t the best trip but at the same time it was great to go away few days.

My husband booked our trip to Udaipur around 15th August (India’s 76th Independence Day) for 3 days a couple of months ago. It was a great deal looking at long weekend and peek season that raises the prices of hotels everywhere in India. We planned to go with my brother and his wife but as she caught jaundice, my parents came with us. We were excited for this trip as it’s been almost a year we had a mini trip or vacation (I’m not counting our visit to in-laws in Mumbai) but things didn’t turn out as good as we expected.

Day 1 – Almost half of the day went in car. Udaipur is 4 hr 46 min (256.8 km) journey from our home in Ahmedabad but as we took route from Ahmedabad to Ambaji to Udaipur making it around 350 Km. My dad drove throughout the trip as neither me or my husband can drive (that we hope to change before year end). We took a stop at Ambaji temple (when my mom and my husband are in the trip anywhere in India, they will make you stop at every big religious temple. Me and my dad are never much excited about it but we go along to respect their faith) at 172 Km. It was raining and very dirty and we have to remove our shoes a little far than last I remembered before entering temple, it wasn’t much appealing stop but as elders and devotees like to focus on the positivity that is we could sight the statue of goddess and pray for a minute. As my dad is older now and didn’t drive above 80 plus there was traffic in Udaipur city, it took us around 8 hrs to reach Udaipur. (in his younger time he could have covered that distance in 4 hr. He fabulous driver.)

Hotel was really good. I loved ambiance of room and stunning view of Lake Pichola from hotel room window (pic 1). As we reached at around 4 and took an hr to refresh and relax we could only visit market in the evening and that was a good decision as most of the shops were closed next day on Sunday.

weekend trip to Udaipur
Pic 1 – Lake Pichola view from Hotel


Day 2 – This was both a good and horrible day. My kid caught a cold, she was cranky, and due to medications, she had constipation. My husband offered to stay with her at hotel while we went for sightseeing first to BAGORE KI HAVELI (Pic 2) and then to The City Palace. As both places were within 2 Kms from hotel and we couldn’t possibly take car through narrow lanes that are frequently jam-packed with traffic we walked to both places. It turned out day of exercise as both places required lots of walking.

Bagore Ki Haveli is at Gangori Ghat of Lake Pichola built by Shri Amarchand Badwa who served as the Prime minister of kings in Udaipur from the period of 1751 to 1778. Till 1947, the haveli remained in the possession of Mewar state. Post India’s Independence, the Haveli was used by the Rajasthan government. neglected for almost forty years and later in 1986, the Government eventually decided to handover the restoration work to the West Zone Cultural Centre and is turned into museum. This haveli sure gave the royal feel and it has 138 rooms!! Of course, not all sections and rooms were open for tourists but it’s an exquisite and attractive museum with displays of turbans, clothing, weaponry, wedding rituals, musical instruments, quarters for royals and females of the era giving closer look on cultures and customs.

Bagore ki haveli
Pic 2 – Entrance
courtyard
Pic 2A – courtyard 
2B- Outer view of Haveli (wing just above that triple-arched gateway)

We spent few minutes near the ghat for pics and moved on to next sightseeing of the day.

triple-arched gateway / at Gangori Ghat entry

City Palace Udaipur– Now this was most tiring part of the day. It was long weekend plus Sunday and it looked like almost all the people living in the citites/states around and near Udaipur were at the City Palace! There was so much crowd and there was long line for everything, tickets, entry, going from one room or section of the palace to other… We have to wait for like 15 to 20 mitues for each and let’s just say it killed the mood and fun of visiting the palace and it took us around 3 hrs to see the palace from entry to exit. (Pic 3A) But the Palace is truly marvelous. This is my second visit to Palace and it still awes me see this humongous architectural marvel that was built over a period of nearly 400 years. There were many new sections they created with new displays of arts and pictures of the Palace and there is some other sections under renovation that are planned to open soon. The Palace has many small palaces and villas – Suraj Gokhda (public address facade), Mor-chowk (Peacock courtyard), Dilkhush Mahal (heart’s delight), Surya Chopar, Sheesh Mahal (Palace of glass and mirrors), Moti Mahal (Palace of Pearls), Krishna Vilas, Shambhu Niwas, Bhim Vilas, Amar Vilas (with a raised garden), Badi Mahal (the big palace), Fateh Prakash Palace and the Shiv Niwas Palace… The part shown in pic is open for tourists (Pic 3) and the other one beyond another gate, I think, is where royal family still lives or must be reserved for family.

city palace
Pic 3- The City Palace
crowd in city Palace
Pic 3A- City Palace was horribly jam-packed both inside and outside. Everyone wanted to take bloody pics in this crowded place, some people even waited in line for pictures so they can have their pic without someone else in pic. 😂

We walked 10,000 steps by the time we reached back to hotel and place where we had luch at 3 in noon. We showered and rested for a while and thought we will leave for Fateh Sagar Lake for boating but no one was in mood and my kid for whom we wanted to go was sleepy, so my dad who was supposed to drive but as we had long drive next day we let him rest and went to market which was pricey because of Sunday and lots of tourists and another market that had used book store was closed after 3 P.M. Once we returned we went to Backyard Cafe for light dinner. It was cozy and there was artist performing that night who made the night even more beautiful.

Here is pic of night view of Pichola Lake

Lake Pichola at night
Lake Pichola at night

Day 3 – We planned to leave after breakfast at 9 A.M. but my kid’s constipation delayed things and we couldn’t leave before 10. We planned to visit Sajjangarh monsoon Palace first then from there to Eklingji temple and then to Shrinathji Temple and back to home but as every place were crowded there was lots of delay in the itinerary.

First there was one hr line at ticket window of Sajjangarh monsoon Palace and then there was lots of traffic. There was short different line for women but we discovered it too late. At fort as well there was so much crowd. There wasn’t much to watch at palace except beautiful scenery and fort entrance. Most of Palace rooms were closed for tourist and another part of the Palace was converted into cafe and restaurant. We honestly weren’t in mood for food after standing in line for pics (yes here too!) and left for Eklingji where we reached at 2:30 P.M.

sajjangarh monsoon palace
Sajjangarh monsoon palace
My parents
My kid
view of lakes from sajjangarh monsoon palace
view of lakes from sajjangarh monsoon palace. Those are two biggest lakes of Udaipur we could see from the Palace -Fateh Sagar Lake and Udai Sagar Lake.


Unfortunately, the Eklingji temple was closed until 5:30. I so wished to see this temple as it has a magnificent architecture with 108 temples within the complex of temple. It was originally constructed in 8th century that was destroyed and then rebuilt and renovated by various Kings. and is preserved exactly as it was built (at least how the last king must have reovated). Maybe next time we plan the trip we will keep temple timings in mind. We left after snacks here and reached Shrinathji Temple at 3:40.

And the crowd at Shrinathji was of another level. First they closed road to temple because of so much crowd and asked us to leave car in parking of Statue of Lord Shiva (a new tatue they have built near temple) and take auto. My dad was annoyed and tired and like me he too doesn’t like crowded places so he stayed in car to rest while me, my mom, husband and kid took auto to temple and as the temple was going to close at 4 and there was no shoe racks or any kind of system because of suffocating stifling crowd, my husband stayed outside temple to take care of our belongings (shoes and phones). Once we entered the temple I so wished I have stayed with my dad. We stood in line for 30 horrible minutes in line (note- with my kid carrying her and she weighs 15 kg now!) where people kept pushing each other as if they didn’t see God they would die right that moment. So yeah like devotees like to see this in positive light we sure could sight the statue of God, pray for a second and left for the market there which was again overcrowded and overpriced and with lots of disgruntle from me and my kid made my mom to leave the market and go back to parking and we finally started for back home.

Nope, it’s not over yet. All the highways had orange to red traffic as every tourist who came to Rajasthan was leaving for home and due to rainy season there were landslides on road and also so many ditches making the ride back home highly uncomfortable. Thanks to Google navigation that showed many alternate routes that helped to avoid major traffic and with a stop for dinner and break we reached home at 2 A.M.

We all were so tired my kid skipped school next day we didn’t do anything for two days except rest. It was so good to be at home again.

Ah, it took me so long to write this post. I appreciate travel blogs even more now. If you kept reading till the end, thank you so much! I really appreciate it. I just hope it was boring for you to read.

Thank you for reading! Let’s chat..,

How was your week?
Was there a trip that you didn’t enjoy but at the same time it was great to have time away?

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Hi, I'm Yesha, an Indian book blogger. Avid and eclectic reader who loves to read with a cup of tea. Not born reader but I don't think I’m going to stop reading books in this life. “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

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