We noticed that there has been a hulking presence over Old town, Udaipur. High on a hill across the river, perched above old town and clinging to the rocks lies the imposing City Palace. You can’t look at the lake without noticing it.
Today we will wind our way to the footbridge.
Crossing over the Chand Pole footbridge we began to dodge the kamikaze motorbikes and tuktuks to climb the steep hill to the crest and that’s when the plan went pear shaped. We beheld the worst tuktuk/motorcycle gridlock — if you can use the word grid in Udaipur — we’ve ever seen. I honestly didn’t think it was possible.
We couldn’t even get through walking as we endured a cacophony of honking. After 20 minutes of this we found a roundabout way by climbing over and moving several motorbikes. Crazy. At the bottom of that hill we faced a long climb up to the City Palace Gates.
Without signs for any guidance we more or less followed the flow.
After a few people, desperately licking their melting ice cream cones in the heat, motioned which direction to head, we found ourselves in a kind of armaments museum.
I don’t know, I guess I had anticipated more of a palacey kind of thing but their weapons of war were quite artistically presented and how can you ask for more?
Next we were herded into the more refined sections of the palace.
Doors carved from solid ivory
How they made these courtyards so quiet and peaceful I’ll never know
Soon it was time to head back across the river for a sunset from the roof.
