Trip To The City Of Lakes

Jatin and I took a two-day trip to Udaipur a week after our wedding. It was a much needed respite from all the adulation and attention we were getting from friends and family, an opportunity to spend quality time with just each other, getting to know each other and understanding the whole relationship that we'd just got ourselves into.

Udaipur was certainly no respite from Delhi's heat, however. But we had a beautiful room in a beautiful hotel. There was a lake, a garden overlooking the lake, and a hotel room overlooking both of them. The hotel itself resembled a palace of the kind that Maharajas in Udaipur used to live in. So it was a great place to spend the day in, and the evenings were good for going out, exploring the palaces and the lakes all around the place.

I think all the ancient cities in India have these forts built atop hills, from where you can get a view of the entire city. The monsoon palace or Sajjangarh fort was just such a fort. There is not much of the fort itself that remains for one to see, but the view from up there is spectacular.

We also visited a vintage car collection, which houses cars owned by three generations of rulers. We clicked pictures with cars in which visitors like Queen Elizabeth and Jacqueline Kennedy had ridden. Apparently all of them are pretty well maintained and are taken out for a spin in a large courtyard every couple of weeks or so.

There's also a trolley ride along a rope way from where you can see a great view of the city from a vantage point. Now forts are not safe for visiting after dark, but this is something that lets you see the whole city lit up with the evening lights.

We also visited the City Palace Museum which is a place where the life and heritage of the Maharajas has been preserved.

When we were returning to Delhi, I got to see Delhi from the sky in the night time for the first time. I'd always taken day time flights before this. Delhi looks like a beautiful collection of jewels when you look at it like that. When we were a little nearer the ground and I could make out the roads and the cars, even from up there I could see how rash people sometimes are and how haphazardly they overtake each other on the roads.

Anyway, beautiful city, good trip. Left the airport with a happy feeling, from the aftertaste of the trip, and from the knowledge that, in about twenty four hours, we'd be back to the other side of the airport, heading off towards home.