City of Lakes, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

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For our final day in Udaipur we decided to join a boat ride around Lake Pichola and visit Monsoon Palace.

Lake Pichola Boat Ride

From City Palace Rameshwar Ghat we joined a shared boat ride tour around Lake Pichola. The one hour trip allowed us to get a close-up glimpse of all the small islands including;

  • Jag Niwas – which houses Lake Palace, a palace made famous by the Bond movie Octopussy.
  • Jag Mandir – which includes a Jag Mandir Palace that we stopped at.
  • Mohan Mandir – which we saw children diving into the waters from, and
  • Arsi Vilas – which houses a small palace

Jag Niwas Lake Palace famous for one of locations of the James Bond film OctopussyWooden boat near the Jag Niwas Lake Palace and the Monsoon Palace in the backgroundJag Niwas Lake Palace with a traditional wooden boat
Jag Niwas Lake Palace the home of titular character Octopussy in James Bond filmMonsoon Palace on Aravalli Hills in the distance with Lake Pichola Ghats in the foregroundBagore ki haveli Ghat with Jagat Niwas Ghat further on
City Palace as seen from Lake PicholaThe Udaipur City Palace complex viewed from Lake PicholaLal Ghat
Lal and Ghanghaur Ghat near Bagore ki haveliMohan Mandir with Lake Pichola Ghats behindMohan Mandir an uncompleted temple
Children diving from Mohan MandirSwargiya Jodh Singh Ji Chauhan Puliya bridgeA man and elephant under a tree
Elephant statues on the perimeter of Jag Mandir PalaceJag Mandir Palace surrounded with elephant statuesJag Mandir Palace elephant with City Palace seen in the distance
Sonya with an elephant at Jag Mandir PalaceTravis at Jag Mandir Palace and City Palace in the distanceSonya resting on a white stone chair
Sonya and Travis at Jag Mandir PalaceThree elephants and crocodile at Jag Mandir Palace fortunately all stoneBats in the trees on shore near the boats

Monsoon Palace

Our last destination in Udaipur was the Monsoon Palace, named as it was viewing location of the clouds used to determine the monsoon. Located five kilometers west from Udaipur, the journey was fairly expensive having to take an auto-rickshaw to the gate followed by part entrance fees and further Jeep transport to the palace.

The Monsoon Palace was extremely run-down, but did offer panoramic views of Udaipur and its lakes.

Mother and baby monkey resting under a bushMonkeys in a treeView of Udaipur from Aravalli Hills
View of Udaipur and Lake Pichola from the Monsoon PalaceSonya at one of the unrestored Monsoon Palace roomsView from Monsoon Palace of the Aravalli Hills

This concluded our exploration of the Rajasthan region, later that day we caught a train to New Delhi.

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