Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab, India

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Sonya

After a long train ride from Udaipur to Delhi, and then another long bus from Delhi to Amritsar we arrived at the spiritual centre of the Sikh faith.

We checked into a hotel near the city’s main attraction – the Golden Temple. By then, the sun was setting so we decided to take a walk to the temple. It was a lot busier than I experienced during my last visit in 2006 – and we lined up alongside many Sikh families to put our shoes into storage, wash our feet before entering, and for Travis to collect a scarf for his head.

The grandeur and magnificence of the Golden Temple is breathtaking as one first enters the area. It is set on one side of a huge man-made lake of water. Whilst witnessing the temple’s dazzling gold exterior is amazing, seeing the many, many Sikhs make their pilgrimage to this sacred place quite a moving experience. Many were walking around the temple, as we were, others sat quietly and respectfully on the edge of the holy lake. The place was so alight with colourful turbans, and sarees.

After circling the Golden Temple, we went into the Langar canteen. The generous Sikh community offer free food for anybody who enters the Langar – and anybody can have a meal as often as they wish. The meal is simple – everybody entering receives a traditional thali steel plate and a steel bowl for water. Upon entering the canteen, people sit in rows cross legged on the floor. The volunteers who serve the food pass through each row, placing dahl, water, bread on each person’s plate.

City of Lakes, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Travis

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

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.

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

Dharohar – culture and heritage concert of Rajasthan, India

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Travis

Sonya recommended we see this as she had seen similar last time she was Udaipur. The tickets were fairly inexpensive at one-hundred rupees plus a little extra for use of camera during the performance.

The show features the different music and dance styles found in the state of Rajasthan.

The show starts with an elderly man playing a ravanahatha (a bowed string instrument local to the Rajasthan region) and a veiled women singing.

Next three girls performed the fire dance from the Bikaner region of Rajasthan. The girls would move hypnotically and trance like to the music all while balancing kerosene torches on their heads.

Following on was the impressive Tera Tali dance, in this performance a women with thirteen Manjiras (small cymbals) all tied around her legs and arms sits on the ground. The women then strike these cymbals with other manjiras on string, it was a very visual performance.

Veiled women dances followed next for a traditional Rajasthani dance known as Ghoomar. The women gracefully danced and twirled to the traditional folk music.

Next was a comical puppet show, featuring a dancing princess, a rider and horse and a magician who could separate his head all in time to the puppeteer’s mouth whistle.

The final act was the infamous balancing pot lady. The Bhavai Dance originated from the balancing skills of the women who carried pots of water on their heads for long distances. In this dance the woman balanced a staggering ten pots on her head (though the last three were all pre-glued together).

Venice of the East, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Travis

From Jodhpur we caught a six hour bus ride south to Udaipur. We spent a fair bit of time exploring Udaipur as there was a lot to see and do. Udaipur is situated around a number of lakes which lead to its nickname, Venice of the East.

Our hostel was in the heart of Udaipur with most things walking distance.

Jagdish Temple

Extremely close to our hostel and on the way to City Palace, Jagdish Temple reminded me a lot of the Khajuraho Temples we had seen, though not at all erotic. The central god was a bronze statue of a Garuda, which was quite scary with his big painted eyes.

City Palace

From Jagdish Temple we walked south to the City Palace complex though the Tripolia Pol (Triple Gate). City Palace was like many of the previous palaces we had seen, interesting highlights were the Surya Choupad (Assembly Room) which housed a huge ornamental sun.

Mor Chowk (Peacock Courtyard) had beautiful peacock statues. So intricate were the peacock statues that each barb of the feathers were an individual strand of coloured glass.

The City Palace also had amazing pastel blue rooms filled with wall and window decorations all painted this pastel blue shade.

Lal Ghat

From City Palace we walked back to our hostel stopping at Lal Ghat. Lal Ghat provided us beautiful views of Pichola Lake, including Jagniwas Island (Lake Palace, made famouse with the Bond movie Octopussy) and Moun Mandir.