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 Octopussy

Wooden boat near the Jag Niwas Lake Palace and the Monsoon Palace in the background

Jag Niwas Lake Palace with a traditional wooden boat

Jag Niwas Lake Palace the home of titular character Octopussy in James Bond film

Monsoon Palace on Aravalli Hills in the distance with Lake Pichola Ghats in the foreground

Bagore ki haveli Ghat with Jagat Niwas Ghat further on

The Udaipur City Palace complex viewed from Lake Pichola

Lal and Ghanghaur Ghat near Bagore ki haveli

Mohan Mandir with Lake Pichola Ghats behind

Swargiya Jodh Singh Ji Chauhan Puliya bridge

Elephant statues on the perimeter of Jag Mandir Palace

Jag Mandir Palace surrounded with elephant statues

Jag Mandir Palace elephant with City Palace seen in the distance

Sonya with an elephant at Jag Mandir Palace

Travis at Jag Mandir Palace and City Palace in the distance

Three elephants and crocodile at Jag Mandir Palace fortunately all stone

Bats 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 bush

View of Udaipur and Lake Pichola from the Monsoon Palace

Sonya at one of the unrestored Monsoon Palace rooms

View 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.

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.