The Majestic Lake City..

Lake Pichola, Udaipur City

Thinking of many cities in and around the world which have taken birth and developed around lakes, these are just a small countable ones like Minnesota, Hanoi, Dartmouth etc. In India, we have Udaipur also known as the City of Lakes which lies in the great state of Rajasthan. With being a home to Asia's second largest artificial lake, it attracts around 1.5 Million tourists every year at an average.

My visit to the lake city happened to be on the New year eve with temperature upto 14 degrees Celsius in the city. Having a never ending excitement and a bag full of warm clothes, we touched down at Maharana Pratap Airport which is 20 km away from the city centre. No sooner I could understand the cold we were already heading to a pilgrim place called Nathdwara!

Nathdwara

'Nathdwara' which means 'Gateway to Shrinathji' is a pilgrim place where people folk on a huge number to worship Lord Shrinathji, an incarnation of Lord Krishna. It is situated in north-east 48km away from Udaipur city. The streets in Nathdwara have a huge number of people as there are these local shops selling colourful clothes, ethnic wears, utensils and a local delicacy also relished as a holy offering for the pilgrims. Due to the temple and the people visiting it, the whole vibe of the town feels more holy and pure! After a night stay, we head to scale a hill station up in the Aravalli ranges.

Nakki lake, Mount Abu

After a long 3 hour drive through the mountain ranges with an eternity old rock exposing to the morning sun rays making it look like a rock made out of gold was just nature at its best! About 1200m above the sea level in the Aravallis lies a hill station called 'Mount Abu' founded in the 16th century lies en-route to the highest peak of Rajasthan (Guru Shikhar 1720m). On reaching the hill station, the temperature fluctuated between 6 to 2 degrees Celsius and would fall upto negative 4 degrees celsius at night. The hill station itself gave me a feel of every other one but some worthy mentions are the Todd rock and Nakki lake a must visit! With a freezing cold night, I found myself cozy inside the blanket restricting any flow of air in order to warm up! After a night and two days we left for the City of Udaipur which is 163 km from Mount Abu with a scenic view of mountains and historically important places.

Todd Rock, Mount Abu

After a couple of hours looking at the way around we reached Udaipur city. My first impressions were an old city, hustling around, every structure having the royal pinnacle and the lakes! Many places and hotels have portraits and paintings of Maharani's and Maharaja's with all might. We quickly kept our bags in the hotel and drove northwest 12 km to a place with a scenic view popular on Instagram called the Bahubali hills. It gives a feeling of a mountain emerging out of a lake and is absolutely beautiful!

Bahubali hills, Udaipur

The next day morning we headed out exploring Udaipur by walking across the streets and reaching the Lake Pichola where the City palace is situated. I'll be writing another whole blog about the city palace so do check it out! The city is a pretty popular destination for backpackers from all around the world. With two massive lakes named as Pichola and Fateh sagar on two either parts of the city seperated by a land mass. The streets has a very authentic outlook to them from the older times which makes it so attractive. A major cluster of houses can be seen behind the city palace all coloured in white making them look like a white sea of similar houses hardly seperated by narrow ways which belong to people with incredible royal stories of olden times, cuisines and an authentic culture. What I personally noticed here in Udaipur is every bit of modernization somewhere has an influence of the royalty and the culture they possess.

City Palace, Udaipur City

Also make sure you check out the thali at Natraj restaurant near Udaipur city railway station, it has one of the best thalis out there in the city and is pretty famous! That very night it was the new year celebration where there are some firework shows at the lakes but I fell asleep and missed the new year celebrations! 😦 .The next day we completed few more stops around the city including the Sajjanghar Monsoon palace, Bappu bazar and ended our evening at a park near City palace watching the sunset over Lake Pichola!

Thinking of this trip as a whole, imagining that this is only one of the city in the state which has so much to show and share, that thought made me think about the other cities and culture and story that have to be heard! Well, that was my experience out there and I hope after your visit things will definitely be more relatable!

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