Udaipur, India

Udaipur seemed a little more chilled than the rest of Rajasthan. Or maybe we were just getting used to the wonderful chaos of India. Either way, we arrived keen to explore the city, which sits on the spectacular Lake Pichola.

One of the biggest sights in Udaipur is the City Palace. A vast complex of buildings, courtyards, museums and gardens, it’s sprawling and opulent, and I loved it. Every corner you turn reveals more beautiful carvings, framed paintings, or walls inlaid with gemstones. There are turquoise rooms, mirrored rooms, and some of the most beautiful ornate tiles you’ll ever see. Many of the rooms have scalloped windows with views over Lake Pichola, often letting in a cool breeze. It’s an incredible place to visit, and must be a great place to live. 

This got me thinking about who actually owns the Palace – surely India no longer has a royal family? But apparently they do. And quite a few of them. The Mewar Family had ruled over this area for hundreds of years, and records of their power date back to 566 AD. They no longer have any power, but still own land, estates, and most notably, Udaipur City Palace. I only found this out after we left the Palace, but it perhaps goes some way to explaining who all the old men in the paintings were.

We were outside in the grounds of the Palace when there was a minor commotion and the crown prince drove past in a convoy, with him leading the way in a shiny new BMW. The car looked quite out of place compared to the battered tuk-tuks outside the palace walls. Someone in a gift shop told us he had a ‘guest’ with him, who seemed to be a tall blonde western woman who we didn’t recognise. She had heavy security stopping people from bothering her; we can’t work out whether she was a minor influencer or an obscure member of a European royal family, but we followed her about for a bit before losing interest and going for lunch. 

The food in Udaipur was excellent once again. After leaving the Palace we went to Millets of Mewar, a vegan, local and gluten-free restaurant. We’d slowly realised during our time in India just how many Hindu people seem to follow a vegetarian diet – quite charmingly, meat is often referred to as non-veg – so a lot of the best local dishes happened to be vegetarian.

I wouldn’t particularly recommend our hostel in Udaipur. Every day we came back and the guy on the front desk would ask us where we’d been, then would protest when we told him, whinging that ‘everybody goes to the City Palace’. Yes mate, it’s because it’s absolutely spectacular. He seemed far more keen on us joining his Netflix movie night. We declined.

That evening we instead headed out of the hostel and went to Abrai, a restaurant right next to the lake. We sat by the water and ate butter chicken and stacks of naan bread. This was one of the few places where we saw lots of other western tourists, and we sat and listened to their conversations as tables of tour groups regaled each other with their tales of Udaipur.

For our last day in Udaipur, we headed out onto Lake Pichola itself (and yes, I made up plenty of songs that rhymed Nicola and Pichola). One of the most famous luxury hotels in India sits in the middle – the Taj Lake Palace. It’s starred in James Bond films, and has seen Queen Elizabeth, Brad Pitt, and even Dua Lipa stay within its walls. Unfortunately joining them on the island hotel was a little outside of our budget, but we bought tickets for a little boat tour, which puttered about the lake, giving us a slightly different view of the city, as well as a good chance to gawp at the Lake Palace hotel. It was very calming bobbing about on the water, and a nice way to round off our adventures in Rajasthan. The next morning, we headed to the airport, and after various delays due to mist, caught a flight over 1,000 miles to the south, to our next adventure in India: exploring the backwaters of Kerala.