Udaipur City Palace

As a general rule, this visit to India has been about the crafts and culture of the ordinary rural people of Kuchchh - and both wars and splendour seem to have mainly bypassed Kachchh anyway.  Rajastan is the region for might and splendour - and Udaipur is in Rajastan.  We got our first taste of it at the Lake Palace Hotel, a former regal residence, but the City Palace in Udaipur itself was something literally to dazzle the eyes.

Construction of the palace began in 1559 for the Mewar dynasty of Maharajahs.  In recent years laws about distribution of wealth have caught up with them, as it has with aristocratic families in England.  Part of the Complex has been opened to the public as a museum, while the regal family continue to live in the remainder ... it is an absolutely huge place anyway.  The wedding of one of the current Maharajah's daughters next year is expected to be absolutely sumptuous.  

Without a shadow of a doubt, the interior decor tastes of the Mewars was not minimalist.  They knew how do put on some absolute glitz or the most extravagant prettiness.  

The building where the roof top gardens are located is actually a kind of mountain especially constructed for that purpose - there are no rooms below (see photo of some of our party).

In one courtyard of many many pillars, no two pillars are the same and I include a pic of the daffodil base for one of them.

The views out across the city and lakes are spectacular - and in fact they built Lake Pichola just for that purpose!!  It is not a natural lake.  In the view through the scalloped arched window you can see the Mewar Summer Palace, out on the water below. 

Wherever women lived in the palace, however, the open windows are replaced by carved stone grills, some of extraordinary beauty.  The courtyard with the little enclosed balcony upstairs for the queen, was one of these areas ... I didn't manage to get a good picture of the tiled 3D peacocks at ground level, now behind glass - but they were very beautiful, as was much of the detail in this courtyard.

We had a really good guide for the palace tour ... and so skillful was he that at the end of the tour, before we knew what was happening, he deposited us in the museum shop, into the hands of an equally talented Kashmiri pashmina salesman ....  by the time they had finished with us, we all came away with a pashmina or two, each one of us I'm sure, feeling every inch a maharani in the new purchase!!  It was a seamless operation - we need to work on this at the Lady Denman!!  

I have a few more pics of Udaipur to send, and a few of Mandvi - but the adventure is pretty much over.  We fly out tomorrow morning early after a lovely day at the Singapore Botanical Gardens today.  I'm a bit sad - but it will be nice not to have to repack the bags every two days.  I'd like to say I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed but the one here in Singapore is of such superior comfort, especially the pillows, that I would like to sneak it into the mythical container and bring it home.  They have thoughtfully supplied a price list for all the furnishings in the room  - but I couldn't even squeak in a pillow case!