Travelogue – Udaipur (The Lake City)

Sitting at home watching TV, an idea came at both of our minds, and we said it loud,” Let’s go to Udaipur, and let’s explore the beauty of Rajasthan, the land of courage and sacrifice and the city of lakes”. So we booked the cab from Vadodara to Udaipur and started by the morning. It’s a different experience and a different high when you go with your parents, you feel as if u have gone back to your childhood. So as the journey started we crossed the express highway and reached Ahmadabad and had our breakfast at a road side restaurant what you call as a “dhaba”, it was fun, and I started using my new phone and clicked a lot of pics while we were on the move, and moving ahead we reached Himmatnagar at around midday and were looking forward for Udaipur by 2 pm, and I was getting excited to see the sand mountains.Then we actually entered the zone of mountains and it was not actually sand but believe me it was beautiful. The mountains had nothing but cactus with beautiful and colorful flowers, and not even a single drop of water and it was midday so we actually saw mirage on the highway to Udaipur. It was getting hotter n hotter and we were also tired after traveling almost 250 km. Then we stopped at a place to taste the Rajasthani food, and enjoyed Dal bati and churma, at a road side dhaba. Then as we were about to enter the city of Lakes, we saw loads n loads of marble factories and shops, and then we entered Udaipur after half an hour and we took a wrong way for the palace, so I will suggest it’s better to take a guide if you are going for the first time, its good and its not expensive as well, because even we took one after we took the wrong way and then the guide took us to a hotel where we got freshened up and then started for the Udaipur Palace at 3:30pm. We took tickets to go in and became our own guides and started from the ground floor of the palace, and there were marks and numbers which we followed and explored the whole palace. It was big and the almost the biggest one of Rajasthan. We took a lot of pic’s though you have to pay if to take a camera inside the palace, and I did it because I dint want to miss even a corner of the palace. I would suggest take your sweet time and see each and every thing and read through the things written there, as it’s our own history of courage and sacrifice of the great kings like Maharana Pratap, Raja Bhopal Singh and many more.  I almost triumphed as a princess in the palace and heard my own echoes with pigeons flying here and there. Then we came out of the palace and thought of having a closer look of the lake Pichola beside which the main palace is and moreover inside the lake there is Lake Palace which you can book and see. So we dropped that idea as we were a lil late for the day so ultimately for the first time in my life I took a ride on a camel and it was awesome and it was next to the lake too. We clicked some snaps there and then moved on to see the main city and while going to Saheliyon ki badi (A huge garden with loads of fountains made for the queen and her friends) we stopped in the middle of the city to Sukhadiya Circle which is a park with a big fountain in the middle of it, which is so big that people actually enjoy it on small paddle boats and that’s the most interesting part of it.  Then we moved on to Saheliyon ki badi and enjoyed the fountains and every corner and the main pond with elephants of marble with beautiful sculptures surrounded by colorful lights and fountains, which make you feel fresh and cool in the heat of the city. There are a couple of more places which you would not like to miss like Nehru garden, Sajjan Garh, Fateh sagar and the beauty which you can actually admire while driving on the highway.  So one part of our trip was over and it was Shivaratri so we thought we will go to a Shiva temple and we went inside the small lanes of the city and searched for it and finally found one which was very beautiful and old temple in a small lane of the city. Sat there for some time and then went back to our hotel to grab some rest as it was already 11 in the night.  Next morning we started for Mount Abu so we thought let’s take a route on which we can see a lot more than just Mount Abu. So we started towards Haldi Ghati and before entering that we went to Ekling Ji temple of Shiva which is almost a thousand years old and extremely beautiful with all the sculptures and carvings on all the tombs. It’s a place worth going. After that we started for Srinathji Nathdwara (Krishna temple) and we took a guide who explained all the things there and showed us all the places in and around the temple. Shrinathji is a deity form of Krishna situated in the temple town of Nathdwara near Udaipur in Rajasthan, and is the presiding central deity of the Vaishnava sect known as Pushti Marg or Shuddhadvaita, established by Sri Vallabhacharya. Shrinathji specifically refers to the story in the Bhagavata Purana wherein Krishna lifts Govardhan hill to protect the inhabitants of Vrindavan from a downpour of rain sent by Indra, king of the devas. Krishna in his form of Sri Nathji is also worshipped throughout India by followers of Bhakti Yoga and the Vaishnava traditions, especially within Gujarat.  Then we started towards Haldi Ghati and the mountains were actually yellow like turmeric and in between there was a big palace where you can take a break as it s a long way without any actual resources. Haldi Ghati is the valley, near Nathdwara, where on 19th June, 1576 A.D. Kunwar Man Singh of Amber mounted on his mighty war elephant led the Mughal armies against Rana Pratap who on his incomparable white Stallion Chetak carried the crimson banner of Mewar into the thrust of the battle. Neither lance nor sword, nor the arrows that rained like hail around him could stem the course of that intrepid charge. For the first time in fifty years Moghuls suffered their first Setback and Haldi Ghati Shattered the myth of their invincibility – symbolic of the war that was fought for the protection and preservation of self respect, self reliance and independence. So as usual I clicked a lot of snaps there on the way and started back for home and after slept almost for the whole way after coming down from Haldi Ghati to the main highway as I wanted to dream of the beauty. "As the Spanish proverb says, ''He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.'' So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring  home knowledge.” this trip brought me close to our heritage and gave me memories to cherish for.