Udaipur India

From Jaipur we flew to Udaipur.  We had no choice in terms of flights..... there is only one direct flight per day, and after booking the time of it was changed, to leave 3 hours later !  This meant we would be arriving there late evening and moving on the following afternoon.   As we would not be using the hotel very much we looked for an economical one, but giving us a view of the lake. We had originally booked into a suite at the Shiv Niwas Palace but only 8 of their 12 suites have a lake view and they couldn't guarantee that we would have a view.  So we booked a room instead at the Jagat Niwas Palace, 

specifying lake view.  This was an excellent choice in terms of value!
Our morning view  from the window

was superb!!

And we would be returning to Udaipur to stay in the hotel seen on the island!
It was also within a 5-10 minute stroll to the City Palace, where we intended spending the morning.

The City Palace, where the Mewar family still live, is certainly imposing!

 and takes many hours to see in detail....

For those who live in the San Francisco Bay area there is a fantastic exhibition, Maharaja, at the Asian Art Museum...... definitely worth a visit!

 The Mewar dynasty claims to be descended from the sun, so the sun seemed to be everywhere......

The exteriors were beautiful.......

As were the interior rooms.........................

And it had many interesting details.... like this ivory door...

And this beautiful one...........

And lots of interesting windows to check out the views of the city....

It had the inevitable Lord Ganesh, the elephant headed god...

And if you had come by elephant you could tether him in the courtyard....

As we walked back to the hotel we were amused to see this particular traffic jam!

The smaller Tuk-Tuk did reverse in the end...... no way were the cows going to turn around!