Incredible India: a voyage with Robyn and Sara

Day 4: Udaipur

Sammy, you’re right …there isn’t a universally recognised 7 or 8 star hotel rating, despite people thinking there is. It’s actually an unofficial term coined by a journalist for the Burj Al Arab in Dubai to emphasise its sense of luxury. However, officially, hotel ratings systems max out at 5 stars. Jim, 4 stars for Rob and 4 for me works!!!

Warren and Ang, no need to worry about me starving… the hotels we are staying at serve non spicy western food, but I have found a number of Indian dishes which I can consume!!!

Forgot to mention that petal confetti was thrown down on us as we entered the hotel yesterday. And we were presented with a beautiful scarf as a gift on check in. Here’s some pictures of hotel.

Today we visited the City Palace which stands on a hill on the banks of Lake Pichola, surrounded by crenulated walls. Built in 1567, it is composed of 4 major palaces and several minor palaces that form a single facade. Its main entrance is through a triple arched gate, built in 1725. The palace houses the Mewar dynasty. The first Maharana (which means King) laid the foundation for the palace and Udaipur, and the current Maharana heads the Mewar Charitable Foundation.

The first picture below was one of the Maharana’s horses. A fake elephant trunk is positioned near the nose area of the horse to create the illusion that the horses were baby elephants, possibly to deceive the enemies’ elephants. The second picture is of a traditional caparisoned horse( I had never heard the word “caparisoned” before but it means ceremonial dress).

This is a replica of two elephants fighting. Elephants were an integral part of the Mewar army and practiced fighting daily to ensure they were battle-ready.

Here’s some pictures from around the palace which was five storeys high (lots of steep steps to climb)

This is a picture of Lord Ganesh, one of the Indian gods (he’s very ugly). He’s not just at the Palace. There’s a statue of him on Jim and Robyn’s rooftop…purchased by Jim at an auction!

There was a separate palace for the Queen which was much less ornate, and had lower ceilings. Messages were sent between the two palaces via servants. Peacocks feature in the palace because peacocks were in the area.

On our way back to the hotel, we saw a ceremony to celebrate an upcoming wedding and a parade to mark a policeman’s retirement…all very colourful

Got to spend some time at our beautiful hotel…

And here was the message of rose petals in our room when we returned from dinner!