Slowly, slowly, no worries, no hurry!!

This morning we met our guide, Ravi, who was to show us the sights of Udaipur.

Our hotel is right on the lake edge with access to it down some narrow alleyways and as we left with Ravi he started to point out the obvious – this is a power line to this house, that’s a water pipe – and I thought that this fellow is going to bore us to death!

We first walked along the lake edge and crossed via the Chand Pole Puliya foot bridge to the eastern side of Lake Pichola which is an artificial fresh water lake created in 1362 and around which the city is built.

His bathroom 

As we ventured through the old town we came to the Jagdish Temple, a(nother) Hindu temple which has been a continuous place of worship since 1651 having been built by Maharana Jagat Singh. It’s centrepiece is a statue of the deity Lord Jagannath and with smaller statues of God Vishnu and God Krishna on either side. It is another fine example of a carved marble construction.

Ravi explaining the carvings

One thing that strikes you when you are at temples is the devotion Hindus have to their religion - it’s absolute.

The Temple is very close to the City Palace or Raj Mahal. Construction began in 1553 by Maharana Udai Singh II (the city being named after him, Udai + pur (city) – the city of Udai) and with contributions over the next 400 years from several rulers of the Mewar dynasty.

Of all the forts or palaces that we have entered this one, like streets of the city, are the cleanest of any we have visited.

Leaving the palace we then ambled through the streets of the old town taking heed of Ravi’s motto “slowly, slowly, no hurry, no worry” until a latish lunch in a restaurant lakeside before bidding farewell to Ravi.

We continued our stroll through the old town until getting back to the hotel mid afternoon. As part of our package at the hotel we were entitled to a foot massage so Sherry availed herself of it on our return and I watched. There was a lot of grimacing as the “masseuse” pummelled her legs and the grimaces changed to “f… that hurts” when he bent her toes until the joints cracked.

Having finished with her he motioned me to the table and gave me a right work over, legs and feet and then had me on my stomach while he hammered my back.

Sherry went back to our room to get the camera to capture the assault! Later in the afternoon we saw a sign advertising head and face massages and you would have to hope that whoever provided those knew where the head and face ended because our guy had no idea where our feet ended!!!

We then walked to the Amba Mata carpark to meet Ashok who took us to the Saheliyon Ki Bari a garden laid out by Maharana Sangram Singh II between 1710 & 1734 for the “entertainment” of the Royal Ladies and their maids of honour. As the heat was going out of the day there was quite a crowd enjoying the tranquility of that environment and so ended another day of our Indian adventure.

Last night saw a dog in his bed

In fact in a stretch of around 20 cars 3 had dogs lying in their roofs.