Ameya's Blogs.: A Trip in the Golden Sands - Part II (The City of Lakes)

Before continuing my experience, I would like to thank you all for the love you gave for the previous part and I hope you guys love my further writings too!

So there I was finally in the royal land of Udaipur, happy and shivering in that cold weather. As we reached out of the airport, there was high security, police officials guarding around and many government 'On Duty' vehicles waiting and it was unexpected to see such high security in the morning. Well it was for some minister who was on his way, we had to wait long for our driver to come. After some time he came, somehow beating the crowd and he was such a simple innocent looking guy, not at all how I expected him to be. So we reached the hotel, and as soon as I entered in the room, the interiors and wall art just amazed me. It was a such a beautiful room with all the luxury wall art you could imagine and it was worth to spend time in that room, but we were not there to stay in the room right. After freshening up and having some breakfast, we left for what the state is actually famous for, the highlight of the city, The City Palace of Udaipur. It looked marvellous from outside as the golden colour of the exterior was shining in that afternoon heat. Inside it was like some old Haveli with a Tulsi plant in the centre and a big tree besides it. After hiring a guide there, he told us that, the beautiful palace was not built by one particular king. The foundations were laid down by Maharana Uday Singh II and the palace was eventually built in the next 400 years! The interiors of the palace were beautiful to watch and the walls had the history of the rulers pasted, so the visitors to understand the great history of the Rajputs. The guide's sense of pride came in notice when he started to tell about Maharana Pratap,the one who did not accept to be a puppet ruler under the Mughals and choose pride over anything else. Well after a while, me, my brother and my mom got bored listening about the warriors, but my dad was listening curiously, like he had some exam to appear tomorrow on the topic, well I respect his love towards the warriors. Then the palace came to an end when there struck a point where I thought that I had seen this place so many times. I was not able to recollect where I had seen it, till the guide said many movie scenes have been shot here. Without any doubt in my mind, it was Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone in my mind, recollecting one of the best shots in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, where they sit on the edge and Naina says something beautiful to make Bunny stop. I don't need to say more because most of the you have seen 'YJHD' numerous times and can recollect the scene instantly. The main thing all over the palace was the mesmerizing architecture, both the Rajput and Mughal architectural style. This huge palace was built atop a real hill and from there whole Udaipur could be seen easily. Coming down the palace, there was the popular Lake Pichola which was beautiful in it's own sense. For me this was like living in a TV serial, as when I was a kid I used to watch a household serial which was based in the city of Udaipur. Well it was worth the visit here, like knowing how rich the Rajputs were and how grand life they lived. There were collections of the gold and silver vessels, jewelry, armours and other things which just makes us realise that the name 'Golden Bird' given to India makes some sense. This was about the palace, then it was a visit to a famous temple situated at the top of a hill. Honestly for me the temple wasn't the main case as temples are everywhere but the main thing here was the Ropeway which connects us to the hill. I had never been in a ropeway and this was the chance. It was great to be in it but the actual beauty was at the top. There was a Sunset Point up there and the first word in my mind reaching there was 'Peace'. The fresh air, birds chirping, the city infront of my eyes and the lakes shining bright, all thanks to the sunrays, it was just beautiful to be there (attached a photo of this). So this was it, all about the first city in the tour and the part will be continued with the next city I visited. Some of the pictures I clicked are attached below. Cheers!