Shivniwas Palace Udaipur

... Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar, a scion of the Sisodia dynasty, now lives.
You will enter the City Palace grounds through the Badi Pol (built in 1616), followed by the Tripoliya Gate (1725). Under the connected arches between the two, the Mewar kings were weighed against gold and silver, which would then be distributed to the poor. Crossing the ...

... via a series of tiered gardens. Within the lovely Lake Pichola stands Jagmandir Island. Built and added to by M’a Karan and Jagat Singh respectively (1620, 1630), Shah Jehan may’ve also taken inspiration from this place to build the Taj Mahal. Flanked by a row of huge elephants, the island provided shelter for Europeans in 1857 during an uprising here.

Nearby, there’s a helipad on a tiny island (Arsi Vilas) with the nearby Jagniwas Island ...

... I also discovered that their X large T-shirt would fit a small to normal size man. My big belly needs a XX large and even those are on the small size. So, I guess I will wait until we get to Turkey. So, we wandered around town for a few hours and looked at a lot of little things. We were interested in finding folkloric music, but there were no music type stores. We had been looking for a brocade wall hanging with the ...

... this year. We spent our last night, New Years Eve, at an Indian party on some land near the lake, overlooking the beautifully lit up Lake Palace and Jag Mandir palace. It was about $250 rupees a person (a whole $5US) for a pretty sweet buffet dinner, awesome lakeside view and dj dancing. The majority of people there were foreigners in the beginning but after midnight all the local Indians came out to dance (I think this is the only time I have seen Indian men be openly gay ...

... family was of the Brahmen caste - the highest in India - but that he wasn't keen on having an arranged marriage as he didn't like Indian girls. Just before the food was served, Mukeesh's wife invited us to take a seat in the lounge and wait for the food, whilst she showed us the imitation jewellery that she made whiling away the long hours as a housewife. She had stated earlier that this was a hobby of hers, and I had asked whether she sold ...

... doing Israeli tourist poses with it. Later we returned to the house for a great Rajastan classical dance performance by a group called Dharohar. The costumed performers did their thing in the upper courtyard of the house and acts included women twirling in saris or swinging instruments, carrying up to nine water pots on their heads while walking on broken glass and also a puppeteer from Jaipur who worked traditional puppets like the pair i bought in Pushkar. The ...

... only one day but we enjoyed quite a lot this calm and beautiful city, besides the Pichola lake and full of palaces and amazing buildings. In the afternoon, a boat trip in the lake to see the palaces on the islands, including the luxury hotel 'Lake Palace' and dream a bit... ... and the farewell dinner with Sandra and Maleni. From now we are going in different directions. Sandra to the North and me to the South. But the trip has not finished yet!

... the 1600's and is now an (extended) hotel, called 'The Lake Palace'. The other 'Jag Mandir', was built as the maharana's (personal) pleasure palace, where he would be entertained by musicians, dancers and the ladies of the court. The two palaces were used in the James Bond movie 'Octopussy', as were street scenes in Udaipur. The 'Bharatiya Lok Kala is an old folk museum, originally opened to preserve folk dancing and music. There is a small museum there but as many things in ...