Aguas's travel blogs:
- Ireland 2009
- Eva & Nuno Go Travelling 2008
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Udaipur - the Fairytale City
Entry 14 of 116 | show all | print this entry |
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EN:
On the way to Udaipur we visited the Jain Temple at Ranakpur which sits on 1444 pillars. The Jain Religion was founded in the 6th century BC and is based on a doctrine of non-violence towards all living beings. Jains are strict vegetarians and no leather items are allowed in their temple. Here we also met the highest priest. For 100Rs we received a blessing from him and a yellow dot on our forheads. In India you pay for everything.
Udaipur is a fairytale city; it has many marble palaces and several lakes and is surrounded by a ring of hills. This is our favourite place out of what we have visited so far. Not only you can find many temples and beautiful palaces here, but also people are much more relaxed, not as agressive as we experienced in other cities. Also the hotel staff was very friendly and helpful and they even smiled!
The most impressive building of all is the City Palace stretching along the eastern shore of lake Pichola and offering amazing views over the island palaces. The City Palace is actually a complex of several palaces, built or added to by 22 different maharanas between the 16th and 20th centuries. Much of it is now a museum which we visited and quite liked it, only some exponates and descriptions of events were slightly too heroic. The rest of the complex serves as several luxury hotels for the filthy rich and is not accesible to the public. We saw a few pictures and the interiors look truly beautiful.
We took a boat from the palace garden which btw is packed with bats sleeping in the mango trees, and set off to the Lake Pichola. First we passed by the island hotel Jag Niwas (also for the filthy rich) and after that we parked at another island palace called Jag Mandir and went for a visit. This palace was originally the house of pleasure of the local rulers, nowadays there is a nice restaurant inside and the original garden next to it, which is not accesible to the public. We drank an Indian beer here and enjoyed the beautiful view over the City Palace. You can also find here the most beautiful and clean toilets I have seen in India so far.
On the way back to our hotel we gor a bit lost, but our dedicated driver found us and saved us, The next day he took us to the Jaipur airport where we said good-bye and from now on we are on our own again.
PT:
A caminho de Udaipur visitamos o templo Jain at Ranakpur, o qual assenta 1444 pilares. A religiao Jain data do Sec. VI AC e e baseada na doutrina da nao violencia contra seres vivos. Os Jain sao vegeterianos radicais, nem sequer permitem artigos de cabedal dentro do templo. Aqui tambem encontramos o sumo sacerdote do templo, que por 100 rupias nos deu a sua bencao acompanhada de uma mancha amarela na testa... na India paga-se por tudo.
Udaipur e uma cidade de contos de fadas, com os seus palacios e lagos, e rodeada por montanhas. Este foi ate agora o nosso sitio preferido do que visitamos ate aqui. Nao so podemos encontrar muitos templos e palacios aqui, mas tambem as pessoas parecem mais relaxadas e nao tao agressivas como noutros sitios que visitamos. O pessoal do hotel tambem era muito simpatico e prestavel, e ate sorriam!
O edificio mais impressionante e o Palacio da Cidade, que se estende ao longo da margem este do Lago Pichola e do qual se tem esplendidas vistas sobre os palacios do lago. O Palacio da Cidade e na realidade um complexo de varios palacios, construidos por 22 Maharanas diferentes entre os Seculos XVI e XX. Parte do palacio e um museu bastante interessante que apenas peca pelo excesso da descricao de alguns factos e glorificacao dos antigos governantes. O resto do complexo esta dividido em varios hoteis de luxo para os muito ricos e portanto nao acessivel ao publico em geral, pelas fotos que vimos e mesmo muito luxuoso.
Tambem visitamos os jardins do palacio, onde havia algumas mangueiras (arvores!) carregadas de morcegos, e dai fizemos uma viagem de barco pelo lago. Passamos pela ilha palacio Jag Niwas, agora tambem um hotel muito exclusivo, e depois fizemos uma paragem noutra ilha palacio, o Jag Mandir. Este palacio que albergou antigamente o harem dos governantes locais, hoje tem um jardim e um esplendido restaurante onde aproveitamos para beber uma cerveja enquanto disfrutavamos da vista sobre o Palacio da Cidade. Neste restaurante tambem encontramos as casas de banho mais bonitas e limpas que vimos na India ate agora :-).
De regresso ao hotel perdemo-nos, mas fomos salvos pelo nosso condutor. No Dia seguinte deixou-nos no aeroporto de Jaipur e a partir de aqui voltamos a estar por nossa conta.
CZ:
Cestou do Udaipuru jsme navstivili Jain Temple ve vesnicce Ranakpur, tento chram podpira 1444 sloupu. Jainismus je velmi stare nabozenstvi (6. st. pr. Kr.) a zalozene na nenasili vuci lidem a vsem zviratum. Jainove jsou proto prisnymi vegetariany a do chramu nesmi nikdo, kdo ma na sobe neco z kuze. Setkali jsme se tam take s mistnim nejvyssim fararem, ktery nam za 100Rs (40CZK) udelil pozehnani a jakysi zluty flek na celo. V Indii se plati uplne za vsechno.
Udajpur je pohadkove mesto rozkladajici se na brezich nekolika jezer. Ze vsech mist, ktera jsme zatim navstivili, se nam Udaipur libil asi nejvic. Je to mesto plne krasnych chramu a palacu a lide tu nejsou az tak vlezli a agresivni, jako jsme zazili v jinych mestech. Take zamestnanci hotelu, kde jsme prespavali, byli moc mili a ochotni a dokonce se i usmivali!
Asi nejpusobivejsi z budov je mestsky palac City Palace, ktery se tyci nad jezerem Pichola a je z nej krusny vyhled na ostrovni palace. City Palace je obrovsky komplex nekolika jednotlivych palacu, ktere byly postupne pristavovany 22 ruznymi vladci v prubehu 16.-20. stoleti. V jedne casti komplexu se nachazi muzeum, ktere jsme navstivili a docela se nam libilo, i kdyz nektere vyjevy a popisy udalosti se nam zdaly ponekud prehnane heroicke. Ostatni palace slouzi jako luxusni hotely pro ty nechutne bohate a verejnosti nejsou pristupne. Videli jsme par fotek z interieru a jsou opravdu prekrasne.
Z palacove zahrady, ktera je mimochodem precpana netopyry spicimi v korunach mangovniku, jsme lodi vyrazili na jezero Pichola. Nejprve jsme objeli ostrovni hotel Jag Niwas (take pro ty nechutne bohate) a potom zaparkovali u ostrovniho palace Jag Mandir a vyrazili na prohlidku. Palac v minulosti slouzil jako misto rozkosi mistnich panovniku, nyni se v nem nachazi hezka restaurace a puvodni zahrada, ktera ovsem neni pristupna verejnosti. Dali jsme si tu indicke pivo a kochali se krasnym vyhledem na City Palace. Take tu maji nejcistsi a nejrkasnejsi zachodky, ktere jsem v Indii doposud videla.
Cestou do hotelu jsme mirne zabloudili, ale nas skvely ridic nas nasel a zachranil. Druhy den nas jeste odvezl do Jaipuru na letiste a tam jsme se s nim rozloucili a od tedka uz jsme na to zase sami.
Latest Comments (3)
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Re: Re: Hello intrepid travellers! (reply)
Jul 1, 2008 14:58 EST by emilyhardy
Glad you got used to the spicy food. I was wondering how you'd manage with that.
If you have a lot of dry weeks and are busy wandering about you'll automatically lose weight. So perhaps Nuno's plan is achievable after all. ;-)
Don't think about us here; life is just the same. Work and socialising etc. That said, we're looking forward to catching up and partying with you when tim... show all
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Re: Hello intrepid travellers! (reply)
Jun 30, 2008 09:53 EST by aguas
Hi Em,
nice job with your cooking, haha :-) Hope you get better soon.
We did travel a lot past several weeks, but in about 1 week we are off to Maldives where we stay for 9 days I think, enough time to get some rest, swim and dive.
Indians are different in different parts of India, things seem to be more relaxed here in the south. Food is very good and I got used to all the spicy ... show all
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Hello intrepid travellers! (reply)
Jun 30, 2008 07:23 EST by emilyhardy
Hi Nuno and Eva,
Greetings from sunny Amsterdam! It's ironic that I am at home today due to a dose of food poisoning and that you have not yet been sick in India. And I've only got myself to blame because everything I ate yesterday was at home. Not a great recommendation for my cooking, is it? I'm still at a loss to explain what it was that set me off ...
I just caught up on you... show all
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