A Walk About Udaipur

As we might have mentioned before, one of the things Earl and I enjoy the most when we get to a new city, is just walking around, observing life, and joining in what comes along. This is a photo-blog of one of our days in Udaipur.

Earl, who is the recognized expert in our family when it comes to Indian cuisine, is ordering our breakfast at a local shop.

Then we wander down the street (okay, Earl wanders, while I jog to catch up in between snapping photos of cool doors).

We cross one of the several bridges in the city, noticing a variety of modes of transportation (and woe to you if you should wish to get through all this in an automobile!)

Udaipur, like much of the rest of Rajasthan, is predominantly Hindu, so we find a lot of big temples.

Because part of the James Bond movie, “Octopussy”, was filmed here, there is a restaurant on nearly every corner (and roof-top) that advertises nightly screenings.

After we make it through a cup of masala chai (my admitted weakness) and the tourist core of the city, we start seeing more locals going about their day.

Seriously, some of the advertising in India really makes me smile. (After seeing these stylish [white] guys, who wouldn’t want a turban?)

We stop in a the tourist office to see if there are any city walking tours (there aren’t) and discover an unused “carom” board. Earl remembers how to play (mostly) from when he was a child (and the rest he looked up on Wikipedia) so we have a go at it. (It’s basically a cross between shuffle board and billiards: you flick a special piece across the board to hit your discs into one of the corner pockets).

Then, after lunch (yes, another yummy and cheap ‘thali’) we pause to watch Indian brick-masons at work, which is literally, back-breaking labour here. We are suddenly extremely thankful to live in Canada. And to not be brick-layers. (Earl would also like to point out the lack of appropriate footwear and that we watched these guys ascend up 3 floors of a building before they got to put down their load and come back for another one).

After a visit to the ‘ghats’ we stop to admire the City Palace from the bridge, before pausing for dinner.

And finally, we ended the day by attending a cultural music and dance evening. This woman’s pile of water jugs just got higher and higher, and she continued to dance! What a fun way to end our walk about Udaipur!