Woke up really early, had some bread and butter with tea in the room. We dropped some laundry at the reception in order to get it back by next day. Asked the manager/owner what else can we see within a walking distance. He told us to walk on the other side of the hotel and keep walking till we would reach the lake on the other side. We could go boating from there. We had a lovely walk, and saw a lot of morning walkers. At one point we saw a bunch of parrots - about 20 atleast - on a side wall. We finally reached the lake, but before that, we came across another entrance to the City Palace, which is mainly open to the Hotel Guests. The boating did not start till 9 am, and it was only 7.30 am. We decided to walk back, and met with Sanjay Shetty (from the Garden Hotel) on a scooter. I did not see him at first, but he called out to us. We told him we are really enjoying our stay in Udaipur and may eat at the Garden Hotel again before we left.
We returned to the hotel at about 8 am and after breakfast, we went to the City Palace. We paid Rs 500 - Rs 200 plus Rs 50 for entry and camera each. Expensive! We walked into the Palace, as expected, it was huge and magnificent. After the Palace we were not able to visit the Bagore Ki Haveli, but here is some information about this beautiful haveli, which is located close to the City Palace.
Haveli Museum is situated at Bagore-ki-Haveli at "Gangaur Ghat" by the side of Lake Pichhola barely 100 meters from the City Palace & Jagdish Temple in Udaipur. In view of the historical importance of "Bagore-ki-Haveli", it was decided to restore and renovate the building in 1992 and set up a museum to preserve its old architectural style, its pristine glory and historical past. The idea behind the museum is to symbolically invoke the spirit of the Mewar's aristocratic culture by displaying a few selected objects like jewellery boxes, dice-games,hukkas, pan boxes, nut crackers,hand fans, rose water sprinklers, copper vessels and other household objects of everyday life of the by-gone culture. After spending Rs.75 Lakhs over a period of 5 years, the haveli was restored by using local traditional material and skills. Experts and members of Royal family were consulted to give each room a glimpse of the royal past. Several mural paintings(frescos) done in 18th & 19th century were uncoverd beneath many layers of whitewash during restoration. The doors, windows and perforated screens were repaired and restored to their original form. The museum displays the private chambers of royal ladies, their dressing rooms, bath rooms, living rooms, bed rooms, worship rooms and recreation rooms. The Haveli museum consciously attempts to re-interpret architecture, life style and the cultural ethos of the past days from the vantage point of the present.
SPECIAL ATTRACTION INCLUDES:• One of The Best Architecture Haveli of the town.• Depicting lifestyle and cultural ethos in the pristine glory.• Mirror inlay work & Glasswork• Frescoes
Timings : 10.00 hrs – 19.00 hrs (7 days)
Entry Fee : Foreigners Rs. 25/-, Adult Rs. 15/-, Child Rs. 7/-
After returning from the City Palace, we met with Sarawan Singh outside the hotel. He was ready and waiting for us.
12.00 noon - We left for some local sightseeing.
12.15 pm - We went to the Doll Museum first. This is a place where the local art is displayed, a variety of dolls, arts and crafts displayed and preserved very well. As we were walking around, we were requested to first watch the puppet show. This was a wonderful experience and what mastery in this show. The artists after the show came into the hall and gave another performance, without the curtains etc. Everyone was very happy and we all tipped the artist.
12.45 pm - Went to Sahelion Ki Bari - a garden which was built for the princess where she could relax and wonder around with her friends. I went to this garden about 38 years back with a study tour from Sir J J Institute of Applied Arts. Although Pavan and I were in the same college, he had not gone to this study tour. I had slipped on one of the sidewalks and broken my front tooth. Memories flooded back but I did remember that it was very clean and much better maintained those days than it was now. What I did not remember was that the water fountains started by clapping hands and would turn off also the same way. Got some pictures of female workers in the garden. They looked so happy.
1.15 pm - Left Sahelion Ki Bari to get some lunch.
Sarawan remembered that yesterday we wanted to eat Gujarati thali. He took us to "Nataraj Dining Hall", where they serve a fixed Gujarati meal - thali style. Sarawan Singh wanted to eat somewhere else. The food was excellent, and it costed Rs 45 per thali, plus Rs 12 for the bottle of mineral water. Both Pavan and I love gujarati food, and it always reminds us of Rugby Hotel in Matheran where we have spent many summer vacations in 70's and 80's. We have not gone there since we moved to the US almost 25 years back.
When we came out from the restaurant, Sarawan was not back yet, but the restaurant gatekeeper told us that he had gone to eat Daal Bhatti, a famous Rajasthani meal, but returned very soon while we waited for him inside the restaurant.
After lunch, we visited Maharana Pratap Memorial, the Fatehpur Sagar Lake and finally ShilpGram. Maharana Pratap Memorial in Udaipur is a lovely park like area where we found a huge statue of the Maharana. The Fatehpur Lake was beautiful and ShilpGram was a another look alike of Choki Shani, but still very different. ShilpGram is open all day and represents Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa. One needs atleast half a day, if not full to see everything here. A group of performers sang "Nibuda, Nibuda" beautifully from the Indian movie "Hum dil de chuke sanam" while others sang and danced for us. It was a very nice experience, although Choki Dhani has a different charm, as it offers a lot more to the guests, including excellent food.
3.30 pm - Returned to the hotel, and Sarawan Singh brought Pavan a bottle of beer from a store for Rs 60 and even loaned him his bottle opener, as we did not know where we had stored ours.
Uploaded the pictures, charged the batteries, and had some tea.
We did not go out again, rested and had soup, sandwich and Chinese fried rice in the restaurant in the hotel.
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