Udaipur Day 8 - 25th October 2012

Part 1 - Jagdish Temple, City & Lake Pichola views

Jump to part 2 - City Palace

Jump to part 3 - Festival & Dancing

Something lost in translation on this 'save water' card and the dire and dramatic warnings were stronger than those you normally see in hotel rooms...

Decorated pole outside the Jagdish Hindu Temple...

Bronze statue of Garuda...

Amongst the temple buildings...

The large temple is completely covered in carvings, with each having a particular significance - here a row of elephants lie above a row of demons...

Horse and Karma Sutra scenes...

Looking up to the top of its 3 storeys...

Preying Mantis on the steps outside - these fascinate me and I'm still kicking myself for accidentally focusing on its back and not its head...

Another impressive, but neglected mural...

Welcome sign at the restaurant where we had lunch. Despite knowing that it has thousands of years of Hindu history (Sanskrit meaning 'to be good') and other positive traditional heritage, it does feel slightly odd to see swastikas on a welcome sign and not think of its 20th century evil connotations.

It's a common sight in India and we often saw it above entrances, on bowls, vehicles, etc...

View from the restaurant's roof - the Monsoon Palace can only just be made out at the top of the tallest peak in the distance...

Me on the roof...

Another view from the restaurant's roof, this time across to our hotel. ...

Miche on the roof with the Summer Palace in the distance...

Carved musicians for sale, we liked these but they were a bit too hefty to take home...

We visited a painting co-operative and were given a demonstration of highly detailed painting techniques, sometimes using a brush with only one hair.

We were each given a grain of rice with our name painted on it.

When they asked for a volunteer, Catherine accepted and had her thumb decorated with a beautiful hand-painted elephant... 

A number of the restaurants played the James Bond film Octopussy every night. Large parts of the film were shot on location in Udaipur. We bought a copy of the film when we got home, I'm a bit of James Bond fan, but Octopussy has to be the worst Bond film there is and was more like a 'Carry On' film in parts, so the DVD will be in the next charity shop bag.

However the shots of Udaipur are very good and it was fun to try and pick out where we'd been...

City Palace from the hotel shore...