Udaipur - City of Sunrise.

We had all got to the stage where after 7 weeks in and out of sterile hotels we were looking forward to something different. We arrived at Devra, a beautiful colonial style guest house run by Major Durga Das and his wife Jyoti. It really felt more like home with the warmth of the house and it’s hosts engulfing us immediately.
‘Devra’ literally translates to ‘where God resides’. 
The Major showed us the shrine that is next to the house. It is over a thousand years old and this was proved by an 18 inch thick piece of silver that had fallen off an idol. Every year the worshippers press a thin layer of silver foil over the idol and it builds up. In about 10 years since this piece had fallen off the thickness was only about 2 mm.

View from Devra over the lake to the palace at sunrise.

View to the west of the Fort

The mad cockeral of Devra next to the large pan that feeds 500



The house looked out upon a small village and the crops they produce. In amongst them is where we spotted our first mongoose, it was much bigger than we had imagined being about 1 metre long.
In the distance we could see the town of Udaipur with its magnificent Rajasthan Palace, Jagadish Temple and manmade Lake Pichola. Above us to the north was the impenetrable fort that was used in the filming of 007’s Octopussy. Nearby was the local school which the Major took us to and the teachers showed us through every classroom. The children were so respectful and courteous. They sang for us and showed us through their perfect school books. Lee and the girls had a great time talking to the teachers and comparing notes.



Kindergarten class

Charlotte with the year 6 class. They do more English grammar than I ever did.

If we were looking for a bit of spirituality in India we all felt this was the place to sit back, relax and contemplate!

www.devraudaipur.com

With the Major and his wife

Paul

The Rajasthan Palace and Lake Pichola

A funny man named Anoop took us on a tour on Lake Pichola, and the Rajasthan Palace. We first got on a small river boat which held around 20 people. The lake was a man built lake, which was filled with rain water, but sometimes in the dry season the lake would be all dried up. The boat took us on a 1 hour ride around the lake to the Maharana’s party Island, and then we had a walk around the Island. The Maharana would go on day trips to the Island, and would have big parties there. We went up onto the sun terrace and took lots of photos. It was beautiful. The whole of the Island was guarded by a big wall that went all the way around. On the wall there were lovely carvings of elephants and crocodiles. Our tour-guide told us that there used to be crocodiles in the lake, and that is why there are carvings of them. Then we got the boat back.

Entrance to the Island

View of the palace from the island in the lake



When we got onto the land again we went to the Maharana’s residence called ‘The Rajasthan Palace’. The Palace was huge, and the Maharana’s had thought of everything to prevent the enemies from getting in. On the big entrance doors there were spikes, but the big spikes were at the top. Can you think why? Well the enemies were not strong enough to push down the big door, so they would bring their elephants because they were big and strong. But the elephants wouldn’t like to get spikes pushed into them so they wouldn't charge the gate. Would you? The next thing they had thought about was narrow and small doors so it would slow the enemies down because they were dads size(dad is very tall) and if they were carrying big rifles they wouldn't fit. They had also thought of making very steep steps to also slow the enemies down.

The Maharana, and his family have the longest lineage in the world for royalty. It goes back 1500 years, and he refused to give it up when the British came. There have been 76 Maharana’s in the line so far. The Palace has a makeup room for the ladies with a swing in it, the Maharana’s room has mirrors on every surface of his room, there was a bath made out of 1 huge slab of marble, and I got to go in it. That is where the Maharana has his coronation bath before he becomes Maharana. He is bathed in milk before the coronation ceremony. There was a mens pool, and a ladies pool, and lots and lots of other rooms.      

The coronation bath tub. Made from a single slab of white marble.
The palace was built around this bath tub.

                                                                                                    

The history of the place is- once a Maharana named Udai went out hunting, he met a holy man on a hill. The holy man told Udai that if he moved his palace here, he would never be defeated. So Udai moved his palace onto the hill and called it Udaipur and since then they have never been defeated.

The current Maharana still lives on the top floor of the palace next to the big tree.

by Charlotte

Leaving Udaipur and the tranquillity of our charming homestay at Devra we drove to Rohet. It was a painfully long trip with our over cautious driver. Parveen is a lovely man but I think after a horrific motorcycle crash 5 years ago he drives in fear of every car, truck, bike and cow that comes near. We all felt car sick with the constant stop and start from accelerator to brake for 5 hours.

Along the way we had a few interesting stops.

Today is a holy day for Rajisthani women who all attend temple to make offerings to gods for the long life of their husbands and the happiness of their families. We stopped at a temple in a local village. The shrine was up high on a hill and the stairs zigzagged up the hillside. The rural woman wore their most colourful saris and brought their offerings with plenty of laughter and chat. It was a wonderful female bonding session. I left Paul sitting on the road side and I ventured up and up. The girls only made it as far as the bell at the entrance. They were crowded in by the local women and girls who did not speak English and had not met many foreigners but wanted to talk, share food and paint bindis on their faces. I managed to get about half way up the stairs and eventually got swamped by flowing saris and blessings of good fortunes for my family. It was wonderfully intoxicating being surrounded by this powerful female unity. I felt I could have taken on the Pakistani cricket team with my new Indian sisters and won.

Oh, did someone mention the cricket?  Tomorrow is the semi-final of the World Cup and India is playing Pakistan in Chandigarh. It has been the ONLY topic of conversation since we got to India. They are totally cricket mad. There must be about a dozen channels on TV devoted to cricket, every patch of grass or empty street has 3 makeshift stumps and a fast bowler and as soon as someone meets you and finds out we are from Australia, the next comment has got something to do with Shane Warne or Ricky Ponting. Enough said, the battle will take place soon and hopefully the arjy- barjy will stay on the cricket pitch and not spread to the borders.

Looking at dhurries on the road to Rohet.

  

WomanLee

Today we went to a marble palace. It was definitely the most marble I have ever seen. The Ranakpur Jain temple was built during the 15^th century. It has 1,444 columns and each one is carved so they are all different. The floor, the walls, the ceiling and all the columns are made out of white marble. The high priest showed us around. He took us to a place where he prayed. We all prayed together. While he prayed his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He prayed for our family to have a happy safe happy trip.

From a happy and safe Madison.  xxx