Udaipur is a city pocked with palaces. In addition to the princess gardens, there is the large and magnificent City Palace on the hill over the lake’s edge; the Monsoon Palace on top of the nearby mountain (used as a Bond villain’s lair); Jagmandir, a royal palace garden on an island in the lake; and the Lake Palace (Octopussy’s lair) seemingly floating on the lake. We visited the City Palace and island garden with a quick spin around the Lake Palace.
City Palace
The royal family has opened a lot of the City Palace to visitors and has restored or maintained much of it beautifully. They do still have their own section of the palace to live in, but the parts we visited were in full use less than 100 years ago.
The most memorable part of exploring the City Palace is the amount of colors and patterns. It is amazing! Seriously, this is one of the things that I loved about most of the palaces or forts we visited in India. I mean, look at the glass mosaics from the peacock courtyard.
We visited the throne room(s), private quarters, women’s rooms, and many other spectacularly decorated spaces including courtyards and gardens. At the end of the palace tour, there was a great exhibition of silver artifacts including silver cradles, rattles, and spoons. You know what they say about being born with the silver spoon in your mouth.
Another fun tidbit to learn about was the old practice of elephant tug-of-war. There is a wall outside the palace that elephants would be placed on either side of. Then, locking trunks, they try to pull one another over the wall.
Lake Pichola Cruise
After the palace, we went on the lake. Our boat took us up toward our hotel, around the Lake Palace, and finally to the Lake Garden Palace where we got off and wandered around for a bit. Jagmandir was used as the exterior for Octopussy’s lair in the Bond film. Elephant statues line the island, a lovely place with beautiful structures and gardens.
While we were there, a major production was underway for a wedding party later in the evening. I’m sure if you could afford the location it would make for a truly memorable and stunning venue.
