Udaipur was our introduction to what is probably India’s most popular state for travelers, Rajasthan. Here is where you’ll find women wearing beautiful jewelry on nearly every part of their bodies not covered by sarees, men wearing colorful turbans, camels, deserts and beautiful stone palaces and forts. Before heading to Udaipur we hadn’t done much research and made our decision to visit partly out of necessity. Our goal was to head straight to Jodhpur, which would have had us skipping Udaipur. Fortunately for us there are no buses directly from Mumbai to Jodhpur. So a stop in Udaipur was necessary at least to make onward travel to Jodhpur. We figured we’d give the city at least a day to impress us and move on quickly if it didn’t. And well, it turned out that Udaipur was definitely worth more than just a day’s visit.
The narrow winding streets and proximity to water reminded me a bit of Varanasi. It’s referred to in our guidebook as the Venice of India because of the many buildings built right on the water’s edge. In fact, at least two palaces were built on two separate islands completely covering every square inch of them, to the extent that the walls of the palaces are in the water. Despite it’s similarities with other places in India we’d been to we observed it to be a much friendlier place to visit. Not that we’d encountered unfriendly people elsewhere, we just had far more friendly and genuine conversations with people in Udaipur than elsewhere up to that point. This characteristic seemed to hold true for every place we visited in Rajasthan after Udaipur.
After deciding to spend more time in Udaipur we then decided to partake in a couple of fun experiences beyond the usual sightseeing, though, we still did our share of sightseeing. We decided to finally take a long anticipated cooking class so that we could bring some our favorite Indian food recipes home. The other experience involved no forethought at all and only came about because, well, it was just such a good deal I had to do it. While walking around the city we saw several custom clothing shops and decided to stop in to see just what kind of service they could provide. We were quickly impressed by their craftsmanship and I decided that this was a good opportunity to get a suit custom made to fit my lanky frame. Only other skinny fellas can appreciate just how difficult it is to get a suit that fits properly. And having one made in India meant I’d pay far less than for the same thing back home. Plus, India is full of skilled craftsman hand making many of the things we’ve long outsourced in the U.S. So I had some faith that the quality would meet my satisfaction.
Here are some pictures of the sightseeing we did in Udaipur, including a boat tour.
Sarah found the cooking class offered by a woman named Shashi by researching reviews on TripAdvisor (TripAdvisor has turned out to be a great resource for reviewing all kinds of traveler oriented needs, e.g. hotels and tours) and recommendations in the guidebook. The good reviews turned out to be true and Shashi delivered a great experience. She was a confident, feisty woman in her early to mid 50’s. Hearing the story of how offering these classes has drastically improved her quality of life by providing a stable and good source of income compared to her limited options beforehand made the experience even better. She also shared how the idea to create the class came from a tourist she made meals for and hosted at her home a few years back. And since then other tourists have helped her draft an easy to understand recipe book (which is included with each class) in multiple languages and one tourist even built her a website. She loves what she does and genuinely appreciates the help she’s been given by tourists. She was proud to announce that she is the number one ranked activity/attraction in Udaipur on TripAdvisor, outranking even the city’s architectural attractions, including the City Palace.
The class lasted about 4 hours. In the class with us were a young German couple. Together we all helped Shashi make a full dinner including, masala chai (tea with spices), vegetable and cheese pakora (battered and deep fried fritters), Aloo Ghobi masala (sautéed potatoes and cauliflower with a mix of spices), Vegetable Pulao (sautéed rice and mixed veggies with cashews and raisins), a few types of breads called Chapati, Paratha and Naan (minus a tandoori oven), and mint and mango chutni (dipping sauces). At the end of the cooking course we overindulged in the fruits of our labor and even had enough to take home to eat for breakfast the next day.
Below is a gallery of the cooking class.
The purchase of the suit was not an easy decision to make. Doing so would involve spending a bit more money than I had planned spending on any kind of souvenir for myself and also meant I’d either have to ship it home or carry the rest of the trip with me. Despite these concerns I decided to go for it and have a custom suit made. Besides, this will likely be the only time in my life that I have a custom suit made.
The turnaround time for the suit was impressive. After the initial measurements it only took the tailor a little over a full day to produce a finished suit and jacket. Upon first trying it on I was very happy. So happy that I overlooked slight fitting issue with the jacket. Thankfully Sarah saw it and pointed it out to me. The shop owner guaranteed that I would be happy with the fit even if it meant making some changes to the suit. So the owner, Sarah and I jumped on his scooter and drove to his brother’s shop a few minutes away. The brother checked out the issue and promised to deliver the suit the next evening. This was good because we needed to catch a bus the following morning.
The next evening we returned to the shop to check to see if the fit had improved. Much to our disappointed it had not changed much at all. Sarah and I, and the owner as well were a little flustered by the whole thing. For us it meant spending at least an extra morning in Udaipur. For the shop owner it meant having the tailor do another costly alteration to the suit causing delays in other work he had promised to do for other customers. After another drive and a lot of insisting on my and Sarah’s part that the change be made, the tailor reluctantly to make the changes that night and have the jacket ready to pick up the follow morning in time for us to catch the afternoon bus. The owner promised to return my deposit if the jacket did not fit properly.
The next morning we arrived expecting to not see much difference because the first alteration the tailor made didn’t produce much change in the fit of the jacket. Thankfully we were wrong. The fit was improved and we were finally satisfied with the suit. With the thirty minutes we had left before having to leave to catch our bus we helped the shop owner create a business profile on TripAdvisor as a little special extra thanks for doing what needed to be done to make sure we were happy with the suit. And then off to Jodhpur we headed.
Sarah waiting for our late night train to Jaisalmer.
Sleeping attendant at the train station waiting room.
Train station in Jodhpur.
Not so comfortable bus to Jodhpur.
Peach and Bones 