Dungarpur is a great place for birding. I was truly amazed at the number of different birds that could be seen and heard. I really wish I had a guide book which would’ve helped me identify all of the different types I saw. The Dungarpur palace itself had a huge bird sanctuary. It featured peacocks, ostriches and some other extremely exotic looking birds, which I still wish I could identify.
From Dungarpur, I hired a car to Udaipur. Known as the White City. Udaipur is small compared to other cities in India. There’s only about 500,00 people here. After I got settled in a Hotel in Udaipur, I went to see the City Place, which was a highlight for me. It’s built on the shores of Lake Pichola. It’s a massive piece of property that has 2 hotels, the private residence of the Maharajah of Mewar, some shops, museums and well preserved areas of the palace are open to the public.
Later that evening, I took a boat to Jag Mandir, an island palace in the middle of Lake Pichola. There was a grand courtyard with huge carved elephants. The restaurant, which seemed to be the original building from the 17th century was amazing. I drank some tea in the courtyard while I waited for a table to open up, when a group of Indian business men wanted some photos with me. It was so amusing, each man took turns standing next to me, while the rest snapped shots with their cell phones. But, I lost their attention when the Maharajah showed up! We all rushed up to him to have our photo taken with the king. Now that was impressive.
The next day I traveled to Kumbhalgarh, which is this gigantic fort nestled in the lush mountains of Southern Rajasthan. I stayed in an old hunting lodge of the Maharajah, yes the same one I met the night before. My room was a little damp, well everything was really, due to the lusciousness of the mountains, but the place had a lot of character. I wish I would’ve had enough time to hang around to see the huge wildlife sanctuary and trek around for couple more days.
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