"Udaipur, City of Lakes" a Udaipur Travel Page by travelmad478

I spent a week in Udaipur in February 2003, attending a conference at the Udaivilas hotel and then touring the city and region. Udaipur is in Rajasthan, one of my favorite states in India. I love looking at the dry, hilly landscape as a backdrop to the ultra-bright colors worn by Rajasthani women, the Moghul palaces and fortifications rising from the dust, and a whole lot of camels walking around. Udaipur itself is built around several man-made lakes, which at the time of my visit were under serious threat of disappearing altogether after more than four years of drought. Luckily, the largest of them still has enough water to make boat trips possible!

Udaipur was founded around 1560 by Udai Singh II, then the ruler of the Mewar state. This royal family, the only one in Rajasthan never to surrender to the Moghul invasions, is still in place today: I had the pleasure one evening of meeting the 76th maharana of Mewar. He was everything a maharana should be. The royal family still lives in the City Palace of Udaipur (pictured here), owns substantial chunks of the best local real estate, and runs many business and charitable organizations in the region.

While staying in Udaipur, I also took a day trip out of town to see Kumbalgarh Fort and the Jain temple complex at Ranakpur. Photos from both of these places are in the travelogues below.