Udaipur, known as “the city of lakes” and apparently also dubbed “the most romantic spot in India” lies south-east of Jodhpur and north of Ahmedabad.
4 nights in Udaipur?
Arriving late on 22nd and leaving early on 26th meant I would spend 4 nights in Udaipur – double of my average I usually stay in cities. I think 1 full day is enough to see the main sights of this city. Udaipur is nestled in between two lakes (Fateh Sagar Lake and Lake Pichola) and surrounded by mountains. This is obviously a perfecgt setting for many nice sceneries; whenever you are close to the water you automatically have other buildings and mountains in the background.
The reason why I stayed 4 nights (3 full days), was the holi festival which took place on the 24th and 25th of March. At first I wanted to celebrate this very important Hindu festiviy in Pushkar – a small town which appears on many lists as “the best” place to celebrate Holi. Then I remembered my experience with “the best” beach in Goa and dug a little deeper: it seems that Pushkar is indeed a hyped place for celebbrating Holi for tourists. Udaipur promised a more authentic experience, so I quickly made a last minute change and skipped Pushkar.
Udaipur
On March 23th Udaipur was still in its normal everyday indian buzz and there were no signs yet of what would be going on the following two days. This gave me one day to explore the city (just enough). The main sights are the huge city palace (it took me about 3 hours to finish it, there were so many tourists inside that small jams occured in some rooms!), the streets of old town itself, including a nice temple with a steep stairway leading to it and the lakes with their islands (among which is a palace on an island; i contented myself with a boat cruise over the lake). I also took a hike to the northern shore of Fateh Sagar Lake from where a cable-car brought me to a temple on top of one of the hills – my main goal was however less spiritual and more to have a nice view over the city and its lakes.
Udaipur
Click on one of the pictures to open the Udaipur picture gallery:
Holi
Holi is one the most important festivities in Hinduism. It celebrates the eternal love of Krishna and Radha and the victory of good over evil. The celebration takes place on two days:
the night before Holi is called “Holika Dahan”. People gather in the streets and bonfires are lit to symbolize the legend in which Holika tried to kill Prahlada while setting both of them on fire. In the end of the story Holika, despite being immune to fire, dies and Prahlada lives through his faith in Vishnu.
People celebrate around the bonfires with singing and dancing. It was very intense, a huge crowd started to gather from 5pm on and no one really could give me a reliable information when the pyre in the center of the plaza would be set on fire. Until then people were hyped again and again with loud music and reliigious chanting. It was pretty intense but fun to be amidst the crowd. To an european like me it felt special to see such a large crowd celebrating for that many houurs without any foodtrucks or booze stand around! In the end the pyre was set ablaze around 11pm. This created a short moment of panic, since security measures are not really a thing in India. People were standing as close as 1 meter to the pyre and when it got set on fire everyone wanted to gain some distance which created a massive pushing in every direction. It was pretty intense but I inevitably remembered the Berln Loverparade…
The next day, people started gathering again as early as 10 a.m. to “play holi” as it is commenly called. This is where the real fun begins. The streets got super crowded again, even more than the night before and you could buy little plastic bags with a color powder of your choice. After I had bought a little bag of red color for 40 INR, I jumped into the action. People were everywhere, smearing each other colors in their facce, throwing colorfoul powder in the air, children shooting people with waterguns from little side alleys and people throwing little plastic bags willed with water and color into the crowd. It was a perfect chaos. All the shops and restaurants were closed ans just about everyone, young and old, took part in the fun. In the central plaza, where just mere hours before the giant bonfire had burned, a large crowd was pushed to its limits by a DJ blasting techno beats with indian lyrics – very intense experience at 11 am in tne morning with the sun scorching with about 38° on our heads!
things got wild during holi
Click on one of the pictures to open the Holi picture gallery:
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