Lakes in a desert!

So Rajasthan is not all desert. About 270 km from Jodhpur is the famous lake city, Udaipur. Udaipur is considered the Venice of the East. It is built on the coast of a couple of lakes and is surrounded by mountains. We first arrived at City Palace in Udaipur. Now a museum, City Palace hold a spectacular view of the lakes and the surrounding city. Once we finished touring the museum, we took a boat ride in the lake to get a closer look at the Lake palace (convert into Taj hotel) as well as Jag Mandir (temple in the middle of the lake). After spending some time relaxing in the garden of Jag Mandir we decided to take a boat back inland.

Thanks to Malini's connections we checked ourselves into Royal Retreat Resort. The resort was unbelievable with a couple of pools, a spa, gym, horses, and various art exhibits. It was great to get away from the crowd and relax at the resort. We spend the whole afternoon there. In the evening we went back in town to lake Pichola. We enjoyed some iced coffee and got to see the city lights across the lake.

After having, arguably the best sleep of the entire trip, we headed for monsoon palace where we were once again greeted by winding mountainous roads and lots of wildlife. Monsoon Palace had a great view of the whole city of Udaipur. We then headed to Gulab Bag (rose garden) which also had a small built-in zoo with tigers, bears, peacocks, deer and many more. Next, we travelled to celebration mall. It reminded me of Eaton Centre in downtown toronto. It was a very westernized mall with tons of branded stores. We enjoyed some ice cream as well as some cricket batting practice at the nets outside the mall. Around mid-day we decided to head back to Jodhpur.

Note to self: Do not travel between 12 and 3. Its way to hot!