View outside of our room

Udaipur is the historic capital of the kingdom of Mewar in the former Rajputana Agency. In present days, it is known as the city of palaces and lakes. It even has the nickname of "Venice of the East" (Was this the nickname for Suzhou as well?), owing to the many beautiful lakes in the state.

At the heart of it, overlooking famous Lake Pichola, stands the City Palace Complex and it is still partially occuped by the Mewar royal family today. Of our exceedingly short tour encompassed of four cities, I would rate this the holiday of the holidays. Given that this was our first stop, let's just say, we were easing into our trip (not that it was any hard work, as we booked a driver for this trip!)

The tour company initially recommended the superior stay at Oberoi Udaivilas. Despite very impressed with the place, it is above and beyond our budget. By all means, if you have the moolah, I think this traditional Indian palace is the place to spend a night or many nights.

The biggest keychain for a room key

Our stay, despite much cheaper comparatively, was not shabby at all - Hotel Shikarbadi.
Hotel Shikarbadi is surrounded by the Aravali hills, situated 4 km from the City Palace Complex. The main building was the former hunting lodge of the Mewar royal family.




I like the detail on the door

Anyway, we reached at night from a slightly delayed evening flight from Mumbai. Our driver for the trip picked us up from the airport and drove us to the hotel. Once checked in, we basically just rest for the night....

Complete with a walk-in wardrobe (bottom left)

... and woke up to this view.


After a couple of shots, my trusty camera stopped working. Regardless how I tweaked, nothing happened. Anyway, after we saw the view outside, we were excited of exploring the hotel.

There were monkeys in the compound

On the outer compound, there were some watchtowers and people playing crickets, also a small collection of cars.





Side note: A dark day for MH17 :(