There is a lake called the Pichola lake in Udaipur. I took a boat ride in the Pichola lake and this is what I saw.
The Udaipur Palace is right on one side of the Pichola lake. It is Huge. It has 1300 rooms. There are two five star hotels inside the palace, the Kings residence which is also huge and a big museum that’s open to public. Technically the Hotels inside the palace, Shiv Niwas and Taj Fateh Prakash, are also open to rich public.
Watch James Bond’s Octopussy movie released in 1983. Bond stays in Shiv Vilas in Udaipur. There is quite a lot of Udaipur shown in the movie. I am sure the movie would have and probably is still attracting foreign tourists to Udaipur.
We then went near my hostel area (which is also on Pichola lake). 😃 We saw my hostel and the million other closely stuck hostels nearby.
We then saw the Oberoi, Leela palace, Anantara, Taj Water Palace and many other hotels. Everyone was like “how much is a room here, how much is a room there”, “Who owns this” and the boat driver was just throwing names and numbers.
At the end of the ride, I felt that we gave money to just see the expensive hotels. Rich hotels not only make money themselves but they also allow others make money by just letting people look at them.
With so many hotels concentrated in a very small area, luxury is commonplace here. It is just for the views and location that the big hotels are here. The roads are small and crammed and it all doesn’t matter. You will probably never see a board to Leela Palace like this unless you are in Udaipur.
You also be able to get a place for 500 rupees a night with the same lake facing views right next to The Oberoi. That’s Udaipur for you.
Endless thoughts 