Chlobo's Closet Travel: Udaipur, India

Udaipur, India's Venice and known as the city of lakes. One of my favourite parts of India was Udiapur, for its pure serenity, beautiful landscape and the magnificent agriculture. Home to a floating Palace (among a few), situated on the lake which today functions as a luxurious hotel to the public.

On my few days here, I experienced a taste of luxury, which was a rare backpacker treat and experienced some of the traditional culture India has to offer.  The first on our to do list was to visit the City Palace, which was an enjoyable walk from our hotel. On the way we noticed a very small museum, which was the Bagore-ki museum, right on the waterfront of lake Pichola. The museum itself does not take long to get around and you can view displays of costumes and art, but the building itself was so beautiful, with mosaic glass and mirrors, which is known as Haveli work. The Queen's chamber in particular was breath taking, which has an example of Mewar painting on the walls. Mewar painting is a historical, traditional Indian art style. There are two peacocks made from small pieces of coloured glass and I was completely blown away. Imagine if this was in your house, I don't think I would ever be able to leave the room.

After taking in the decadent interior and stunning views out on to the lake Phichola, we walked to the city palace. The palace can take up to 4-5 hours to see properly and unfortunately we did not have too much time to see the whole of Udaipur, over the course of our few days. From the palace you can purchase a boat trip, which takes you around the lake, where you can see some of the islands and most famously the floating Palace, the Taj Lake Palace. As soon as you arrive and get off the boat, you a hit with five star luxury. Stone carved elephants surround the docking for the boats and it almost reminds me of the Von Trap Family's house in the film, just maybe a lot more luxurious and grand. We were given around an hour to take in the bright,colourful and large gardens in the palace or to enjoy a drink. Of course being in such a beautiful environment in the garden, feeling as if you have taken a journey to Italy instead of India, of course it only seems right to have champagne in the sun and take it all in.

A thoroughly, enjoyable glass of bubbly later and a relaxing walk around the gardens, it was time to board back on our little boat and head back to the palace.

We took a stroll through the city and Josh found a beautiful restaurant called Ambreu, situated on the lake, with stunning views of the whole city. The food was also fantastic and we took the opportunity of sipping on some very scrummy cocktails!

Come evening the excitement did not stop, as we headed back to the Bagore-kind museum for a traditional Indian show. I was incredibly excited to finally see some traditional Indian dancing and it certainly didn't disappoint! There were the most drop dead gorgeous women, in delicate, intricate and beautiful designed costumes, dancing with fire on there heads to live Indian music. To finish the show we had one woman dancing on broken glass, with ten pottery bowls on top of her head. It was an incredible show, full of colour and a buzzing atmosphere, which was so much fun. Throughout the show I could not believe what I was witnessing. To be certain, we would have none of this in the United Kingdom, due to very tight health and safety regulations.

Our last day in Udaipur started off with a relaxing stroll around the city, near our hotel, wandering down the small cobbled streets. Shortly after we walked passed a man with some intriguing silk paintings and got to talking. He owned the local art school, called the Lucky art school, which also offers henna tattoos and cooking classes. I was very keen to have some henna done at some point in the trip but had heard some horror stories in which some had gone terribly wrong. Thinking it was a large art school and seeing some of the comments left by other tourists, I decided to go ahead. The design and henna work carried out on my hand and arm, was magnificent. A young female student came to the school on her day off just to do it for me. It was very intricate and high in detail for the size it was, it only took her twenty minutes. In the mean time we chatted to the owners and perused some of the silk paintings we had seen earlier. They were very beautiful,

delicate, with a high quality and not very expensive, so we purchased one as a present for my parents and one for Josh and myself. Our painting is of two peacocks which is a significant animal in India and they stand for husband and wife and bring good luck.

This then brings us to early afternoon, just enough time for a quick beverage up on one of the many roof bars to soak up the warm sunshine rays, before embarking on a trip to the airport, for our flight to Goa.

I fell in love with Udaipur, just like many before me and I will always want to go back to see my Indian Venice and discover more.

Chlobo's Closet Travel: Jaipur, India

First and for most please may I apologise for the lack of posts these past few months. As I explained in my last article, it was extremely hard to write a successful entry, given the resources and locations we were in. However I am back in dreary England now, and have all my tools at the touch of my fingertips once again.


If you have been following my recent travels through South East Asia, you will know that I started in Delhi, India and touched upon our visit to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. The next stop on our route was the captivating, cultural, city; Jaipur. We hired driver - which I am not sure if I mentioned, for three days. A lovely man called Ali, who for £40.00 drove us around Delhi, then to Agra the following day and finally a good five hour drive to Jaipur.


We spent a very busy three days in the hustle and bustle of Jaipur and I thoroughly enjoyed it, one of the best days of my life - which we will come to, through to the cuisine, jewellery making and block printing. 

Having checked into our comfy hotel, which was on a reasonable budget, Ali took us onto a local restaurant he recommended. It was called the Rainbow restaurant, which is a family run business, like most businesses in India. The staff were incredibly welcoming, friendly, and shared conversation with us, who genuinely wanted to know about who we were and where we came from. Besides the friendly family, the cuisine was mouth watering and fantastic. I still remember the name of the restaurant even after all these months, it was possibly some of the best food I tasted on our travels. I recall having the chicken, which was cooked properly, soft, tender, in a fresh, rich tomato sauce.

Having had a delicious dinner, Ali advised us to go next door to see how they made jewellery with precious and semi-precious stones, commonly found all over India. This was my piece of heaven, for years I have had a deep obsession with large silver rings, encrusted with different stones and watching them being produced from start to finish was incredible. On the side of the shop, outside is the main workshop, I use the term workshop loosely. There were two men huddled around, in the tiniest, side street attached to the side of the shop, under a tin roof. One is cutting the large mass of stone to create smaller pieces to work with. Another gentlemen had small rubber elastic like bands around his fingers, so as to not cause injury on the fast spinning cutter and buffer, that shapes and polishes the stone up. By the end you have a smooth, shiny, stone, that is ready to go into a ring or pendant. Unfortunately we did not have time to see them making the silver parts but I did sincerely enjoy walking around the store, seeing what they had produced. My utter most favourite stone, I discovered was the sandstone, a glittery desert coloured stone, which shimmers and glows when light catches it. I had to add this to my on going ring collection, along with some beautifully crafted onyx drop earrings. You can have a look below at my little treasures that I treated myself to that afternoon.

Jaipur is what I would describe as an Aladdin's cave of wonders. It's lined with brightly coloured tailors, vibrant textile shops, sparkling silver jewellery shops and in amongst these are household supplies. Josh and I visited one of the highly recommended tailors mentioned to us by our hotel and driver Ali. It was beautiful, lined with so many vibrant textiles for saris that can be custom made for the consumer. At first I thought it was a very small studio space but it kept going further and further back, displaying an array of silk cushions, silk and cashmere scarves, tailor made shirts and bedding. I really wanted to buy a bright coloured sari that would be tailored to my size and whilst enquiring the owner asked if I would like to see how they printed the silks. I grasped the opportunity and before I knew it I was block printing onto scrap pieces of fabric. It took us an hour in the tailors just browsing and in that time my sari was produced. It was a perfectly pink sari with a simple coloured print overlaying the fabric and the quality and feel of the silk was outstanding. Whether I will ever wear this at home is a mystery but the fabric alone, is precious to me. You can see me looking radiant or perhaps a little silly in my custom made, traditional sari beneath.

This then brings us to our last and my most memorable day in Jaipur, India.

Eleday Elephant Park, settled in the heart of Jaipur. Now I realise this is a hugely controversial subject, are the elephants mistreated, am I now pure evil for spending money on a day with elephants, who could be living in a disguised hell? The answer is that I did a lot of research on elephant parks, rides etc. They are advertised and seen all over Asia and as an animal lover and elephants being one of my favourite creatures on this planet, the last thing I would want is to help their misfortunes. A lot of the time it doesn't take a genius to realise the bad ones from the good, with elephants chained up on every foot outside, in small living spaces and with a lack of food. Their appearance does not exactly scream, please give my owners more money to treat me like this. So having turned up at Eleday park, which is a huge, huge space, inside and out, I requested as much information and to look around before committing to anything. The grounds inside I must say were very luxurious for elephants, lots of freshly cut green grass, huge elephant stables with two elephants out for show and an incredibly large, full size swimming pool. I admit at first glance I did wonder about the swimming pool but this is explained later. I was informed that the elephants don't stay here, this is just where they bring two elephants out to spend the day with people, they actually leave in a natural habitat down the road, with acres and acres of land and a large lake. Knowing this made me feel much more reassured and seeing those magnificent and beautiful animals a few metres away, I couldn't resist. There are many packages on offer at the park, from just a ride, to washing them or the full day; feeding, painting them in a traditional Indian style, riding them and washing them. Realising this is most likely the only chance I am going to get to spending a day with an elephant, Josh and I opted for the full day package. We spent two weeks travelling budget in one day but it was worth it. We started off being introduced to our elephant,for the day, Boe. A truly fantastic, large, fat bottomed girl, with warm brown eyes. Female elephants are only used for human contact, as Bulls (male elephants) are incredibly unpredictable and dangerous. The Bulls are only used for mating purposes. Josh and I were given a talk on elephants in general and facts about them. I tried to pay attention but I must admit I did switch off in the moment and found myself wrapping my little arms around this hugely, long trunk, which was probably longer and bigger than myself. We found ourselves thrusted into the day, before I knew it I was feeding Boe sugar canes which she loved and hoovered them up pretty quickly. Following some tasty snacks for Boe, we were able to paint her, which is a tradition in India. Again this could be seen as cruel but the paint is natural and so is the brush. The elephants skin is so incredibly thick that she can not feel it anyway. Having some art tools in my hand and finding this whole experience very bizarre, Josh and I got carried away with painting her in really bright colours. Next thing on the agenda was to go for a ride on her, towards her natural habitat. I don't know how I was expecting to get on the elephant but having her lift me up on her trunk was perhaps not one of them. A slow walk later and feeling very happy with the elephants' home, I came back one happy lady for the next stage in our day - the bath. So this was what the huge swimming pool was for, washing the elephants you had recently painted. Having the guide lead her into the water, I was so excited and a little nervous in case I was going to have my foot stood on. She loved the water, we have one of the best photographs of her standing under the pipe as it is filling up the pool, smiling. We gave her a good scrub and splashed her with lots of water, as she happily laid in the pool of water. Of course there was your standard spray of water from her trunk, which was so funny. We ended our afternoon at Eleday with lots of cuddles with Boe and feeding her vast amounts of bananas. It was by far one of the most magical, memorable days of my life, that I will never forget, proving dreams can come true.

To end off a perfect day, we went and spent a couple of hours walking around the Amber Fort, which was a really good bum workout with all those steps. Followed by the Jantar Mantar, which I can only describe as very large and interesting sun dial, for telling you what time, day and date it is, judging on the Sun's rays. The last point of interest was the wind palace, where I again felt like a celebrity with some of the locals. From what I am told, the wind palace was originally built for the royal women, so they could witness street festivities without being seen. I do love the architecture and colours they have in the buildings here, made up of red and pink sandstone. It is so cultural and of course very different from the Cotswold stone I am used to back home.

Sadly we prepare to leave Jaipur but not before I do a little more shopping. Ali clearly does a lot of driving for tourists and customers like us and knows many places and people. Next door to our hotel is a jewellers-come-textile shop, again like many situated here. We were invited in just for Chai tea and to have a chat with the locals who work here. I am given a string of stories on each product but it was sitting on one of the many beautifully crafted rugs, that did it for me. I noticed how incredibly soft one of the rugs were, in silvery light colours. Abdul the owner tells me it took a year to make and is made purely of silk and cashmere. No wonder I could have slept on it. Trying to quickly think of a way of getting a rug like this home and without spending all my budget, I asked him if there was one smaller and how I could get it back without carrying it. He made me a fantastic offer and included the shipping by air back to the United Kingdom. To Josh's horror the deal was done by the time he found me and neither have us have been happier with our treat. What a lovely souvenir that is of such a great quality to have in our home forever. If I had purchased something like this in the UK it would have probably cost four times as much. Have a look below at some of Abdul's creations and my lovely silk and cashmere rug, so happily situated in my room.