Delhi - Udaipur: Trip To City of Lakes

[singh890]

I am back again with another travelogue and this completes my 10th TL on the forum as well. This time I discovered the beautiful city of Udaipur and forts inKumbhalgarh and Chittorgarh.

The plan to visit Udaipur and Mt. Abu was in plate for last 2 months but for some or other reason it kept getting postponed. Finally in the first week of July it was decided that we would leave for Udaipur in the second week and the dates were finalized. According to the plan we would leave on 13th July and stay there on 14, 15 and leave back for home on 16th via Chittorgarh. Initially we were 6 people with 4 days of luggage per person and the car was none other than my DRACO (XUV). So I started looking for hotels and attractions to visit. So on 11th I finally thought of booking the hotel but I got a call from one of my cousin and he said that he would love to join as well and 4 other people from the family. So now we were 11 people instead of 6 and hence another car joined us and it was a Ritz

Trip Details:
Cars: XUV W8 and Ritz diesel.
Total distance: 2000 kms (Moradabad – Delhi – Udaipur – Kumbhalgarh – Udaipur – Chittorgarh – Faridabad – Meerut – Moradabad).
B]Total Fuel:[/B] Approx Rs 6900/-
Top Speed: 170 kmph.
Max FE attained: 14.5 kmpl.
Total Toll: 1400 /-

Route: Map attached.


We started sharp at 5:30 Am from Moradabad. We were 6 people and 7 seven bags in our XUV. I told everyone to pack their stuff in bags as it will be easier for me to adjust 6 people and 7 bags in the car rather than suitcases. I folded 1 of the last row seat and put all the 7 bags on it and besides that there were 4-5 polythene bags which went behind the other last row seat which was up and in the legroom of the last row seat which was down and below the center seat in the middle row. 4 water bottles, one in each row. And some small coke and sprite cans in the cooling box.

We reached Faridabad around 8:10 am where my cousin was supposed to join me with 4 other people. Somehow he got late and we almost lost 1.30 hour. Meanwhile I got my tank full and Finally we started again around 9:30 am and had to face the morning traffic until we hit he NH 8. I was surprised to see that NH 8 had lot of traffic as well till Manesar. But after Manesar roads started to get empty and DRACO started doing good speeds. We did our lunch around Jaipur and reached Udaipur by 9:00 pm by covering almost 870 kms. We took around 3 breaks which took near about 2 hours.

Some pics taken en-route to Udaipur.

 

[singh890]

pics continued..

 

[singh890]

These are the places we visited on 14th.

Maharana Pratap Memorial.
City Palace.
Sajjangarh Fort
AND
how could i miss this - Vintage car museum.

Pics will be followed soon.

 

[singh890]

Maharana Pratap Memorial:

A small history lesson:
Maharana Pratap son of Maharana Udai Singh who founded the city of Udaipur. Before coming to Udaipur Maharana Udai Singh and the royal family use to reside and rule the Chittorgarh fort. But in 1559 they had to move from the Chittor fort as they had a battle with the Mughals who cut off their supply of food.
Maharana Pratap was known for his bravery and chivalry and was the only king who never surrendered in front of Mughals.
There was a famous battle fought between Maharana Pratap and the Mughals led by Akbar known battle of Haldighati. In this battle Maharana Pratap and his horse named Chetak got injured and Chetak lost one of his leg and even then Chetak helped Maharana Pratap escape the battlefield and saved his life but unfortunately chetak lost his life.










This statue is in honor of Maharana Pratap's Head of the Army. (Can't remember his name). He gave his life in savings his Kings life.

 

[Gurrala74]

@Singh

Nice TL buddy !! a TL with Ritz too, looking forward to hear from you on Ritz behavior through out the trip and its performance and some nice pics man

 

[singh890]

It's call "Sun Watch". It had markings on it. The shadow of that small triangle part used to show the time. "I wonder what did they do on a cloudy day"












In this picture you can see that there was a sword tied on the elephants trunk which actually chopped one of the leg of Maharana Pratap's horse (Chetak).

 

[singh890]

City Palace:

Few Details:

City Palace was built by Maharana Udai Singh in 1559 and it took almost 400 years to complete the palace. This palace is built on a hill top from where you get an awesome and lovely view of the city and the Aravalli Hills. Also you get a clear view of some historical monuments like Lake Palace (In the earlier days Maharana use to stay there in summers) and Jag Mandir.

Maharana Udai Singh's 24 generation still stays in this palace( only in a part of a palace) rest of the palace is open for public.

The entry fee is 115 /- per person and 55/- per car.

Now the most amazing part, you can book the part of the palace which is open to public for your marriage. If you want it a royal way
There are packages for the same which starts from 3 crore to 20 crores.

Main entry of the palace. First gate is used for Entry of vehicles, second for Exit of vehicles and the third for pedestrians.








Palace is so big that it was not possible for me to take a picture which would cover the entire building.

 

[singh890]

@Singh

Nice TL buddy !! a TL with Ritz too, looking forward to hear from you on Ritz behavior through out the trip and its performance and some nice pics man

Thanks sirji. Actually i don't have pictures if our rides. Only a couple of them. Since i was driving the entire time. But talking about the performance of Ritz damm that car is a small rocket. I didn't drive it on the entire tour as i was driving the XUV. But my cousins did 160 on RItz And that too couple of times. I love the pickup of this car anyways and it has decent space as well.
I had a totally different view of this car before our trip but now i just love this car. but yes at that speed all the doors was rattling though.

 

[singh890]

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace. Though you can take your camera and take pictures as well but then you need to pay 300/- extra for that. And if you are 5 people with 5 camera's then you have to pay 300/- per camera.




This is the are where the stage is set for functions and marriage.


That is lake palace. Now taken by Taj group of hotels. Room prices start from 35000/- per night and go upto whopping price of 5,00,000.




The king use to see the sun before they eat anything in the morning. But what if it was cloudy?

well for that the king had this sun made out of copper with gold polish. So that if there was no sun outside he would look at this sun and then eat his food.




Ahh that's our ritz parked by the palace.

 

[singh890]

See how tall the doors are? Also see the big nails on the door. They are there to defend the doors from elephants. In earlier days enemies would come on elephants and hit these doors to break them and enter the fort. So in this case if they hit the door, the nails would kill the elephant.


We did manage to take some pics inside the palace.






Well this was the bed used by the last queen of Maharana Udai Singh after his death.


Well do you see that box on the right on top of that small platform covered with orange cloth. That container is for "Pan". Like we know in those times every king had 5-6 queens, even more. So in this case whenever the king wanted to see his queen - ohh - one of his queens (lucky guy), he would send a pan through a maid and whichever queen gets the pan gets an opportunity to meet the king as well. hhhhmm Nice game.

 

[bhvm]

Great trip!
I've been these exact places. My Fav was kumbhalgadh which looks eye catching at night due to Lighting effects. Hope you stayed on for it!

Else, your Ritz has some nice alloys. However, it would be having a tough time keeping up with your DRACO! (Esp at 170!~)

 

[AR Ram]

Excellent photographs and very informative write up singh890.

Especially the king and the queen/s part is simply tempting!!!!!!

 

[Gurrala74]

Hmm, nice pics Singh. Great to hear about Ritz living upto the expectations and it is same color like mine. Those alloys to be very nice. If possible post some pics of that Ritz with Alloys and how many kilometers it did so far

 

[singh890]

Great trip!
I've been these exact places. My Fav was kumbhalgadh which looks eye catching at night due to Lighting effects. Hope you stayed on for it!

We went there as well and dude that's one amazon fort but not maintained well now. And that incline path all the way to the fort, one will definity loose a kilo.

But the road to the fort is just amazing and what wonderful views man, It was total mesmerizing.

Will post pics as I go ahead with my TL.

Else, your Ritz has some nice alloys. However, it would be having a tough time keeping up with your DRACO! (Esp at 170!~)

That's my cousins Ritz and yes it did had kinda hard time to keep up with Draco's pace but its one hell of a car and can do good speeds for a long time.

 

[singh890]

Excellent photographs and very informative write up singh890.

Especially the king and the queen/s part is simply tempting!!!!!!

Thank you sir. Glad you like my TL as well as the pics.
There is more coming to this TL.

Even I couldn't stop laughing on that PAN stuff. :-)

Hmm, nice pics Singh. Great to hear about Ritz living upto the expectations and it is same color like mine. Those alloys to be very nice. If possible post some pics of that Ritz with Alloys and how many kilometers it did so far

I don't know the exact mileage on the ODO but its in higher 30's and will post more pics of the alloys with the tire size.