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Well, I finally got out of Delhi, and flew to Udaipur on Jet Airways. Interestingly enough, the plane was *not* a jet, but the flight and service were probably better than you'll find in the USA. The flight had a stopover in Jaipur and then went on to Udaipur. Each leg was 45 minutes, everything was on time, and they served a full breakfast on each leg of the flight(!). The security at the airports for domestic flights is amazing. First they x-ray your luggage before you check in. Then you go thorough the normal security, and after you go through the scanner, you get frisked. and they go through your carry-on by hand. Then before you get on the plane, you go through another scanner and frisking on the runway. During the stopover in Jaipur, I stayed on the plane, but they came on the plane and asked to see our boarding passes and checked to see that all the luggage in the overhead bin belonged to someone on the plane. Finally, after we landed, we had to show them our boarding passes before we could go to from the plane to the terminal. I think there would be riots if they went through all that on every flight in the US.
So, having arrived in Udaipur, we drove to my hotel, literally dodging cows, pigs and camels all over the road. Even after we got to the middle of the city, there were cows, goats, and pigs lying in the street and walking everywhere. Another striking aspect of India is the rubble. It seems like half the buildings are only partially completed, and most of the completed ones are being torn apart bit by bit to build new ones. There are bricks, rocks, and piles of dirt everywhere. Meanwhile there are people just wandering everywhere or sitting on the curb doing nothing.
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My hotel room in Udaipur was not up to the standards of the one in Delhi. There were several crickets in the room, and when I tried to take a nap, they started chirping. Then the power went off. Eventually the power came back on, the hotel manager sprayed the room, and I survived the night, but I don't recommend the Hotel Rajdarshan if you happen to be passing through Udaipur.
Having survived my initial experience at the hotel, the sightseeing in Udaipur began with a visit to the City Palace, which is another classic example of rulers constructing huge and gaudy palaces while the common people starved.
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After that, we went to a rather depressing park with a number of fountains. Unfortunately, the monsoon season didn't produce much rain, and there wassn't enough water for the fountains, so I got to see pools of mud.
Udaipur is on the edge of a lake and the local ruler also built a palace in the middle of the lake, which has since been turned into a luxury hotel. My late afternoon activity was a boat ride on the lake, which produced some spectacular views. After the boat ride, I had dinner at the lake palace/hotel, which was another spectacular setting.
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