Once I returned to town I hit the main sights. Ambrai Ghat was located on a small island on Lake Pichola, where there were relatively quiet, car-free areas. It offered views back towards the main city, focusing on the broad City Palace. Houses on the surrounding streets displayed small murals, often depicting animals or daily life. 

On the mainland, Gangaur Ghat was a haven for pigeons. Vendors were selling seeds to tourists, who held fistfuls up in the air. Hungry birds would fly down and land on their open palms, happy for the offering. The ghat is associated with love and devotion, although I can’t say I feel much love or devotion for pigeons.

Next door was Bagore Ki Haveli, which was surprisingly free to enter (it’s not usually) and was far more interesting than the Monsoon Palace. The former royal residence-turned-government building contained 138 rooms, many filled with exhibits open for viewing. One of these contained a wide range of puppets, sitting on brightly-coloured furniture as though they were having a social gathering. I found this incredibly creepy, but I guess it was fitting given the venue hosts a puppet cultural show every evening. 

The Jagdish Temple was a small, 17th-century Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Being located right in the middle of the busy, touristy area meant it wasn’t a peaceful experience. As usual for Hindu temples, beautiful carvings covered every inch of the marble walls. Visitors were crammed into the tight interior, where a seemingly impromptu performance was in full swing. A range of percussion instruments played songs well-known to the locals, but I was not at all familiar with them. The crowd heartily joined in the singing, and occasionally someone would stand up to dance to the upbeat music. The electric atmosphere kept me captivated for far longer than I anticipated.

The most popular tourist attraction in Udaipur is the City Palace, a sprawling, 244 metre-long site that still houses the Mewar royal family. The Mewar Kingdom, considered the world's longest ruling dynasty (6th century to present), moved their capital to Udaipur in the 16th century as they felt the surrounding the hills would make it easier to defend. Construction on the palace first began in 1559, but it has been extended several times over the centuries to now include 11 interconnected palaces. 

Surprisingly, there was no marked-up foreigner price compared to the local ticket, which was a first for us. After passing through the entrance, I walked through a broad courtyard alongside the eastern edge of the palace, where there wasn’t much to look at. From there I was forced to follow a marked, one-way route through the interior. Although this ensured I didn't miss any highlights, it also meant I was stuck behind slower moving groups much of the time. The place was enormous, which should have been obvious given the hype and the statistics, but it was still much larger than I was expecting. I was led in and out of rooms and courtyards, along hallways, up and down stairs - I never really knew where I was. On display were former royal residences, the Queen's Palace, an extensive armory, a lengthy sculpture and art gallery depicting mostly religious pieces, glass mosaic and ceramic tile decorations, plus a whole bunch of other artefacts that didn't mean much to me (if I had any knowledge about the Mewar dynasty or Indian history it might have held my interest for longer). Overall it was fascinating and well worth the price of admission (it was actually cheaper than the Monsoon Palace, which offered me nothing).

Like Jodhpur, Udaipur was overflowing with rooftop restaurants. Luckily we had a keen eye for the 'elevator' sign, so we didn't feel like it was a wasted effort heading all the way up if we decided not to eat there. The advantage of a rooftop here was the sunset view over the water. The cloudless skies didn't offer any spectacular patterns of colour, but it did allow us to watch the fiery red sun slowly sinking behind faraway mountains. As the light faded, the city lights started twinkling, which was just as dazzling. The other benefit of a rooftop restaurant was that it was slightly quieter several floors up, which we desperately needed after spending all day on the clamorous streets.

The following day we hired a driver to take us to attractions that were further away from the city. First stop was Kumbhalgarh Fort, a 15th-century Mewar fortress built on top of a hill to allow for surveillance of enemies. It is famous for being surrounded by what is known as the Great Wall of India, the second longest wall in the world after China's. It turned out that it wasn’t as impenetrable as they had hoped - poisoning the water supply will grant you entry. The fort changed hands between the Mewars and Mughals several times over the centuries, before finally being handed back to the Mewar Kings in 1818. 

Kumbhalgarh Fort was gigantic. Spread out over an expansive site, we only saw a fraction of what still exists today. There were 7 gates into the fort and an incredible 360 temples, mostly Jain with a few Hindu sprinkled in. Our first mission was to climb to the main building at the top of the hill, where rooms, passageways, stairwells and courtyards peeled off in every direction. There were no signs or directional arrows, so we had no idea if we saw it all or not. A friendly guard helped us locate the main lookout tower, with views over the surrounding rolling hills. Elephant murals lined several of the walls, but many of the carvings had worn away over time. Langurs bounded between structures, their menacing presence sometimes preventing us from climbing up to a viewpoint. Being so vast we often found ourselves alone for extended periods, although the numbers increased later in the morning. 

Back down the hill we wandered along the broad exterior walls, taking advantage of the views back towards the fort. The walls led us to an area filled with small temples, decorated with carvings that were more noticeable and better preserved than what we saw earlier. Signs around here only gave a brief description of the architecture and the building's alignment with the compass points - nothing about what the temples represented or how they were used. While the site was undoubtedly impressive, a little more general information wouldn't have gone astray.

Many of the Jain temples I had visited so far in India hadn't allowed cameras in. Ranakpur Temple was one exception (for a fee). The 15th-century white marble building was similar to other temples in that almost every exposed surface was intricately carved with a variety of pictures, icons and patterns. Reportedly, there are 1,444 pillars inside the temple and that no two are alike, which is mind-blowing when you think about it. It is also said to contain 80 domes, although it was impossible to tell from the inside. Photography was forbidden in a handful of shrines around the site, but there were plenty of other architectural marvels to capture with my camera. In a word: stunning.