India : Udaipur: As It Is!

"Udaipur, or Udyapoora in ancient texts, can be best described as \'The Jewel in the Crown\' of Rajasthan with its palaces and pavilions, its gardens and groves, its exquisite lakes and their island palaces, monsoon palaces--a palace for any reason. It has been subjected to never-ending epithets, one being the \'City of Enchantment\'. Louis Rousselet in his book \'India and Its Native Princes\' (1878) said "I stood in ecstasy gazing on the sublime panorama spread at my feet.... It resembled one of the fairy cities in the Arabian Nights".

Udaipur reminds the author of the small and remote villages of Greece, where there are no big supermarkets. Here we still find the local bakery, the tailor and the cobbler. Most shops have been in the same family for generations. The author hopes that it will always be like this in Udaipur and he worry constantly that \'progress\' will replace the small-town charm of Udaipur. Just like it has done in already so many parts of the world."