A stroll around beautiful Ghats of Lake Pichola - One of the best walks to explore a different Udaipur in Rajasthan
After watching so many movies with scenes from ghats of Udaipur lakes and especially Lake Pichola, I was waiting to take a walk around these Ghats. The best part was that we were staying in a hotel around Lal ghat of Lake Pichola - Raj Niwas. This blogpost shares about almost all ghats from Lal Ghat till Ambrai ghat which make a horse shoe kind of shape.
Earlier I thought that all these ghats around Lake Pichola are connected and one was walk around the ghats while enjoying different views of the lake and it's surrounding. But that's not the case. There is no walking path around the lake, and this is something I would highly recommend to Udaipur Smart-city authority to consider as it can be great way to enjoy the lake views. And Udaipur plans to build something like that, vehicles/cycles ideally should not be allowed on this pathway so that people can walk comfortably. Apart from that cleanness would be the key. Certainly there should be business opportunities for small vendors & artists on this pathway to keep the environment alive. From tourism standpoint, I lot more can be done on this front.
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So question arises, how you explore all ghats around Lake Pichola when they are connected. These ghats may not be directly connected but you can always walk through closest streets around the lake to hit these ghats, visit, see around and move on. That's precisely what we did.
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We started our walk from Lal Ghat. Above photograph shows the view on right side when we were standing near Lal Ghat and facing the Lake Pichola. This ghat was closed during the pandemic otherwise, this is also one of the pickup point for boats hovering in the lake Pichola. There was still lot of action around Lal Ghat. This ghat and it's neighbourhood is popular for it's rooftop cafes which offer great views of Lake Pichola, Taj Hotel which is in middle of the lake, Ambrai ghat which is on other side of the lake etc. Monsoon cafe is on first floor of the building you see in above photograph.
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Notice lot of bikes parked around the ghat. This part of Udaipur has very narrow streets and hence very few cars come inside this part of the Udaipur. Getting bikes on rent is the thing in Udaipur, like Goa. So you get a bike on rent and then move between the places across Udaipur City. Some of the places are far away so you certainly need to either hire auto-rickshaw, Ola/Uber or rent a bike.
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Notice those paintings on the wall of building close to Lal Ghat of Lake Pichola. It's a common scene as you walk around the streets of Udaipur.
This walk around the ghats of Lake Pichola is not only about exploring the ghats but it offers different kinds of experiences on the way.
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After Lal Ghat we started moving towards Gangaur Ghat which is close to Bagore ki Haveli. The strategy was simple - keep following the left most street and you will hit Bagore ki Haveli. If you ask locals, they will certainly suggest you optimal routes but our intent was to just keep walking around the lake as much as possible and we didn't have specific points in mind. It's just that next ghat we landed in was Gangaur Ghat. Above photograph shows the structure which is on Gangaur Ghat of Lake Pichola in Udaipur and its beautiful architecture. On the left of it, you see Bagore ki Haveli which is one of the popular places in Udaipur to experience cultural activities and now they have a museum as well.
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While you are standing at Gangaur ghat, you see this bridge on your right. Above photograph shows the bridge I am talking about and this connects this part of the Ghat's trail with other. Ambrai ghat is most popular ghat on other side so one needs to cross this bridge to go to Ambrai Ghat. There are multiple bridges like this on Lake Pichola. As you can imagine, there are multiple ghats around Lake Pichola but we took this first bridge to cross to the other side and then started walking towards the left which leads to Ambrai Ghat on the other end of the Lake.
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We took Chand pole pulia which is also known as Daiji bridge and on the right side of the bridge we see another bridge parallel to Daiji bridge.
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As we walked on the Daiji bridge of Lake Pichola in Udaipur, we noticed that there is a long ghat between these 2 bridges. We missed that ghat. That was the moment when we realised that Lake Pichola is huge and we must be missing lot of ghats beyond Daiji Bridge and discussed if we get time, we will also go to other side of this bridge. Seems like we need to plan another trip as we seemed to miss lot of things about Udaipur.
After crossing Daiji bridge of Lake Pichola, we were on other side which is full of big hotels and restaurants along with craft shops across the streets. We started walking towards our left and hit Hanuman ghat which was almost empty with a boat which was being uploaded and seemed like construction material was brought here through boat as there is no possibility of brining bigger vehicles in these streets. That was quite interesting. There is a Hanuman temple close to this ghat and probably that's why ghat is named as Hanuman ghat.
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As we kept walking, we crossed some of the magnificent havelis converted into grand hotels and then reached Ambrai Ghat. Ambrai ghat is most popular amongst all around Lake Pichola and because of various reasons. Sunset of Ambrai Ghat is very special. Are you wondering why?
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Gangaur Ghat and Ambrai Ghat are quite popular ghats for sunset, but is sunset limited to these 2 and if yes, why? Simply the answer is no. Sunset can be enjoyed from many other ghats as well but certainly views change.
Let's talk about why Ambrai is more special in that case. Ambrai ghat is located so well that it offers 270 degree view of Lake Pichola with Taj hotel very close to this ghat. This is the place which also offers you views of sun going down gradually. As sunset happens you also see City Palace in evening light, which you see only from here or Hanuman Ghat. Although Sunset views of Hanuman ghat are below average. All this makes Ambrai ghat special and you see lot of people here during evening time.
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Timings of this walk defines what you will experience during your walk around Ghats of Lake Pichola. Early morning & late evening can certainly be more rewarding in terms of witnessing sunrise or sunset light reflecting on the surface of Lake Pichola. Early morning is also a time when city starts preparing for day action and offers very different mood, especially for photography/videography. During the day, when you walk through these streets, the mood can be very different and varies from one season to another.
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Above photograph shows a panoramic view of Lake Pichola from Hanuman Ghat in Udaipur. Daiji bridge on the left most part of the photograph and the trees of Ambrai ghat on the right most part.
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Overall we highly recommend this walk around the beautiful ghats of Lake Pichola in Udaipur. Below is the trail we followed.
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If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter. Use dustbins.
2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
3. Avoid water bottles in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem. In plains, refill your bottles with RO at hotel.
4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests or jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite.
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