At Udaipur we first stopped at a very nice garden that was built for the women of the court. As we stood near the entrance the guide clapped his hands and the fountains came on! He explained that the people had long ago figured out how to make sensors that would respond to the clap of the hands. He then asked us if we could figure out how such sensors worked 200 or more years ago and we looked around a bit and saw the fellow in the picture operating a valve! The guide said that it worked the same way back then! We next visited a shop where artists paint finely detailed works on various materials- paper, silk, marble and other things. The work looked very nice. The shop sold lots of other Indian crafts from wood carving to marble inlay or pietra-dura, the prices seemed a bit high, but you always have to negotiate except at the government shops.
We then went to the city palace and saw only a small part of the huge complex. Part of it is now used as one or two hotels. It seems like a very nice place. We got some good views out over the lake and could clearly see the buildings out on the lake. One is run as a hotel by a very good outfit. However, this is dry season and the water level in the lake is low. The pictures one normally sees show the buildings appearing to be floating on the water, but with the water levels low, they seem much less magical.
We had a very good lunch in a huge dinning room that was reserved for guests of the Maharajas in times past. It was a beautiful room. Our small group was served at a huge round table near the middle. They provided live music that was,
again, good and simple. After lunch we went to visit the "Crystal Room" which was upstairs from the dinning hall. We could not take pictures there, but the pieces were remarkable- mainly because of the quantity, but also for the quality. There beds, tables, chairs, lamps and all manner of furniture and decorative items made of glass! They used metal frames. We were told that all the pieces were ordered a long time ago- perhaps 1910 or so(?) from a dealer from Europe. It took about 10 years to make all the pieces. and by the time it was delivered, the Maharaja had died. The new leader did not like the stuff so it 
was put in storage. The current Maharaja found it in storage and had it brought out for display. For anyone who likes glass, it is worth seeing.We next took a short boat ride around on the lake and ended up on one of the buildings out there. We got to look around and have tea and then returned.
The train moved to Bharatpur overnight and we got up early to visit the bird sanctuary there. The bus dropped us off and we road on bicycle rickshaws into the reserve. Like other reserves and parks, this was a hunting reserve for a Maharaja until taken over by the government. There are some old buildings
and a wall of plaques giving a brief description of some of the hunting parties where over 4000 birds were shot. Now the birds are safer. This is apparently a stopover point
for many migrating birds from northern Asia. Most of the rickshaw drivers are supposed to be licensed guides, but we found that 2 of the 3 we had were very difficult to understand. They seemed to know the names of most of the bird species, but could not communicate much else- except that they expected a large tip! It was an interesting place with lots of beautiful birds we could get closer to than usual, but we thought we might have preferred to sleep later too.We returned to the train and had breakfast and rest while the train moved on to Agra.
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