Udaipur is, like every Indian tourist destination, two cities in one - an old city full of some important sites and an entire industry based on tourism - guest houses, restaurants, shops, rickshaw wallas, "internet cafes" (this is a broadly intepreted term in India) - and then the rest of the city, which goes about its business without much acknowledgement of or provision for the visitors. Unfortunately, it is not easy to escape the well worn Lonely Planet path (well worn for a reason, mind you), especially if you don't know anyone in the place you're visiting, but it is possible. In any case, for most visitors, Udaipur is literally tiny - a few narrow byways near the lake where you can buy whatever you need (and many things you don't need) and while away your days drinking chai and watching Octupussy every night at 7 PM (apparently the Bond flick was shot in Udaipur, which is apprently reason enough for every restaurant to offer a rooftop showing). The main sight is the ramshackle city palace, which is a home improvement maven's dream - every new inhabitant of the palace seemed to add a new wing, a process that results in a veritable maze of courtyards, passageways, bedrooms, gallerys etc. One could easily while away the day her playing maharajah. The other major site in the old city is the Jagdish Mandir, a still popular and functioning temple built by one of the Rajput kings and dedicated to Vishnu. Not much to see there, really - just circumabulate, get your darsan and move on. There are other sites - castles, ruined castles, temples, runined temples, gardens where you can watch the sunset, other pleasant sorts of distractions. Plenty of shopping for minitiaure paintings, fabrics, handicrafts - the regular sort of stuff. Its a very sweet, romantic sort of a place, charming in the way that Rajasthan is famous for, and manageable for the western tourists, who the locals are very used to seeing. There is a reason that people really love Udaipur: it is the sort of place that a visitor can love simply and pleasantly and unproblematically - experience, appreciate and depart a few days later.
Of course, one can take all sorts of issue with that sort of unporblematic enjoyment, but one must also be realistic about what it means to be a tourist and what options are open to you. I met some great local folks in Udaipur hanging around my hotel, and with a little Hindi (or even without it) you can get past the basic I buy/you sell relationship and have meaningful conversations and learn things about people and culture and all the rest (and in many cases the very difference and ephemerality that such relationships are based on allow for the deepest sort of revelations and confidences). I also walked around the main roads and bazars which are outside of the old city, and got a chance to see the city as it functions for the majority of the people who live there, though how much I really saw and understood or even what such sights and understandings mean is certainly up for debate. But in the end, and even accounting or all sorts of variation and discrepancy, I think that whenever one drops in on a place for a few days, and all the more where the place is very different and is built to construct the visitors experience in a certain way, then there is an inescapbale lightness to the experience, and this lightness must simply be ackowledged and accepted as part of the terms of the agreement. One needn't feel bad about this sort of thing, but then one should also not ignore it or pretend that it isn't a defining charatceristic/limitation.
The night before I left Udaipur I sat on a rooftop restaurant and watched as locals burned holis (kind of a bizarre straw and wood structure that supposedly represents a woman of ill repute?? and is burned to rid the community of bad spirits/energy), culminating in the burning of the biggest holi in front of the Jagdish Mandir. Boxes of fireworks were dumped on the structure before ignition, which made for quite a dangerous and fascinating scene, followed by dancing, more fireworks, general exultation and the beginning of the also somewhat violent/fascinating playing of colors (throwing of colored powders) which Holi is famous for. Hard to capture the energy and excitement of this sort of a thing, which was infectious enough to make any concerns about voyeurism dissolve into a smile of exultation.
