Note: I had wanted to update my blog regularly while in India (which would give more bite-size chunks), but due to the lack of wi-fi across the place I have not been able to do this. Given that I found wi-fi widely across Sumatra, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Borneo I have been surprised how rare wi-fi is here (found in only two of my eleven hotels here, and bars just not having it at all).
The plan, such as it was, was to travel around Rajasthan by train and coach driven by both desires and whim. Once I was in Delhi It was soon apparent that this was pretty impractical, or at least would eat into a lot of days, and may not be the most relaxing of trips. I should probably have been booking trains before I got in the country, or at least as soon as I arrived. There is generally no option of just turning up at the station for the inter city trips.
I did a bit of research on the net, and Dr Google told me that a lot of people get a driver for the trip. After due consideration it did seem a good option really, despite it costing me more money than I anticipated. The doctor told me that the driver with all the fuel, tolls and his accommodation would come out at about £22 a day for an air conditioned car (it costs me that to go in and out of Liverpool city centre from mine).
Micky at the hotel I was staying in had asked me to give him the opportunity to quote for any trips, so when he came out at the same price I went for it. The next thing then was to confirm where to go to and get a sensible itinerary together. The first visit had to be Agra, which is not in Rajasthan, but is several hours south east of Delhi in Uttar Pradesh - for the Taj Mahal - before heading into Rajasthan for the historical cities and for a chance to look for tigers in a national park.
My itinerary was firmed up over the next couple of days and finally comprised:
Agra (1 Night)
Ranthambore (2 nights)
Jaipur (2)
Pushkar (1)
Udaipur (2)
Jophur (2)
Jaisalmer (1)
Bikaner (1)
Jhunjhunu (1)
This first blog covers the trip as far as Pushkar...
I was picked up on the Sunday morning to go to Agra by my driver for the next fortnight - Bampy - which rather ominously was actually pronounced bumpy. Equally ominously even before we left the city he was angling for the tip at the end of the trip. For every time he mentioned it I would surely reduce said tip!
The journey started poorly with the little Tata Indica struggling to get out of the city centre, as most the roads around the city were closed for a marathon or some such event. They are not big on diversion signs here, so it was a question of driving around until an open road in an appropriate direction could be found, along with all the other lost traffic. Ultimately a trip which usually takes four hours took six - this was to prove par for the course over the fortnight.
Agra
A visit to Agra is for the Taj Mahal of course, but the massive red sandstone Agra Fort shouldn’t be missed, ideally visiting it first for an initial view across the river meander toward the Taj Mahal. It is quite similar to the Red Fort in Delhi in some ways and off a similar scale. One difference is that the British didn’t knock the bulk of it down in the mid-19th century.
I ended up going twice to the Taj Mahal, once on a rather mad Sunday afternoon, when thousands upon thousands of locals had come to see it. I was delayed a little getting there when Bumps disappeared for 15 minutes. It turned out having closed the door in the toilet it somehow got locked on the outside (glad that happened to him and not me). When I finally got in to the Taj Mahal the sun was already coming down quickly and the queues both inside and out the grounds were massive. At the Taj building itself queues snaked around several times both on the upper level and then down the steps before again snaking up, down and around - there were thousands. The queue was ‘controlled’ by about three people with uniforms, sticks and whistles. Every time they turned to blow their whistle and raise their stick at some queue jumping bad boys, others would jump across the snake trying their luck in the queue opposite.
After 5 minutes or so of watching this (I had accidentally cut in half way through the queue as it was by going the wrong way up a stair case to the upper level - oops) I realised it would take at least an hour to get in to it. I would have time the next day before going on to Ranthambore, so I decided to leave the queue and to use the Sunday to take in the outside of the buildings, and come back again on the Monday when hopefully the queues would be more manageable.
The place is so familiar of course from posters in Indian restaurants, films and television but it is far from a disappointment to see. The design of the building, the beautiful white marble and its setting is just perfect. One thing I didn’t realise is that the four identical towers all lean away from the building in order that if the worst happens they would fall away from the building. Well, that’s the story anyway. The stones and intricate design and carvings are just right.
When I did go on the Monday there were no queues to get in to the grounds or the mausoleum, which was a surprising result. The inside is a lot more understated, it is a mausoleum after all, but for the intricate stone carvings. I managed to get some good shots in the morning, when I could grab my camera of the guide who was showing me around - he was keen to use the camera.
Following the visit and a late breakfast it was a six hour drive on to Ranthambore national park, for a tiger safari the next day. The roads varied from really good English rural type through to topographic and structurally challenged boneshakers - not conducive to speedy driving for Bumps or a good sleep for me.
Ranthambore
The morning safari left at 6.30am, so it was up at the ungodly hour of 5.45am for a breakfast in my room. It was tipping down outside, and the first day in India that I would need my waterproof poncho (probably the only day). Boy did it tip down and it is pretty much unheard of at this time of year, after the monsoon. Unfortunately tigers don’t particularly enjoy padding about the place in the rain - why go out in it if you don’t have too? They only need to eat about once a week, so unless they were lazy last week then they could afford to wait a couple of days for the rain to abate.
My safari was in a Gypsy (jeep) with five of us in the back, with a driver and a guide at the front. The guide turned out to be a top guy, literally - he had been featured in the BBC ‘Land of the Tiger’ series, just a month or so ago. Tiger expert as he was he couldn’t find us one, and none of the other Gypsies or Cantors (trucks) saw one all day either (which I was glad about).
The safari though I found to be very enjoyable, I don’t think I have ever been as tense or alert as I was sat there scouring the park for the tigers. Instead all I got to see were spotted deer, samba deer (the tiger’s favourite super sized snack), wild boar, an antelope (springbok type), and birds of various type - I didn’t even get to see the crocs. As I said though, thoroughly recommended and definitely go for the Gypsy (which costs 50% more than the Cantor (truck), as it carries a maximum of six guests, while the Cantor is overloaded with an inevitably louder crowd (thereby reducing the chances of you getting to see a tiger - or indeed anything else!).
The following day when I was off to Jaipur it was tipping down again in Ranthambore and they closed the park because of the state of the roads within it. I pity the poor souls who came for that day - as there is not much to Ranthambore but the park - and they still got up before 6am to find that it was closed.
Jaipur
The road to Jaipur was diabolical for much of the route. It largely comprised one lane of broken tarmac with stone or mud either side, which was needed frequently as the little Tata had to dive off when being overtake or getting out of the way of oncoming bigger vehicles- the rules of the road are simple ‘Big vehicles have priority’. In some places there was no tarmac at all - just mud and standing water of unknown ‘Dr Foster’ depth. At one point we had a stand off with a car facing us waiting for us to go first to show the safe route through deep mud, which in places were evidently over a foot deep, visible in tyre tracks where large wagons had ploughed through it. We won; they went first, made it over, and we went the opposite way without getting stuck.
In the large busy city of Jaipur (>2.6 million) I stayed in the hotel Glitz, which was okay but not exactly glitzy. They did have traditional Rajasthan dancing every evening which was a sight. Unfortunately it did mean that you could not just pop down for a quiet meal and a Kingfisher. One of my favourite pints back in the UK is the Indian Pale Ale (IPA) called Jaipur, brewed by Thornbridge. I was not expecting to find any IPA here, and unfortunately was disappointed to be proved correct. Oh Thornebridge, sort yourselves out with an export opportunity.
In Jaipur there was plenty to see and I had a guide for the one full overcast day I was there. While it was a grey day, not great for my photographs, at least it was finally dry. My poor Nikon DSLR was suffering the effects of getting wet in Ranthambore and while it could still take photographs I could not view or edit them effectively as the cursor buttons would no longer work. Could have been worse I suppose.
One of the highlights around Jaipur is the Amber Fort, which is 11 kilometres north of Jaipur in the town of Amber (duh!), the fort was the seat of a raft of Rajasthani Mughals before they moved the capital to Jaipur. Construction of the hill top above the defensive man-made lake commenced in 1592, for Maharaja Man Singh. It was lovely inside and looking down from the large square at the entrance toward the lake you could see a line of brightly covered elephants taking tourists up the steep road to the main entrance to the fort - we had driven up, to the goods entrance, and saved a substantial sum in the process.
The fort/palace is well worth several hours of your time. The first place to visit on the way up in to it is the small Siladevi Temple, which is devoted to Kali. All the way until the 1980s a goat was sacrificed here daily. Public sacrifices are no longer permitted by law, however it doesn’t save any goats as it just means that they are sacrificed elsewhere in private! The courtyard with the summer and winter rooms (or Hall of Victory and Hall of Pleasure) is particularly lovely. The architects and engineers were pretty hot at making things cool through the use of clever natural ventilation and the use of water.
On the way back in to Jaipur we stopped for a quick photo opportunity of the Water Palace, a vast marble edifice in the middle of the large lake between Amber and Jaipur. It is currently derelict but is destined to be turned into a Casino next year.
After a quick lunch of my new favourite curry - a Rajasthan mutton dish called lal maas - we went into Jaipur Old Town, or the Pink City. We first headed to the Jantar Mantar a larger version of the fantastic astronomical observatory which I had seen in Delhi. Jaipur incidentally is named after the warrior-astronomer, who constructed this, Maharaja Jai Singh II (1693-1743), and yes he was the same talented bloke who constructed the one in Delhi. Then it was off to the City Palace across the road. Finally it was a brief visit to a textile factory, where I saw some men making textiles (the women work at home - the men obviously can’t be trusted to) where I looked at their beautiful wares. Did I bend and buy any?
All in all a full and enjoyable day of sightseeing.
Pushkar
The next day it was off to the Hindu Holy city of Pushkar. It was only a three hour trip on ‘National Roads’, which of course took four hours. Each year they have a mammoth camel fair here and I missed this years by just one week. It must be a very different place then when thousands come here for a week of trading, racing, and partying out in the desert around Pushkar.
Pushkar is a very different place to other towns and cities I have visited. Much more laid back and quiet. It was going to be a different Friday night for me though for Pushkar is a dry town and even worse.....vegetarian too. So no beers and no kebab then.
In some hotels they can surreptitiously pass you beer for your rooms or even get you some bhang (mary jane) but there is no good reason to put them in that position, especially if only there for a day. The biggest problem in the town is avoiding getting blessed, which inevitably comes at a cost. If I ever come back here I will be burdened with a wife and at least two sons, if the blessings do their stuff - perhaps if I had found a beer later this would have been cancelled out in some karmic deal and this fate would be avoided.
The reason this is a place of pilgrimage is the Holy lake, where Bhrama is said to have visited for some rather interesting story-istic reason, which I won’t go in to. The Bhrama Temple near the western end of the lake is one of only a very few in the world. It is not the most photogenic of places. Like most Hindu temples rather than being built for a single entity it is more like a collection of shrines to a range of Big Gods and some smaller gods, and the pilgrims who come may have their own affinity to one or another - or else visit a different one depending on what they are after; as different bods may help deliver money, health or kids. At their chosen shrine the leave flowers, petals and sweets to the idols. Due to all the sweet stuff about the place it is buzzing with flies and wasps. As Hindus believe all life is sacred they are left alone to their sticky heavens.
Following blessings here and there I headed for a walk around the western and southern sides of the lake, which is not that large. Indeed the whole Pushkar is a breeze to do on foot. A cup of coffee and some water and I was set up for watching the sunset over the hill to the west (would have been the perfect place for a pint), topped with a silhouette of the Pap Mochani temple. I sat with a German guy (Jan), who was doing a similar trip to me on his tod, but by public transport.
Then it was back to the hotel for my first non-Indian meal over here - a passable Vegetarian lasagne.
