Liz and Pete's Great Adventures : All that Glitters is not Gold ... it's Rajahstan

We love Rajasthan! The colours in this State are beautiful ... almost overwhelming. We had 14 days of driving to the hotspots. We discussed travelling by train and bus but decided that it would take too much time and driving with a driver was not horrendously expensive so we opted for a driver. I know that it sounds very touristy, but it was the most economic use of time for us. We are only in India for a month. We had a great time and stayed in some wonderful towns and some not so wonderful ... great hotels and some not so great. We enjoyed our driver, he looked after us well. The downside of driving of course is not mixing with the locals so much ... but we learnt a lot about India on the road which I will share with you later.

There is so much to say about this country. It is the most unique of any country that we have visited so far. I have mentioned the colour many times ... I think when we get back to NZ we will find it very bland ... black being one of our dominant colours. There is a strong sense of life here ... the noise, the bustle, the traffic and so many people! India is thousands of years old and has a very deep rich culture. They have been ruled by Emperors, Sultans, Maharajas and the British Monarchy. All of this history is intertwined with religions particularly, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Islam along with a few Christians and Bahai's. The legacy of all this can be seen in many impressive and beautiful buildings. The scale of many of the forts, palaces and temples is stunning and the workmanship is beautiful/outstanding, I am not sure how else to describe it ... they seem like works of art. The beauty in these buildings took my breath away at times and of course the colour was beautiful. We have tried to post photos that capture some of what we have seen without going over the top. We seem to post more and more photos ... we hope you enjoy them.

I found the locks on the doors of our hotel rooms fascinating. They are not easy to open ... you have to take your time. A bit like India ... you have to take your time and keep your cool ... there are too many people and too much traffic to go fast or get upset.

We are in Pushkar here ... sitting at the Holy Lake as the sun is going down. I know I have mentioned this before but the evening light is wonderful. When the sun goes down everything turns golden.

The Holy Lake ... no shoes are worn around the Lake because of its sacredness. People come and bathe here as part of a personal religious pilgrimage. As we wandered round we saw people bathing, sitting and meditating and of course cows and water buffalo. In the evening there was playing of drums as part of their evening ritual. We found it so soothing as we wandered round here enjoying the evening light and the rhythm of the drums.

We are now in Udaipur ... I loved the architecture of this hotel. It used to be part of the Royal Palace, which is spectacular. We enjoyed going into hotels and negotiating a price for our room for the night and checking out rooms. The room cost always included breakfast ... some breakfasts were better than others, so along with asking is there hot water, do you have wifi, we started to ask what does breakfast include. None of the rooms have any heating and it is starting to get cold here. All the buildings are built for hot weather. The temperature gets up to 48c in the summer and winter is only 2 months ... December and January so I guess they figure they can do with some discomfort for a short time, so they can be cool in summer.

I love these colours together ... every time I see colours like this I think of lucy.

While in Udaipur we went to an evening performance of traditional Indian dancing and music along with a puppet show. We really liked the colouring of the lights so of course we had to take a photo. We have not yet mastered the ability to take evening photos with our camera and some of them don't turn out very well at all, but this one was an exception.

We took heaps of photos of the dancers and very few of them turned out! This was one of the better ones, even though she is a bit blurred. I think she is beautiful and their costumes were amazing ... again so much colour.

Still in Udaipur ... on our way to the evening show we passed a tailor's shop that had some really nice looking shirts in the window. We stopped by on our way back to our hotel and there was an Australian man collecting shirts that he had ordered .... they were really nice. So we went back the next day and ordered a suit for Pete and 4 shirts. The photo is the suit material and lining and the white shirting for one of his shirts. We also bought 6 pairs of glasses! Everyone needs multiple pairs of glasses don't they?. They are so cheap here, I mean cheap as there is no tax on glasses. Pete got 2 pairs of prescription sunglasses (that he has wanted for a long time), reading glasses and two pairs of everyday glasses. I got another pair as well ... the more the merrier.

Where ever there is a car museum or any kind of engineering museum Pete is very keen to visit. While in Udaipur we visited the Maharaja's car collection. It is not a big collection maybe 12 cars at the most. We decided to put this photo in because Pete has driven all of these cars bar one, the red MGTC. There were also Roll's Royce, Mercedes, Cadillacs, a Buick and a couple of Jeeps.

A dressed up camel in Udaipur. It is not uncommon to be walking along the road and come across a camel or an elephant carrying locals, tourists or cargo, along with cows, goats, bullocks and pigs. All on the main road with cars, bicycles, motorbikes, trucks, buses, tractors with trailers, pedestrians, tuktuks and rickshaws. You have to look down a lot to watch where you put your feet. Doesn't this camel look spectacular!

We really liked Udaipur and ended up staying for 3 nights. I don't think you can say that Indian towns or cities are pretty, but they are spectacular and very interesting with some really pretty spots and amazing historical buildings. The Palace in Udaipur is one of those buildings ... the interior of this building is beautiful as you can see by this photo and the ones that follow.

The blue here is beautiful ... I blend in very well. So much light!

A window space that is framed with stain glass but no glass in the centre. The Palace is set right on the lake and has a fine 'prospect'.

The blue in this room is stunning. I love colour and what it can do to an atmosphere or a mood ... it can change an atmosphere or appearance dramatically, from dark to light, as you can see in this photo. I love colour that sings and this colour sings, I felt like I was stepping into a painting.

A view from one of the courtyard's at Udaipur Palace. The outsides of some of these buildings are just as stunning as the inside.

John Scott might like this photo ... Pete standing by a very late model Royal Enfield Cafe Racer ... I think they are an Indian equivalent of Harley Davidson. I really like the older models ... they sound rumbly and look really cool. We saw a few of them when we were walking into the Upper Mustang. Pete says the non cafe racer models are not very good handling bikes and definitely not good for off road riding. A lot of tourists seem to like hiring them and riding them round India.

Still Udaipur. School had just finished for the day and we could not move for school children all over the place and filling up tuktuks. I had to take this photo to show you how full these tuktuks can get. There must have been 9 or 10 students in this one. These machines are also used for carrying cargo ... I have seen them full of bales of grass or rice. The motor bikes also get very full. Sometimes they carry 3 or 4 people. While walking along the road we saw a man carrying a washing machine on the back of his scooter.

We finally left Udaipur and headed towards Jodphur. On the way we stopped and visited this Jain Temple at Ranakpur. We felt like we were really out in the country here. We really liked the countryside and the Temple was amazing as you can see in this photo. It was built in 1439 and is made from marble and almost every part of it is carved. I had never heard of Jains before.They are strict pacifists. We saw some in Jaipur, they were dressed in white from head to toe and wore white masks so that bugs do not fly into their mouths and die. We also saw Jain monks walking to this Temple as a pilgrimage and they had no shoes on. It is quite common for Jains in their 50's to renounce all material attachments and go on pilgrimages. All Jains are strict vegetarians and also do not eat anything bulbous such as garlic or onions. Jainism is a branch of Hinduism, but seems to be more strict.

Pete standing inside the Temple. Hindu Temples and Jain Temples look very similar. Take note of the carving on the pillar behind Pete.

I love these colours ... the monks wear amazing colours. I could have asked him if I could take his photo but I felt a little shy and he would have wanted some money for it as well. I think if Tasi said yes to every request of a photo and then asked for money she could be quite wealthy now. Do it Tasi ... ask for money.

Outside the Jain Temple as the sun is setting.

These Peacocks were in the field next to the Jain Temple along with beautiful green parrots. Peacocks are India's national bird and in a lot of carvings in their Temples. I did not know that Peacocks could fly until I saw them flying into the trees. I have always thought they were non flying birds ...

We made it to Jodphur ... we had a dodgy hotel night there. But a bed is a bed. We did quite a good job of haggling down the price though. I love the colour of these doors. We stopped at the memorial of one of the Maharaja's of Jodphur ... it is a beautiful building overlooking the city and the grounds are really well maintained. That is not the case for all of these old buildings.

Sitting on the steps of the Memorial.

We also visited the Fort at Jodphur which is just over the road from the Memorial. A lot of the forts and palaces have been turned into museums. This was a particularly good museum. The outside of this fort is carved stone ... it looks like wood.

One of the rooms inside the fort ... absolutely stunning. There are many rooms like this in most of the forts we visited. I love the coloured balls on the ceiling. lucy brought some back from her trip to India and I use them at Christmas time. Everything glitters in these forts and palaces, they do amazing things with light.

Indian sweets ... yummy!! We had a really nice experience buying these. We came across a sweet store while exploring Jodphur and I wanted to try some. There was a man being served at the sweet store when we came across it and he asked the staff to give us samples to taste, we could not understand a word he said, but he was very excited to share the taste of Indian sweets with us. We love these moments when we meet people who are so open to us and want to share India with us with no expectation of money ... just being generous.

We had to put this photo in ... driving in India is an experience, like no other! We came across many trucks like this ... they are stacked as high as they can be without toppling over. Can you imagine this in NZ ... I can't.

We went for a sunset camel safari in the desert just out of Jaisalmer. The boy on the back is Pete's camel guide. Our first time riding a camel ... we enjoyed it. I do have to say, the desert in India is nothing like the desert in Dubai. lucy and I went on a safari in Dubai when I met her at the end of her mission in Mauritius. We did not go by camel, we were in 4 wheel drives, but we had fun.

Bathed in gold in the desert.

I think Pete looks really good here.

Some of the camel crews ... the men in red turbans. Rajasthan men wear coloured turbans, mostly red and have moustaches that curl up at the end. I think they are quite handsome. Our guide is the one on the end in the grey jacket.

Sunset

Sunrise ... we slept in tents in the desert so we could see the sunrise. The tents are very nice, more like tented rooms with ensuites.

One of the rooms ... a great place for a honeymoon ... I thought they were really romantic.

A haveli in Jaisalmer ... they are known as Merchant Houses and they are amazing ... again carved stone and marble. Jaisalmer was neat. We spent a lot of time walking round the old city which is a city in a fort. So old and interesting.

Same haveli ... the detail.

Some of the local street life ... we walked past this little pig on our way back to our hotel. She is a little hungry I think.

We bought ourselves some textiles ...

Our favourite palace was Bikaneer. We were totally blown away by it ... it was absolutely beautiful, like a work of art. The colour, the textiles, the tiles, the light. Everything about it was artistically and beautifully created.

Get a load of this ... the colour and the light is stunning. Even the ceilings were colourful.

For a small fee one of the security people sneaked us into this part off one of the rooms we were looking at ... it was a whole wall of small stain glass design and the light in there is wonderful. I love, love, loved this palace.

Our driver ... Kamal. He is a very good driver ... no hurry ... slowly, slowly. He is from Nepal and has been living in India for 20 years driving to support his family, who still live in Nepal. While driving with him we have learnt a lot about India and their road rules. We never saw any speeding. We never saw any yellow lines for no passing. You can pass anywhere ... on any blind bend, no matter how blind it is, no matter how much oncoming traffic there is or even how many cars or trucks you have to pass at once. In the towns no one stops at any intersection unless there are street lights. We never saw a give way or stop sign. So when coming to an intersection you toot lots, and keep driving slowly until you get through and everyone does it. Apparently there are three things that are essential ... good horn, good brakes and good luck! Tooting is their primary form of communication when driving ... toot when coming up to any pedestrians that maybe crossing the road ... toot when coming up behind a truck or passing a truck or car ... blast your horn when someone has done something rude, not sure what that would be though. No matter what .... never stop moving, the rule is first in first served. Pete was not a relaxed passenger ... sitting in the back seat leaning forward looking out the front window of the car the whole time. I felt quite relaxed surprisingly ... only had a couple of moments when I gasped.

Our driver took us to see the Rat Temple, just out of Bikaneer. I have to say that this temple creeped me out. There are rats everywhere ... and you have to take your shoes of in all temples ... we were given some white feet sheets to wear as you can see. The rats are believed to be reincarnated beings who are working their way up the ladder to enlightenment, hence they keep them alive and make them an object of worship. Some of them looked really ugly, sick and diseased! I hope you can see the rats at Pete's feet ... you may have to look hard.

This light fixture reminds me of Chris ... the old Palace of Bikaneer has been turned into a beautiful hotel. We had a quick look at some of the rooms. You can stay there for $NZ165 a night including breakfast and dinner. Next time we will stay here.