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Namaste from Rajasthan!
We reluctantly left Goa last Saturday and flew via Mumbai to Jodhpur - the 'blue city' of Rajasthan. It's called the blue city as the houses are painted blue which was historically the colour of the Brahmins or priestly cast in Indian society. Today it attracts the tourists and keeps the mosquitos away. As well as the blue houses, Jodhpur is famous for it's fort - Mehrangarh Fort which sits above the town. We spent 2 hours going round it with a brilliant audio guide - well worth the money. Unfortunately, Johdpur is over crowded, noisy and really dirty (cows, dogs and even people doing their poo in the street - no kidding!), so whilst we are glad we saw it, we wouldn't recommend it!
On Sunday 7th we got an overnight sleeper train to Jaisalmere - the 'golden city' because their fort, Jaisalmere Fort, looks like a giant sand castle. Unfortunately the surrounding town looks like Beirut, so after going round the town for an afternoon we went on an overnight Camel Safari into the Thar Desert. Nice to get away from the noise and the camels were cute. The stars in the desert at night were awesome! Though ridiculously cold - if you ever go there, do not refuse the offer of a tent, thinking you will get a good view of the stars and sleep on a mattress on the dunes. Get an eye full of the stars then cosy up in a tent - you will thank me!
We left Jaisalmere yesterday after a day of feeling sorry for ourselves with a bad bout of 'delhi belly' on Thursday night (thank you Lonely Planet recomendation). Poor Steve has had one illness after the other on this trip and I think if it wasn't for Nepal we would be heading home by now!
Anyway we decided to splash out and hire a car to drive us to Udaipur - the next stop on the 'Maharajha Circuit' of Rajasthan. On the way we stopped at 2 more sights - Ranakpur, a fantastically carved Jain Temple - the largest in India, and Kumbalgarh - yes another fort, but this time a remote fort out in the desert so no audio guide.
We got to Udaipur at 7pm and headed straight into a traffic jam. The taxi man called the hotel we had booked and they came to get us, plus all our luggage out of the traffic jam, and we walked to the hotel from there! One thing we have found in India is that the people in India will always help. Apart from the auto rickshaw drivers and male gawkers, we haven't felt unsafe at all. As they say, 'money works' in India, and we have found that 100 rupees can generally get you out of any situation! Thankyou Yell!
So today we are in a lovely hotel in Udaipur, reportedly the 'most romantic city in India' due to it's 3 palaces on a lake surrounded by mountains. It certainly has a nice feel to it, so fingers crossed we will have a good time here. From here we head to Jaipur, the 'pink' city (yes the houses are painted pink, but this time due to a welcome to a former Prince of Wales that visited in the past - pink is the Hindu colour of hospitality). From there we go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and you guessed it, another Fort at the nearby town of Amber. From Agra we go to Delhi to catch our flight to Nepal on 23rd Feb. Looking forward to seeing the mountains!
Love to all,
Kathryn & Steve xx
- comments
nicola adams Love reading about your adventures! all sounds awesome (apart from the tummy bug and pooing in the street!) The camel ride into the dessert sounded really good. Enjoy the rest of your trip love Nicola x
Alex You're so far away from the daily grind it's awesome!! Hope Steve has a better run of it soon! Enjoy Nepal.... look forward to hearing all xx
Dawnie Prawnie If you see crazy Tony in Nepal (not sure who is running your trek) say hi from us and that we have an iced cider for him at the local! LOL to you both The Tidmarsh's xxxx P.S. Whiz keeps asking 'where is uncle Stevie'!