Jaisalmer 28.02-03.03
We had booked an overnight train from Delhi to Jaisalmer for the next leg of our adventure. We'd left lots of time to get the train and arrived at New Delhi station with an hour to spare. However, like most things so far things weren't that simple! Looking at the train time board we couldn't see our train number or it's departure time. We thought this was a little strange so we asked the information desk and to our horror it turned out that the train was leaving from Old Delhi station 5km away! Whilst being heckled, which is the most annoying thing when you're trying to make a decision, Ed found us a taxi. To add to the drama of it all we had roughly 40 minutes to get there but it was 5pm- rush hour in Delhi!!!!!!! The taxi we took was something else. We put our bags in the boot and all sat in the back. To switch on the engine, the driver took a crowbar from the front seat and politely asked us to lift up our feet. He opened the floor of the car and used the crowbar to start the engine! The car wasn't the fastest machine and made a high pitched squeel from somewhere underneath the bonnet. Time was ticking! Weaving in and out of Delhi traffic and having road wars with a bus, we reached Old Delhi station with 10 minutes to spare. We rushed through security and ran to our platform which of course had to be platform 9 over the other side of the building! 2 minutes to go, we got to our train but we couldn't find our correct carriage. We were directed by man to go further down the train but with one minute to spare we were only by the jam packed sleeper carriages. We had no choice but to get on. Hoping to be able to walk through the train to our reserved births, our dreams were dashed when we found there to be no doors between the carriages. Stuck in the sleeper carriage, we were seriously contemplating having to spend the next 18 hours next to the sleeper toilet! We hatched a plan to jump off at the next station and run up the platform to try and find our carriage. The train ground to a halt and we charged up the platform. Locating our carriage, we tried to open the door but to our horror it was locked! We tried 3 separate doors, all locked!! With the whistle about to go, we miraculously found an open door and jumped in. Our hearts have never beated so fast. We were greeted by a ticket collector whom we breathlessly showed our reservation. He did the Indian head wobble which I'm ever so fond of and pointed to the births we were standing right next to! What a relief!!
It seemed that once we left the clutches of Delhi, our trip finally started to flow stress free! We reached Jaisalmer and were happy to be greeted by our hotelier at the train station, hence avoiding the ocean of tuk tuk drivers. Our Hotel Haveli in Jaisalmer was a great success. The two brothers that owned the place were genuine and very helpful. Issaak the eldest brother helped us to organise a camel safari for the three of us. We decided on a one night/two day safari to a non-touristy part of the Thar Desert. Ed and Matt bought Ali Baba trousers and tops from the bazaar inside Jaisalmer fort to look the part. In the morning we were driven out to the edge of the desert to find our noble camel steeds awaiting us for our journey. There were 4 camels; Charlie Brown, Rocket, Lucky and Michael. Our safari guide was a young man called Devid a 17 year old who was from a desert village and was a great cook! We introduced ourselves and then hopped on the camels. I took Charlie Brown, Ed had Michael and Matt rode Lucky. We trekked across three very different landscapes. The first was red rock similar to what you see in Utah, then there was more Bush land and finally the sand dunes. We all enjoyed riding the camels, at one point we got to take control of the camels ourselves. Charlie Brown was lagging slightly, eventually I got my reigns taken away from me again as I was too slow. Every now and again we were told to make the camels run which was quite comfortable the first few goes but by the end of the day it was pretty painful- Ed found it painful from the outset. Matt and I found it quite amusing whilst running to look back at Ed and see his very 'unimpressed' face. When we eventually reached the sand dunes, where we would be staying the night, as if on cue a 'beer man' appeared with chilled beers! He'd traveled 7km from his village to sell beers to tourists. We bought some and then played cards and watched the sunset. The sun went down and the stars came out. It was a very clear night so the stars were spectacular. We slept under blankets looking up at the sky. It was very romantic at first but then it was absolutely freezing!! We snuggled together for warmth, Ed in the middle, me and Matt on both sides. Although at one point I could feel someone snuggling me from the other side, bewildered I looked around to find a stray dog leaning on me for warmth! The next day our legs were really feeling the strain of camel riding so we all resolved to ride side saddle for the remainder of the trek.
N
Jodhpur 03.03-05.03
We caught our first bus to Jodhpur which took around 5 hours but was actually really comfortable despite the ridiculously loud horn. Our new hotel had an amazing rooftop restaurant with a great view of the Mehrangarh Fort. We found Jodhpur to be a lot more chilled out, and we were able to walk around the market without being hassled that much which was great! We went to a spice shop that boasted it provides spices to Harrods and Gordon Ramsey (this is probably entirely untrue) so we all bought some nice spices and different teas as our first souvenir. We also visited a hotel which served "the best lassi in Rajasthan, if not India" according to Lonely Planet. I was obviously very excited about this but it wasn't at all what we expected. The lassies were really thick and extremely sweet and you had to eat them with a spoon! For dinner we went to a nice restaurant and had a thali which is basically an Indian set meal of 4 or 5 curries which naan and dessert. It was absolutely delicious! On our final day in Jodhpur we visited the fort itself and spent around 3 hours looking around with the help of an audio guide. Unlike Jaisalmer, the Jodhpur fort isn't inhabited so it was much better preserved. The architecture was really beautiful and the audio guide helped us to really understand the history of the rulers that lived there. In the evening, we decided to go to the cinema to watch a 'bollywood' movie. The men at the hotel recommended the film "Special 26" which was a crime/comedy/drama/love story. Although it was completely in Hindi, we were able to follow the story line easily and we all really enjoyed it. After the movie we tried out Indian Mcdonald's and got 3 Chicken Maharaja Macs!
E
Udaipur 06.03-10.03
Udaipur was our final stop with Matt by our side. Taking a 6 hour bus from Jodhpur to Udaipur we were all seriously dehydrated once we reached our hotel as we’d been too scared to drink much during the day with the fear of needing the toilet on the bus! The rooftop restaurant in our new hotel provided a stunning panoramic view of the city. We all instantly liked Udaipur, it had quite a unique feel. It still had the bustle of the other Indian cities we had visited but there were lots of thin winding streets with small shops selling all sorts. It was also pretty clean and the buildings were really well maintained. It was a nice place to just have a wander around. I managed to do my first bit of real haggling although I definitely still ended up getting ripped off. The notion of no fixed price is sometimes very difficult! I wish that someone would at least point me in the right direction as to how much something is genuinely worth! Ed seems to really enjoy it though and has become quite the seasoned haggler. We had a look around a Hindu Temple called Jagdish Temple which was holding a lively ceremony in preparation for Holi on March 26th. Whilst walking around the market Ed and Matt bumped into one of their friends from London! Very small world! We all ended up having dinner together, exchanging stories about getting ripped off in India! The restaurant we ate at showed the Bond film Octopussy every night at 7pm as it was actually filmed in Udaipur. We sat and had some drinks whilst watching the super cheesy film and recognising parts of the backdrop!
During our stay in Udaipur we looked around the Maharana Palace. Audio guides were a little expensive so we went without and tried to decipher the riddle-like English on the placards around the Palace. The architecture was impressive and there were some lovely courtyards where we sat and chilled.
On our final day we decided to take a cooking course. It was great value for money and lasted from 10:30am-3:30pm. The woman who ran it, her husband died when she was only 31 and she had 2 children. For a while she was expected not to leave the house and to mourn her husband. She’s not allowed to marry again and because of her caste, she’s only allowed to do certain jobs to get money for her family. Someone gave her the idea of providing cooking lessons to tourists and thankfully it’s been a great success. We cooked loads of different things; curries, naans, chapattis, & chutneys. We cooked a breakfast of Masala Chai (a delicious sweet Indian tea) and pakora (deep fried vegetables). She gave us the recipes and we cooked different parts of the meals. The final dinner was huge! We’d cooked three different curries each made for 6 people, plus naans and chapattis! My favourite was the coconut parantha which is like a sweet bread eaten for dessert. We couldn’t finish all the food although we really did try!
N
We had booked an overnight train from Delhi to Jaisalmer for the next leg of our adventure. We'd left lots of time to get the train and arrived at New Delhi station with an hour to spare. However, like most things so far things weren't that simple! Looking at the train time board we couldn't see our train number or it's departure time. We thought this was a little strange so we asked the information desk and to our horror it turned out that the train was leaving from Old Delhi station 5km away! Whilst being heckled, which is the most annoying thing when you're trying to make a decision, Ed found us a taxi. To add to the drama of it all we had roughly 40 minutes to get there but it was 5pm- rush hour in Delhi!!!!!!! The taxi we took was something else. We put our bags in the boot and all sat in the back. To switch on the engine, the driver took a crowbar from the front seat and politely asked us to lift up our feet. He opened the floor of the car and used the crowbar to start the engine! The car wasn't the fastest machine and made a high pitched squeel from somewhere underneath the bonnet. Time was ticking! Weaving in and out of Delhi traffic and having road wars with a bus, we reached Old Delhi station with 10 minutes to spare. We rushed through security and ran to our platform which of course had to be platform 9 over the other side of the building! 2 minutes to go, we got to our train but we couldn't find our correct carriage. We were directed by man to go further down the train but with one minute to spare we were only by the jam packed sleeper carriages. We had no choice but to get on. Hoping to be able to walk through the train to our reserved births, our dreams were dashed when we found there to be no doors between the carriages. Stuck in the sleeper carriage, we were seriously contemplating having to spend the next 18 hours next to the sleeper toilet! We hatched a plan to jump off at the next station and run up the platform to try and find our carriage. The train ground to a halt and we charged up the platform. Locating our carriage, we tried to open the door but to our horror it was locked! We tried 3 separate doors, all locked!! With the whistle about to go, we miraculously found an open door and jumped in. Our hearts have never beated so fast. We were greeted by a ticket collector whom we breathlessly showed our reservation. He did the Indian head wobble which I'm ever so fond of and pointed to the births we were standing right next to! What a relief!!
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| Finally on the train! |
It seemed that once we left the clutches of Delhi, our trip finally started to flow stress free! We reached Jaisalmer and were happy to be greeted by our hotelier at the train station, hence avoiding the ocean of tuk tuk drivers. Our Hotel Haveli in Jaisalmer was a great success. The two brothers that owned the place were genuine and very helpful. Issaak the eldest brother helped us to organise a camel safari for the three of us. We decided on a one night/two day safari to a non-touristy part of the Thar Desert. Ed and Matt bought Ali Baba trousers and tops from the bazaar inside Jaisalmer fort to look the part. In the morning we were driven out to the edge of the desert to find our noble camel steeds awaiting us for our journey. There were 4 camels; Charlie Brown, Rocket, Lucky and Michael. Our safari guide was a young man called Devid a 17 year old who was from a desert village and was a great cook! We introduced ourselves and then hopped on the camels. I took Charlie Brown, Ed had Michael and Matt rode Lucky. We trekked across three very different landscapes. The first was red rock similar to what you see in Utah, then there was more Bush land and finally the sand dunes. We all enjoyed riding the camels, at one point we got to take control of the camels ourselves. Charlie Brown was lagging slightly, eventually I got my reigns taken away from me again as I was too slow. Every now and again we were told to make the camels run which was quite comfortable the first few goes but by the end of the day it was pretty painful- Ed found it painful from the outset. Matt and I found it quite amusing whilst running to look back at Ed and see his very 'unimpressed' face. When we eventually reached the sand dunes, where we would be staying the night, as if on cue a 'beer man' appeared with chilled beers! He'd traveled 7km from his village to sell beers to tourists. We bought some and then played cards and watched the sunset. The sun went down and the stars came out. It was a very clear night so the stars were spectacular. We slept under blankets looking up at the sky. It was very romantic at first but then it was absolutely freezing!! We snuggled together for warmth, Ed in the middle, me and Matt on both sides. Although at one point I could feel someone snuggling me from the other side, bewildered I looked around to find a stray dog leaning on me for warmth! The next day our legs were really feeling the strain of camel riding so we all resolved to ride side saddle for the remainder of the trek.
N
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| Inside the fort |
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| Jaisalmer Fort |
Jodhpur 03.03-05.03
We caught our first bus to Jodhpur which took around 5 hours but was actually really comfortable despite the ridiculously loud horn. Our new hotel had an amazing rooftop restaurant with a great view of the Mehrangarh Fort. We found Jodhpur to be a lot more chilled out, and we were able to walk around the market without being hassled that much which was great! We went to a spice shop that boasted it provides spices to Harrods and Gordon Ramsey (this is probably entirely untrue) so we all bought some nice spices and different teas as our first souvenir. We also visited a hotel which served "the best lassi in Rajasthan, if not India" according to Lonely Planet. I was obviously very excited about this but it wasn't at all what we expected. The lassies were really thick and extremely sweet and you had to eat them with a spoon! For dinner we went to a nice restaurant and had a thali which is basically an Indian set meal of 4 or 5 curries which naan and dessert. It was absolutely delicious! On our final day in Jodhpur we visited the fort itself and spent around 3 hours looking around with the help of an audio guide. Unlike Jaisalmer, the Jodhpur fort isn't inhabited so it was much better preserved. The architecture was really beautiful and the audio guide helped us to really understand the history of the rulers that lived there. In the evening, we decided to go to the cinema to watch a 'bollywood' movie. The men at the hotel recommended the film "Special 26" which was a crime/comedy/drama/love story. Although it was completely in Hindi, we were able to follow the story line easily and we all really enjoyed it. After the movie we tried out Indian Mcdonald's and got 3 Chicken Maharaja Macs!
E
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| Our trusted audio guides |
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| The "best lassi in India"! |
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| Our Thalis |
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| Jodhpur's Mehrangarh Fort |
Udaipur was our final stop with Matt by our side. Taking a 6 hour bus from Jodhpur to Udaipur we were all seriously dehydrated once we reached our hotel as we’d been too scared to drink much during the day with the fear of needing the toilet on the bus! The rooftop restaurant in our new hotel provided a stunning panoramic view of the city. We all instantly liked Udaipur, it had quite a unique feel. It still had the bustle of the other Indian cities we had visited but there were lots of thin winding streets with small shops selling all sorts. It was also pretty clean and the buildings were really well maintained. It was a nice place to just have a wander around. I managed to do my first bit of real haggling although I definitely still ended up getting ripped off. The notion of no fixed price is sometimes very difficult! I wish that someone would at least point me in the right direction as to how much something is genuinely worth! Ed seems to really enjoy it though and has become quite the seasoned haggler. We had a look around a Hindu Temple called Jagdish Temple which was holding a lively ceremony in preparation for Holi on March 26th. Whilst walking around the market Ed and Matt bumped into one of their friends from London! Very small world! We all ended up having dinner together, exchanging stories about getting ripped off in India! The restaurant we ate at showed the Bond film Octopussy every night at 7pm as it was actually filmed in Udaipur. We sat and had some drinks whilst watching the super cheesy film and recognising parts of the backdrop!
During our stay in Udaipur we looked around the Maharana Palace. Audio guides were a little expensive so we went without and tried to decipher the riddle-like English on the placards around the Palace. The architecture was impressive and there were some lovely courtyards where we sat and chilled.
On our final day we decided to take a cooking course. It was great value for money and lasted from 10:30am-3:30pm. The woman who ran it, her husband died when she was only 31 and she had 2 children. For a while she was expected not to leave the house and to mourn her husband. She’s not allowed to marry again and because of her caste, she’s only allowed to do certain jobs to get money for her family. Someone gave her the idea of providing cooking lessons to tourists and thankfully it’s been a great success. We cooked loads of different things; curries, naans, chapattis, & chutneys. We cooked a breakfast of Masala Chai (a delicious sweet Indian tea) and pakora (deep fried vegetables). She gave us the recipes and we cooked different parts of the meals. The final dinner was huge! We’d cooked three different curries each made for 6 people, plus naans and chapattis! My favourite was the coconut parantha which is like a sweet bread eaten for dessert. We couldn’t finish all the food although we really did try!
N
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