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Day 110: In Jodphur, with only a day to see the city and its environs, we headed out on one of the popular locality tours for some hands-on experiences. Making a turban, for example, seemed to come easily to me, although the final product did not entirely resemble the demonstration model.
Our impromptu pottery class […]

Day 109: Arriving late in Jodphur by train, we disembarked one station before Jodphur central to be just around the corner from our home for the night, the Durag Niwas Guest House. A night before we left Australia, a friend of ours advised us that the best places to stay in India were family-run guest […]

Day 108: Jaisalmer was the western extremity of our trip to Rajasthan, and India too. From the fort, you could almost see the Pakistani border, and there were frequent air force operations throughout the day as Indian military flights landed at an airport just out of sight to the south and west of town. The […]

Day 108: Inside the restored palace within Jaisalmer’s fort was a room in which dozens of portraits of the Mughal rulers hung. These were men whose reputations firmly depended on their moustaches.
All throughout Rajasthan, but particularly in Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Udaipur, we came across men with both ears pierced - a Mughal tradition that has […]

Day 106: It was in Pushkar that we said goodbye to our driver of eight days, Wajid (or Vicky to his friends). This is India, so we weren’t just passengers to Wajid, we were much more than that: we were a mobile business opportunity waiting to happen.
Despite Wajid’s constant reminders to us that “it […]

Days 104-106: Pushkar is on practically every traveller’s Rajasthan itinerary (it’s halfway between Jaipur and either Udaipur or Jodhpur) but it was probably our least favourite Indian town so far. Situated around a lake which is very holy to Hindus, Pushkar seems to have become crowded with fairly aggressive Hindu “priests” who target travellers in […]

Days 104-106: In Pushkar, we stayed at the wonderful Seventh Heaven - an oasis of calm which seemed far, far removed from Pushkar proper. With beautiful rooms (not just ours, which resembled a honeymoon suite), a warmly-lit restaurant with good food, friendly staff and inexpensive wireless internet, this was one of our most memorable places […]

Day 103: Dinner tonight was at the village of Chokhi Dhani, just outside Jaipur, which hosted a nightly all-inclusive Rajasthan-themed evening of food and entertainment popular with local Indian families. Following an incredible all-you-can-eat Rajasthani thali meal, we wandered from attraction to attraction including elephant and camel rides, child acrobatics, magic shows, dance performances, henna […]