The cold has now progressed to a hacking cough, so at least it's developing as per a typical McCabe cold. A visit to the Karni Mata temple at Deshnok may not have been the prescribed course of action from my GP at home, but I decided to go with it. The Rough Guide had neglected to mention that the bus to the temple originates from the main bus station, which happens to be walkable from my hotel. So instead I took a bone-shuddering auto to a roundabout on the south of the town, where I also found out that the RG [View Full Entry]

---

---

Fortunately my nose had stopped running, but my head was still heavy and my throat sore. A conversation with the owner enabled me to understand why there had been no hot water yesterday morning, and why I was unable to flush the loo last night. It seems as though there are scheduled power cuts between 9 and 10:30AM, and 1:30 and 3PM, every day, plus the water is turned off between about 10PM and 7AM. Hence I need to get up between 7 and 9AM in order to have a hot shower. I noticed that the family dog had been chained [View Full Entry]

---

---

I am now in possession of a stinking cold, and spent 90% of the day in bed. I made 2 trips out - one to find tissues, which was unsuccessful, and one to attempt to upload photos to the blog, which was also unsuccessful. The owner of the hotel generously offered to loan me a handkerchief, but I declined, thinking that perhaps he hadn't realised what he was letting himself in for. I don't think I have anything more to add today. [View Full Entry]

---

---

I did not have the best night's sleep that was possible, due to a suspected cold that has so far created a permanently running nose, not to mention a (wedding?) party nearby that was rocking until the wee small hours. I was alarmed at the toll in bog roll that this was extracting but I have to have faith that, somewhere in this dry and dusty land, there is some aloe-impregnated 4-ply with my name on it. Though there are direct buses to Bikaner from Nawalgarh, Rajesh had advised me to go via Sikkar instead, a town about 40 minutes away [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today was devoted to haveli hunting, using a map that Rajesh had drawn up for me. The town isn't large, but there are some confusing little alleyways and I was at the northern extremity of the map before I found my first haveli. It was interesting that Rajesh's recommended havelis did not tally with what was in the Rough Guide. Given the quality of the ones I saw, I would suspect the Rough Guide didn't see the best ones. The paintings in/on the havelis are from a mixture of sources - some based on Indian legends, some based on current affairs [View Full Entry]

---

---

The conductor kindly made sure I got off the train at Nawalgarh Station at 6:30AM, in the morning desert chill. I got an auto to the hotel, which turned out to actually be a guest house - there are no staff except the owner and his wife, and guests are expected to fit in to the daily life of the family (there are 3 children too). Rajesh and his wife had woken especially early just to greet me, which was the first sign that there was a level of personal service available here. I had some chai in the outside, covered [View Full Entry]

---

---

My train wasn't due to leave until 11PM this evening, so the hotel owner kindly let me have my room during the day for half price. I can't stress enough the importance of this - in such a crazy city, you need your own little area that no-one else can intrude on. I decided to finish off my Delhi sightseeing by visiting the National Museum, just south of the Raj Path. I was scammed again when I was told I had to hand in my bag at the cloakroom, despite the fact that no-one else did. It cost Rs 600 to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Another first was achieved today, in that I purchased a train ticket to Nawalgarh at New Delhi railway station. There's a special section of the station just for foreigners, which is an oasis of calm compared with the madness at the main booking section. It's not the most efficient of systems - you have to fill in a reservation form before you can go to the counter to book the ticket, but half the information that's needed on the form (e.g. train name and number) isn't available until you've been to the counter. My mood darkened after this early success, when [View Full Entry]

---

---

Even though Connaught Place had the decency to be open today, there was a shortage of places selling phones. And the ones that did exist were quoting ludicrous prices for their supposedly cheapest handsets, so the boys in Paharganj ended up getting my custom. There was a strange moment part way through the transaction, when there was a commotion outside and suddenly the owner started bringing in all the tables from the street. It seems as though the police had been spotted further down the market, and it's actually illegal to have anything on the street - it should all be [View Full Entry]

---

---

I noticed this morning that my ankles, in particular my left one, have borne the brunt of one or more mosquito attacks since I got here. No irritating itching, just a rather ugly looking pair of ankles. The rest of me is unscathed at this point, hopefully not just due to luck. I figured it was time to get an Indian SIM for my mobile phone, so I set off to Connaught Place in search of one. Connaught Place is Delhi's main shopping area and is often considered as the centre of the city - distances are often measured "from CP". [View Full Entry]

---

---