We had already missed the Holi Festival (in retrospective we admit that we were not very keen on throwing colour or being thrown colour at), we decided not to miss this one, which was said to be very lively and colourful. We immediately left the City Palace at closing hour and headed to the street where we could see best. The Gangaur Festival celebrates the union of Lord Siva and Parvati, his heavenly consort and is a symbol of conjugal and marital happiness. People explained that it is a festival for women, married women pray for their husband’s long life and [View Full Entry]

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We immediately caught a bus from Nawalgarh to Jaipur, when it was about to leave. It was again a luxury coach, with only two seats on both sides of the aisle, and for the first time we could also store Stephan’s bigger backpack in the luggage compartment overhead. The trip went ahead without any complications or special events. Once again we arrived in darkness and as the bus was entering the bus stand, we were already spotted by a rickshaw tout. Anyway, for the first time, there was the system of prepaid taxis, which gives you a rough idea about the [View Full Entry]

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We were going roughly the same way as our Swiss friends Cynthia and Laurent, so we decided to take the same bus. It was empty for Indian standards and we had a nice time passing through several cities full of painted havelis. We were doing sightseeing from the bus, by sitting higher we had the chance to see the incredible paintings almost at eye level, and furthermore the bus was moving very slowly through the crowded streets. A high percentage of the havelis these days are occupied by different people than the ones who had them built and they do not [View Full Entry]

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Although Bikaner is well off the tourist route, for us it was perfectly situated because we were on our way to Jaipur and it was right in the middle. We arrived there quite late, around 8:30 p.m. after a very long bus ride through the desert. We had wanted to leave Jaisalmer in the morning but although there is regular bus service, the earlier buses are not allowed for tourists because their route runs too close to the Pakistan border. As we wanted to take a private bus this time because they have more comfortable seats, we had to accept that [View Full Entry]

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Astonishingly, we had to come to India to ride on a camel for the first time. Actually, Jaisalmer lies on an old merchant route through the desert to Afghanistan and further on to Europe, it was the spice road. That’s the reason why you still find many camels in this region, which are used as powerful beasts of burden, and as a major tourist attraction as well. The group met at Jaisalmer’s main square for breakfast, where we made the acquaintance of a very nice Canadian couple who would be on the safari with us. We made the first part of [View Full Entry]

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The trains from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer left at impossible hours, we had to take another bus although we were not very keen on it. It was said to be faster than the train, but the guidebook warned us against a tedious journey, which proved right. There was not much to see, apart from sand, sand, sand, some interspersed rocks, a few shrubs and no trees, Klaudia spotted three small antelopes, otherwise we saw mainly goats and a lot of camels. Believe us, the guidebook was right when saying that the trip would be “scenically tedious”. We travelled for about six hours, [View Full Entry]

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We came to Jodhpur by luxury bus with quite comfortable seats, Klaudia even managed to read a book. Once we had not decided upon a hotel beforehand, which turned out to be quite a mistake. Upon our arrival, we were immediately surrounded by an impressive number of rickshaw drivers, who seemed to smell our indecisiveness. One was shouting louder than the other trying to outwit his colleagues. We were quite helpless trying to fend them off until Stephan resorted to a trick, saying that we were taking another bus and would not stay in Jodhpur. He made them laugh when he [View Full Entry]

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We were at the Udaipur bus stand at around 3:15 p.m., trying to catch a bus to Ranakpur. We had seen photos of this fantastic Jain temple in coffeetable books in Udaipur and considered it worth a visit. For the first time since our arrival, we booked a hotel in advance; firstly, because we had not found anything that suited us in the guidebook (there was pretty little in) and secondly we wanted a special place for a special occasion, Stephan's birthday. We were told that a bus would come at 4 p.m. but this one did not turn up (due [View Full Entry]

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In Ahmadabad we had three hours between the two journeys, which we decided to spend in the station's restaurant. Our train was to leave at 11 p.m., but the place already closed at 10 p.m., so we walked to the platform to find the train already there. This train was almost empty, it did not seem very popular, no wonder as it took nine hours for only 380 km! This time we chose one middle and one upper berth because the last time it had been very cold on the upper berths. We immediately realised that this train was smaller, the [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Aurangabad fairly early, around 6 a.m., that’s why we had some problems finding a hotel room. In the hotels we had foreseen there were no rooms free yet, due also to the Indian system of 24-hour checkout. This means that you have to check out 24 hours after you checked in, or earlier of course. Up to now, this system had been to our advantage, but that very day it turned into a disadvantage. The idea of having to check out at 6.30 a.m. did not really appeal to us. Bout of course our rickshaw driver had a [View Full Entry]

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