On the road!

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Right where did i get to?

Ok we were just leaving Delhi and heading out to Mandawa. This involved a very early start and making our way across Delhi by taxi (shut ur eyes at roundabouts and pray!!) to the bus station! We were going by local bus - not express bus or luxury bus or tourist bus (they have lots of types of bus here) but local bus! It was an experience for sure, all 8 hrs of it - it gave me plenty of time to get the idea of Indian driving rules. Point the car, blow the horn and wait for everyone to get out of your way or wait until somebody's about to drive into you then give in and move, the bigger vehicle you have the better!! After the 1st hour i decided to stick in the ipod and close my eyes!!

We eventually got to Mandawa and got to stay in a restored Haveli which was amazing, Caz and I had a little twin room with a lounge, out in the courtyard we had an open fire and could sit around at night with a rum and coke or two! Mandawa is only small and not much to do apart from wander around the old havelis looking at the artwork and check out the temples. We went on a donkey cart ride to a posh hotel one night to watch the sunset, but all in all it was a quiet few days, which was fine with me!


Next stop was Bikaner a large town in Rajasthan, which was on the main route of the camel caravans between India and The Middle east. We visited the Fort, which was pretty impressive - the time and money that has gone into these places is unbelievable. The artwork is so detailed it must have taken years to complete.

The Camels are everywhere, on the side of the road, in the town pulling people on camel carts, on the highway pulling huge loads of grain, it just seemed abit odd being in the rickshaw and overtaking a camel! hehe!

So being in what seems like the camel capital of India what else was there to do than go to the Camel breeding and research institute, it really was quite interesting, they have a museum, a nutritional department a camel hospital! me and caz tried to blag our way in for a nosey but couldnt make it happen! the best bit was as we went to see the mother and baby unit a camel was giving birth and having abit of trouble - in came the vet and his assistants and helped her out and we got to watch the whole thing! how cool!

After that our day was topped off by going out to a nearby farm for dinner. We got there and had a wander around saying hello to all the animals - they were really well looked after - the goats were my favourite - got to cuddle a few babies! After that they got us dressed up in traditional Rajasthani Dress and started teaching us to dance Indian style around the camp fire, before serving us up a feast - I tried not to think about the goats as i tucked into my mutton curry!! yum yum!!

Next stop is Jaisalmer and were going on a camel safari!! hummm could be fun!!

love to all
kelxx

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