Blogs from Bikaner, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 4

I'm not sure how much more adventure I can take. My train was supposed to leave yesterday at 11.30 pm but it was 8 hours late so I ended up sleeping at the station among the homeless people. Surprisingly I actually managed to get some sleep, waking up only once in a while between 11.30 to 4 am. Then my stomach got upset again - a problem I have being having on and off for the past four days - and had to use the toilet at the station, which consisted of a hole and no flushing facilities. As I was there in that cubicle with my stomach problem I felt I had reached the lowest point. Never in my life had I felt so low. Fortunately after a bad experience something good always follows. The ... read more

When we were in the city of Bikaner we visited the impressive fort and two ornate palaces that all used to belong to the local dynasty of maharajas, who ruled the state of Bikaner for several hundred years up until 1947. The fort is now open to the public while the two palaces have been converted, appropriately, to luxury hotels; at all these locations there is a lot of material about the maharajas on display. One maharaja in particular appeals to the imagination. This was General His Highness Maharaja Sir Ganga Singh Bahadur, who ruled from 1887 until his death in 1943. Throughout his 56-year rule, his state was lucky enough to be a "protectorate" of the British Empire. This period is very well documented, especially by a quite extraordinary collection of photographs. First there are ... read more

This one is for Matt and Jo. We arrived on a dusty train from Jaisalmer in the evening, the route was straight across the desert and the carriages on Indian train are not protected very well from the elements so the carriage, including us and our bags, were covered in dust. Dodging the touts trying their best to take us to their hotel, we negotiated a fare to our chosen hotel. We asked to see a basic double room and as the owner opened the door, there on the bed was a lizard sitting staring back at us. The owner chased it away and said “perhaps another room”. The second room he showed us smelled quite strongly of wee so we said no. After this, he showed us a deluxe room and offered it to us ... read more

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 ... read more

From Vik I can confirm that, following several bus journeys now, the train is most certainly a superior mode of transport here. The overnight bus to Jodhpur was a shaky experience to say the least. No snorers (not that we would have heard them behind our perspex wall in the roof of the bus) but the time (in hours) that we spent with our entire bodies lifted from the floor matches roughly the time we managed to spend on the floor. Our relief at arriving in Jodhpur quickly subsided when we realised that we were in the middle of nowhere (a popular place to position the bus stands here) and it was only 4am. Unfortunately Jodhpur did little to endear itself from then. The fort was pretty impressive, and the 'blueness' of the city made for ... read more