Blogs from Bikaner, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 9

This morning we finally slept in for a bit, which may mean we're winning the battle against jet lag. We made our way up to the rooftop restaurant at about 10 for pancakes (we can't figure out what Indians have for breakfast) and masala chai, which I'm slowly getting addicted to. So sweet and delicious! We met our guide for the day, Bilal, who showed us the major sights of the city. We had a tuk tuk driver Gopi who wound through the narrow streets. Really, you'd be lost in one minute here without a guide! We started at Junangarh Fort, another amazingly impressive fort with detailed painting, stone carving, etc. The tour was very efficient - we sped through rooms filled with beautiful painted doors, carved wooden window grates (for women to look through to ... read more

i am now in a place called bikaneer on the edge of the dessert in rajesthan. as you heard before we have a car and a very safe and cautious driver called sanjeev and it means we can really see the place in style and comfort! So a 4 hour drive from Mandawa and here we are. Once again its dirty smelly and crazy! we again find a lovely old hotel, the owner has royal blood, his grandfather was a Maharaja, and owns a string of property throughout india. its diwali today so the place is really busy, but its a great atmosphere seeing all the families out in their best outfits shopping together. infact i've just had my hand decorated in henna to celebrate. not been hassled at all and now that mike is here ... read more

Hi Everyone Sorry for the delay, but it's certainly not easy finding internet cafes with both the software and hardware to enable us to put photos on the blog, (It's just no fun without the seeing the proof!!!) We arrived in Delhi (from Sri Lanka, seems so long ago) and were collected by the owner of our hostel, The Blue Sapphire, so no hassles there! As it was India Independence Day on the 15th we wanted to leave Delhi before then so early the next morning we went to the Rail booking Office to organize train tickets to Amritsar, our first stop in Rajasthan. Despite the long queues, it didn't take long to book the tickets, there are usually special ticket booths for women and foreign tourists and it has proven to be an efficient service, ... read more

Roland would have been proud. The effort it took to get to Deshnok to the Karni Mata temple was not worth the end result. Walked around in rat shite for 10 mins and got on the bus back. With every respect to the religious significance of the temple it was an experience that was hampered by the rain. The journey there was what I expected for my first bus trip in India...bus packed to unsafe levels...people on the roof...who were then squeezed inside when it started to rain. Many cry of inglish, inglish when the guy took my money for the ticket...took a while to get there as we stood at a corner in the middle of Bikaneer for about 20 mins as the various conductors shouted at various people. A Seek man got on and ... read more

Having sorted the ticket out, I spent the evening with a Canadian Gujarati, Rakeesh...good lad...discussed the merits of India as a first time visiter and his as a 2nd time albeit not for 3 years...he has family over here and was visiting for a month. Was not feeling that great...but decided to plough on as wanted to get out of Delhi. Said goodbyes to Rakeesh and stumbled back to hotel to pack...trying to hold it together. Then the fun began...decidely dizzy, and things spinning! Had to get auto to old delhi train station which is some way from Paharganj....or atleast it was the longest journey I've ever been on...India is a fantastic place a mixture or smells sound some good...some not so good! Feeling crap and smelling stuff you don't want to smell was not a ... read more