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Published: October 18th 2007
Our balcony in Colaba Bay....sanctuary!
So nice to hear the pitter patter of rain ALL DAY and NIGHT (gotta love Monsoon!)whilst keeping dry and cosy!With a teary departure from London, it was time to yet again venture to the country incredibly close to my heart and full of extremes and diverse landscapes.
I arrived in Mumbai and had 10 hours to wait till Nahdi's plane arrived from Sydney. After spending what felt like all day at the airport, we found a great little sactuary in Colaba Bay, Bentley's Hotel, which was perfect during the monsoon rains with its balcony overlooking the park...which became our natural TV!
Onto new horizons, we flew to Delhi (crazy and not my favourite place in the world!) and began our adventure in the desert cities of Rajasthan. First stop of course was Agra (actually not in the state of Rajasthan, but close enough!!hehe) for the spectacular Taj Mahal ... one of the 7 wonders of the world! It was hard to believe that we were actually seeing it with our own eyes! A work of brilliance and elegance!
Some of the highlights in Rajasthan were......
Jaipur- the pink city - it was crazy to see everything and anything in the streets (camels and buffaloes pulling haystacks, cars, rickshaws, pigs, goats, cows, dogs, bicycles and buses). Crazy
The Taj Mahal
One of the 7 Wonders of the World! but beautiful!
Pachewar - we stayed at this really old fort that'd been converted into a hotel - it was so nice and peaceful and old and unique. We visted the remote village where the people were just so genuine & lovely. They were amazed by the digital camera.....all posing and requesting many a photo of themselves and then to be shown it! So funny!
We were also lucky enough to visit a school! I loved this so much! All the kids were so excited to see us.....and equally so excited (and amazed!) to learn all about Australia (Nahdi and I made incredible teachers.....drawing a map of Australia on the blackboard and proceeding to inform them all about the wonders of Aussie land, especially Canberra!!!!). They loved it (and of course will never forget all the interesting facts we taught them!!!).
Pushkar - as soon as I arrived here I felt holy!!! It has a real vibe and atmosphere to the place! I got blessed by a priest and performed a puja, so I'll have to only have good luck from now on! Also the clothes in Pushkar are fantastic! (I was really struggling with adhering to
my Yoga 'non-attachment' here!!!)
Jaisalmer - quite a unique place with the city inside the fort. Pretty random time here....hung out with some locals and some European dudes and enjoyed the delights of Kingfisher by the lake.
Bikaner - not much at this dusty old town apart from the Rat Temple (Karni Mata Temple) about 30kms away. I've never seen so many rats before in my life (apparently all the rats are reincarnations of dead story tellers!). They totally run the temple here and are actually way more cute than I imagined!!!
Also had a pretty random experience here where a lovely tailor took Nahdi and I for a free sightseeing tour...finishing the tour at his house where he introduced us to the whole family and showed us medals and family photos....very houseproud indeed! We felt like long-lost relatives!
Rajasthan was an experience that will always be with me! I don't think I've sweated so much in all my life!! haha!
The camel safari in the desert, sleeping under the stars, old forts...so much history, colour, spices, people working so hard and then the other extreme of people layzing around enjoying life (or maybe just
He'd wanna be strong!
The lovely local who 'dinked' us round town on his bike too hot to move!!!).
Thanks Rajasthan and everything you gave me!
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