Blogs from Rajasthan, India, Asia

Later start today at 9.30am as it's basically a free day. Gordon and Peter had booked another driver like we did for the day, but Arjun said it wasn't necessarily as he and the driver were at our disposal. So we all cancelled the driver and just joined the optional cooking class. First stop for photos was the Albert Hall (at my request) which fortunately was on the way to the scheduled stop, the Lakshmi Narayan Temple. This is a beautiful Hindi Temple completely built with white marble. It was nice to witness the end of a service when we arrived. Had our first proper rain fall as we arrived but temperature today had dropped considerably. Week before we arrived the highs were over 40 degrees centigrade. This week, it's dropped to low 30s, much more ... read more

Started our bus trip to Jaipur at 8.50. Entertaining journey out of Delhi watching how the traffic completely ignores the lanes marked on the road, like they don't exist. Stopped at 11.45am for an early lunch at a nice place in the middle of nowhere called the Siva Oasis Resort. We discovered today that all our dinners are provided, so we ate a light lunch of creme of chicken soup and garlic naan for Daisy and a grilled chicken sandwich for me. Arjun also asked us to tip the rest room attendants. 10 rupees per person is a fair amount. We left to continue our journey at 12.50pm. The landscape changes towards Jaipur from flat to hilly. Many trucks are colourfully painted and have decorations. Arjun says it's because the trucks are like their home because ... read more

Kumbhalgadh – Ranakpur-Mt Abu Being nearest places from where we live (Gandhinagar), Mt Abu, Udaipur, Kumbhalgadh and Ranakpur are frequently visited places for Gujarat. This was our second visit to Kumbhalgadh and Ranakpur and n-th visit to Mt Abu. Preferred route to Kumbhalgadh is from Udaipur. Ranakpur is near to Kumbhalgadh and hence both places are covered on the same day. Ranakpur can also be approached from Abu Road via Falna. Detailed descriptions about Kumbhalgadh and Ranakpur are available on internet and hence I do not intend to repeat all that. In this blog, I will highlight the mistakes we made. Day-1: Gandhinagar to Ambaji We started from Gandhinagar in the afternoon and reached Ambaji (162 km / 3-15 hrs via Vijapur-Himmatnagar-Khedbrahma). Alternate routes include: Gandhinagar-Himmatnagar national highway, Gandhinagar-Mehsana-Palanpur-Ambaji or Gandh... read more

Day-3: Abu Road-Mt Abu Although, rather dangerous from driving point of view, the most enjoyable part of the day’s journey was the last 45 min before reaching Abu Road, when it started pouring cats and dogs. Visibility was just 10-15 feet! Made it to Abu Road safely to stay for the night – where I wanted to be – at the junction from where road to Mt Abu starts. Visited Brahmakumari’s center at Abu Road in the morning. They provide a personal guide even for a small group of two people (like us)! On to Mt Abu. Mt Abu during raining season is real fun. We have visited the place during monsoon several times. A positive change we noted this time was the road around Nakki Lake (open only for pedestrians) which has been developed with ... read more

Empty phenomenon rolling on. Anagarika Munindra Zen teaches vigilant carelessness and detached involvement. In a more high-sounding phrase, it teaches transcendental ordinariness. In a simpler, more sympathetic phrase, it teaches nothing but ordinariness. Yoel Hoffman Awakening is ordinariness awakening to ordinariness Ama Samy The Self is here and now Ramana Maharshi Be the Buddha now Adyashanti You are perfect as you are and there is always room for improvement Shunryu Suzuki Today a friend of 40 years died here in Pushkar, Rajasthan. Naryan was a simple man who, as far as I know, may never have ventured far from this place in all his 73 years. His life's work was a pakora wallah... a man who made fried vegetable snacks and so... read more