Blogs from Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 12

After yesterday’s beautiful sunny day we woke to clouds this morning. Despite this for the third day since arriving in India we have had no rain and the cloud provided welcome respite from the heat of the sun. Stephen has decided the rain is following us. To be fair given how poor the monsoon has been in Rajasthan this year, with many of the lakes we’ve seen looking rather empty, it would probably be a good thing if it did. We walked up to the fort museum via the Fateh Pol gate this morning. Despite our concerns after finding it difficult passing through the fort yesterday we entered without any problems. As we walked towards the museum we noticed the security guard by the entrance to the zip line and gardens wasn’t at his post. We ... read more

It was hot this morning. Really fucking hot. We saw the sun for the first time during our stay, in full bloom as oppose to hidden behind a cloud. This meant the humid atmosphere we had grown accustomed to had been replaced by a dry baking heat you’d associate with a beach resort. Now this posed us a very serious question, as neither our sun cream or our mosquito repellent were to be used with each other, we had a very serious conundrum, hence the title of todays effort. We chose the repellent, and we walked, through baking heat, 2 miles through town to the pink city, where we went to the national observatory. The observatory isn’t in use anymore but is basically an astounding collection of structures used to measure various things such as planetary ... read more

The original plan was to see the monsoon palace for sunset as advised by all the locals/hostels/guidebooks but given it closes at 6pm and sunset is at 630ish at the moment that was obviously not going to work. We considered going by scooter but thought that a bicycle might be easier in the traffic. Unfortunately no where seemed to hire out bicycles - our hostel had no idea, the bicycle shop only does tours and other people we asked looked at us like we were crazy. Finally finding somewhere that did them we set off in the mid day heat wondering what on Earth we were thinking. Especially since today is a strike day in Rajasthan so we had no idea whether the palace would even be open when we got there. The cycle to the ... read more

Today was a trip to the vintage car museum owned by the maharana. This was definitely a visit for Stephen more than me, having said that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The museum is an easy walk at the far end of the palace from the old city. It is down a main road though so not a particularly pleasant walk. Entrance is 300 rupees per person, regardless of nationality. This is quite expensive given how small the museum is but if you have an interest in old cars it’s more than worth it. All the cars and carriages are still in working order and have a team of staff to look after them. One of the men came around and opened all the doors of the garages and told as ... read more

One of the reasons we picked the hostel we are staying at is because it got such good reviews, particularly about its amazing breakfast. We were, therefore, particularly disappointed to find it rather poor. Served on the lovely rooftop between 8-10am we arrived around 9ish to discover some cornflakes, toast, toasties and one omelette left. Stephen had the omelette and despite the fact lots of other people were turning up they didn’t make anymore. This is particularly frustrating as there are loads of cheap cafes serving much better looking breakfasts all around us. After eating (and getting cross that the WiFi kept bumping me off stopping me from updating the travel blog) we walked over to the palace. As soon as you get near it every shop front is selling leather, pashminas, tailor made clothes or ... read more