Rajasthan - The place of kings

Well, what a busy 2 weeks it has been.  I was always a little apprehensive about coming to India.  It was a place that had never really been top of my travel list.  However, I have found it to be a filled with genuinely lovely, friendly people, beautiful country side and extremely spicy food, which has proved to be my nemesis!!

Arriving and transferring to the hotel in Delhi was easy and without hassle ( I think is would have been less so if I hadn't arranged an arrival transfer).  Driving along into the city it was interesting to see a cow wandering down the middle of the road.  However, as the 15 days have progressed, I have come to realise that the cow is a consistent traveller on the roads of India.  Everywhere you go there are cows, it's the equivalent of sheep in New Zealand.  The cow is a sacred animal in Indian culture so the don't eat them.  Therefore, there are HUNDREDS of cows milling around the towns, strolling down the roads and munching on grass along the winding country lanes.  It still makes me chuckle now, after 2 weeks!

Cows just roam around!

We have explored only a small amount of this area of north India known as Rajasthan.  Our guide for the 2 weeks has been Ravi, a very comical, extremely tall man local to Jaipur.  He has been insightful, kept up safe and educated us on the wonderful culture and beliefs of the Indian people.  We took a visit to his family in Jaipur and met his mother, father, sister and wife.  All very lovely people who fed us traditional Indian snacks.

Our guide, Ravi.

Having explored both countryside and city, I think I definitely prefer rural India.  We stayed for two nights in a stunning castle in Bijapur as well as one night in a fort in Madhoghar.  Strolling out into the villages we found humble people who just wanted to say hello and shake your hand.  It seems that life in India is happy to breath and take everything in.  Nothing is a hurry or too much trouble.  Tea points in villages are places to hang out and chat about politics!  It's so refreshing to see people just 'being', rather than rushing from one thing to the next, not really enjoying or appreciating life.

The beautiful castle at Bijapur.

Rajasthan is crammed with old palaces and temples.  By far the most amazing has to have been the Taj Mahal.  Sadly it decided to rain, and when I say rain, not the English style.  This was full on monsoon rain, coming down in sheets and bouncing up off the pavement.  My trousers represented an item of clothing that had been in the washing machine without the spin cycle!  Thankfully the rain was not cold though, and we soon dried off.  Even with all the rain you were totally in awe of this beautiful, beautiful building and it's grounds.

View of the Taj Mahal from across the river.

The Taj Mahal was still beautiful, even
under an umbrella in all the rain!

Using the transport here has been an education.  Initially, we started off on the super fast, air conditioned train from Delhi to Agra.  This was a very pleasant experience with drinks, breakfast and large comfy chairs.  As I'm sure you can imagine, this lulled us into a false sense of security as what followed was, lets just say, in a different league!!  We had to experience what the locals do so later on took a train that was very local indeed.  Luckily, there are only four of us in the group as none of us could imagine our journey had the group been at it's full capacity of twelve.  The platform at the station was busy and the train even worse.  We battled our way onto the train with our big bags but a seat looked highly unlikely.  Ravi came to the rescue though and forced some people to move up.  The seats were in bench rows, with a bottom and a top.  I managed to squeeze onto the bottom, others had to clamber up to the top bunk.  Next to me there were four men playing cards.  The journey passed quickly and I was entertained by card playing, tried to join in, but only succeeded in shuffling as I couldn't get the rules and no one spoke any English to explain them to me!

Rajasthan really is a beautiful part of India and I have enjoyed the two weeks.  Villages, cities, deserts and mountains as well as camels, cows, a terrific guide  and a long and confusing Bollywood movie have made the experience one that I won't forget.  The jury is still out as to whether I come back to India or not.

We are catching to overnight train to Delhi tonight and then it will be the next section of my journey that begins on Tuesday.  Luckily, I haven't ran out of tomato ketchup yet!

Camels are certainly NOT the most
comfortable method of travel!