Rajasthan, the land of the kings. If you like history and beautiful forts and palaces, you’re in the right place, so naturally we started off doing some wildlife spotting :-)
Our first stop was Keoladeo National Park near Bharatpur to make the most of our binoculars. We had a great day cycling around the park stopping at intervals to watch the nature. The fresh air was badly needed after so many city stops.
We bumped into this English bird spotter called Malcolm who was very knowledgeable about birds and their names so we followed him around for a few hours, a really fascinating guy. We spotted 50+ different types of birds including Eagles , Marsh Harrier, Kingfishers (common, white throated and Pied), Ibis, Silverbill, the biggest Crane in the world called the Sarus Crane and the biggest Stork in the world, called the Black Necked Stork. Also saw some Jackals and various Deers/Antelopes including the largest Antelope in the Asia called the Nilgai.
Up to this point, this was our favourite day in India.
Next we went Tiger Spotting (we hoped) at Rathambore National park.
The town we had to stay in and the overall experience of ‘finding’ a tiger wasn’t the best in all honesty but we did see two Tigers (or maybe the same one twice, we couldn’t be sure). Although we really couldn’t get a decent picture of this beautiful animal to share with you, we had a great view not only with our eyes but with the binoculars. The first spotting was of a tiger sleeping. For the second spotting, the Tiger came strolling along towards a kill recently made which was near us. The Tiger then proceeded to eat and was there for a long time, so we had a really long view. What an amazing creature.
After our nature spotting, we then went to Jaipur, the Pink City.
We enjoyed seeing the sites around Jaipur including the Jantar Mantar Obersvatory which was very quirky and just outside of the town, the Amber Fort. The Old City was quite picturesque and nice to walk around. The worst thing about Jaipur was the Rickshaw drivers. They just wanted to take us for a tour of the city and even when you said no many times over, they just kept asking again. very annoying!
This was the first place in India where we stayed in a place were we met some travellers, so it was great to share stories of our experiences in India.
A few days later we went off to Jodhpur, the Blue City - although we experienced our first train delay, only 5 hrs late…
We arrived late in Jodhpur but visited the fort in the morning anyway which had amazing views but towards lunch time, I (Rapha) wasn’t feeling so well. Started having stomach cramps and felt really tired so went back to the Guest House to sleep it off. Well that was that for 3 days, We didn’t go anywhere in fear that I would be needing the toilet. By the symptoms had it was most probably E-Coli from a dodgy pancake back in Jaipur on the morning we left to get the train to Jodhpur.
It was all going so well it was bound to happen sooner or later to one of us.
I finally felt brave enough to get the Bus to Jaisalmer and made it without any problems on the 5hr journey.
Our Guest House here was one of the best and cheapest to date, really clean, lovely chill out area and lots of nice travellers to share stories with.
The owner, Aladdin was a real character too.
Jaisalmer is such a clean and quiet place compared to most places we have visited, probably because it has a small population and it is in the Thar Desert.
On our first day, we walked around the Fort and the town which has an amazing golden colour as it’s all built in sandstone and on the second day we decided to go on a Camel Safari which is the main attraction and why people come here.
The thought of a Camel Safari to sand dunes sounds very exciting and fun on paper but in reality, riding a camel is an arduous affair. After about 1hr in you don’t quite know how to position your feet on the camel. Why don’t they have stirrups! We stopped for a 3hr lunch break during the hottest part of the day and were treated to a nice but simple lunch, we then continued on to the big sand dunes where we would sleep out the night. A campfire, some nice food, even a couple of cold beers and good company made for a great evening in the desert, we then slept under the stars and it was such a great view without any light pollution and so peaceful and quiet. We woke up just before sunrise and had some breakfast and then went off on the last leg of our journey through a little village which offered some houses made in the traditional mudhut style, simple but effective structures and beautiful in their own right.
After our return to Jaisalmer, we relaxed for the rest of the day but then my (Rapha’s) back was really painful due to riding a camel so couldn’t do anything for about 24hrs and then the following morning just when said back had recovered, woke up to find that my right ankle was swollen, couldn’t put any weight on it!! How did that happen?!
Well it turns out I must have twisted it in the sand dune but didn’t realise and the injury didn’t manifest itself till 2 days later.
Luckily or unluckily for me, having experienced this problem on may occasions i knew what needed to be done but also knew that crutches would need to be found if we were to get to our next destination. With the help of Aladdin, Wendy bought the only pair of crutches left in Jaisalmer!! Phew, mobility restored.
After 3 days of resting, we got the night bus to Udaipur, a 12hr journey on a sleeper coach which actually wasn’t all that bad considering we had a double puncture which added another 1hr.
We arrived early on 2nd Dec to Udaipur and i din’t go anywhere that day, Wendy ventured out to take a few pictures so i could see what the place looked like. By the next morning i was feeling ready to explore on my crutches, we had a boat ride on the lake and you really get to see most of the main sites from the boat including the Lake Palace Hotel where scenes from Octopussy and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel were filmed, it’s £400 a night to stay there and that’s not even for a decent room, the decent rooms cost £1500 a night apparently, a bit out of our budget :-)
This was especially nice for me to get out and see some sights as i hadn’t seen anything of interest for about 5/6 days due to my incapacitation. We also found a cake shop that sold the most wonderful cakes, after over 2 months without eating one, it was a real treat. We also saw a weird funeral procession where only the women mourned. They went into some trance to the rhythm on the drums whilst balancing coconuts on their heads which were then smashed on the ground and any remaining juice poured over their heads - Yep! only in India !!
As i write today, the 4th Dec, my foot is getting much better and can now put more pressure on it., hopefully i’m coming to the end of two weeks of various ailments.
Off to Mumbai tomorrow.
Keoladeo
Rathambore
Jaipur
Jodhpur
Jaisalmer
Udaipur
Our first stop was Keoladeo National Park near Bharatpur to make the most of our binoculars. We had a great day cycling around the park stopping at intervals to watch the nature. The fresh air was badly needed after so many city stops.
We bumped into this English bird spotter called Malcolm who was very knowledgeable about birds and their names so we followed him around for a few hours, a really fascinating guy. We spotted 50+ different types of birds including Eagles , Marsh Harrier, Kingfishers (common, white throated and Pied), Ibis, Silverbill, the biggest Crane in the world called the Sarus Crane and the biggest Stork in the world, called the Black Necked Stork. Also saw some Jackals and various Deers/Antelopes including the largest Antelope in the Asia called the Nilgai.
Up to this point, this was our favourite day in India.
Next we went Tiger Spotting (we hoped) at Rathambore National park.
The town we had to stay in and the overall experience of ‘finding’ a tiger wasn’t the best in all honesty but we did see two Tigers (or maybe the same one twice, we couldn’t be sure). Although we really couldn’t get a decent picture of this beautiful animal to share with you, we had a great view not only with our eyes but with the binoculars. The first spotting was of a tiger sleeping. For the second spotting, the Tiger came strolling along towards a kill recently made which was near us. The Tiger then proceeded to eat and was there for a long time, so we had a really long view. What an amazing creature.
After our nature spotting, we then went to Jaipur, the Pink City.
We enjoyed seeing the sites around Jaipur including the Jantar Mantar Obersvatory which was very quirky and just outside of the town, the Amber Fort. The Old City was quite picturesque and nice to walk around. The worst thing about Jaipur was the Rickshaw drivers. They just wanted to take us for a tour of the city and even when you said no many times over, they just kept asking again. very annoying!
This was the first place in India where we stayed in a place were we met some travellers, so it was great to share stories of our experiences in India.
A few days later we went off to Jodhpur, the Blue City - although we experienced our first train delay, only 5 hrs late…
We arrived late in Jodhpur but visited the fort in the morning anyway which had amazing views but towards lunch time, I (Rapha) wasn’t feeling so well. Started having stomach cramps and felt really tired so went back to the Guest House to sleep it off. Well that was that for 3 days, We didn’t go anywhere in fear that I would be needing the toilet. By the symptoms had it was most probably E-Coli from a dodgy pancake back in Jaipur on the morning we left to get the train to Jodhpur.
It was all going so well it was bound to happen sooner or later to one of us.
I finally felt brave enough to get the Bus to Jaisalmer and made it without any problems on the 5hr journey.
Our Guest House here was one of the best and cheapest to date, really clean, lovely chill out area and lots of nice travellers to share stories with.
The owner, Aladdin was a real character too.
Jaisalmer is such a clean and quiet place compared to most places we have visited, probably because it has a small population and it is in the Thar Desert.
On our first day, we walked around the Fort and the town which has an amazing golden colour as it’s all built in sandstone and on the second day we decided to go on a Camel Safari which is the main attraction and why people come here.
The thought of a Camel Safari to sand dunes sounds very exciting and fun on paper but in reality, riding a camel is an arduous affair. After about 1hr in you don’t quite know how to position your feet on the camel. Why don’t they have stirrups! We stopped for a 3hr lunch break during the hottest part of the day and were treated to a nice but simple lunch, we then continued on to the big sand dunes where we would sleep out the night. A campfire, some nice food, even a couple of cold beers and good company made for a great evening in the desert, we then slept under the stars and it was such a great view without any light pollution and so peaceful and quiet. We woke up just before sunrise and had some breakfast and then went off on the last leg of our journey through a little village which offered some houses made in the traditional mudhut style, simple but effective structures and beautiful in their own right.
After our return to Jaisalmer, we relaxed for the rest of the day but then my (Rapha’s) back was really painful due to riding a camel so couldn’t do anything for about 24hrs and then the following morning just when said back had recovered, woke up to find that my right ankle was swollen, couldn’t put any weight on it!! How did that happen?!
Well it turns out I must have twisted it in the sand dune but didn’t realise and the injury didn’t manifest itself till 2 days later.
Luckily or unluckily for me, having experienced this problem on may occasions i knew what needed to be done but also knew that crutches would need to be found if we were to get to our next destination. With the help of Aladdin, Wendy bought the only pair of crutches left in Jaisalmer!! Phew, mobility restored.
After 3 days of resting, we got the night bus to Udaipur, a 12hr journey on a sleeper coach which actually wasn’t all that bad considering we had a double puncture which added another 1hr.
We arrived early on 2nd Dec to Udaipur and i din’t go anywhere that day, Wendy ventured out to take a few pictures so i could see what the place looked like. By the next morning i was feeling ready to explore on my crutches, we had a boat ride on the lake and you really get to see most of the main sites from the boat including the Lake Palace Hotel where scenes from Octopussy and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel were filmed, it’s £400 a night to stay there and that’s not even for a decent room, the decent rooms cost £1500 a night apparently, a bit out of our budget :-)
This was especially nice for me to get out and see some sights as i hadn’t seen anything of interest for about 5/6 days due to my incapacitation. We also found a cake shop that sold the most wonderful cakes, after over 2 months without eating one, it was a real treat. We also saw a weird funeral procession where only the women mourned. They went into some trance to the rhythm on the drums whilst balancing coconuts on their heads which were then smashed on the ground and any remaining juice poured over their heads - Yep! only in India !!
As i write today, the 4th Dec, my foot is getting much better and can now put more pressure on it., hopefully i’m coming to the end of two weeks of various ailments.
Off to Mumbai tomorrow.
Keoladeo
Rathambore
 |
| Rufous Treepie |
 |
| Langurs |
 |
| Tiger Foorprint |
 |
| There is a Tiger in there, honest. |
Jaipur
Jodhpur
 |
| Oh dear...! |
Jaisalmer
Udaipur
