We moved to a more expensive room with a large cushion bed next to a large lake-view window as well as a proper double bed (Most places seem to just push two singles together).

Monday was the first day that I started to feel better, with my stomach calming down and the cough which had developed from my sore throat was finally in abeyance.

We didn’t venture out very far and just took it easy to aid my recovery.

The journey South to Udaipur was likely to take 4-5 hours so we set off at around 10am. After a few hours the landscape changed from the flat, dry terrain we had become used to, to a distinctly hilly and green one. with the road becoming ever more winding Shortly after this change, we arrived at the Jain temple complex at Ranakpur where we stopped for a visit.

The Jain religion seems to have been a precursor to Hinduism. The sun was so strong that the white marble steps at the entrance to the temple were almost unbearably hot on our bare feet after taking off our shoes to enter the temple. We were greeted by the high priest who daubed a yellow mark on our foreheads in exchange for a donation. The temples were beautifully carved from white stone, with each of the 1,114 pillars having unique carvings. The idols in the temple all have mother of pearl eyes, making them shine out from their dark, recessed alcoves.

The car park was also the haunt of some white-furred and black-faced langur monkeys, who seemed to delight on sitting with the luggage on top of jeeps and vans with their long tails hanging down over the side.

Another hour or so saw us reach the outskirts of Udaipur. After stopping to get directions to Lal Ghat a couple of times we reached our hotel, the Kankarwa Haveli which is right by the shoreline of the lake.

Udaipur is famous for the white palace in the middle of Lake Pichola, which was also used as the backdrop in the James Bond film “Octopussy” (not seen it myself). Due to a rather dry year, the water level of the lake is very low, so that the Lake Palace is no longer in the middle of the lake; it now sits on the shore and is reachable by foot.

The hotel is another excellent one. Our first night was spent in one of the cheaper rooms, which was quite frankly excellent value for money.

There’s a terrace on top of the hotel with great views of the lake, Lake Palace (now a Taj Group Hotel), and the City Palace which towers over the city. Further away you can also see the Monsoon Palace at the top of a nearby hill, which was abandoned on completion when the builders realised it wasn’t possible to get a water supply to it, and what appears at first to be another vast palace but which turns out to be the two Oberoi hotels which were recently built.

A pleasant breakfast preceded our 10am departure for the Meherangarh Fort which commands a formidable position atop a hill to one side of Jodhpur. This was the traditional home of the Maharajas until the Umaid Bhawan Palace was built in the 20th century.

Entering the palace, our entry fee included an audio tour held on MP3 players which could be carried around the next. These gave a very clear and atmospheric description of the various parts of the fort and the exhibits held within. The full tour takes well over an hour and takes in some spectacular views over the blue-painted city of Jodhpur.

Our next stop was the aforementioned Umaid Bhawan Palace, much f which is now used as a luxury hotel, though it is also still home to the Maharaja.

We entered the hotel and were directed to the “coffee shop”, actually a terrace at the back of the hotel looking over the grounds with views towards the fort on the otger side of town. There is a Rs330 per person cover charge which is offsetagainst anypurchases made. The Palace was certainly very grand (prices to stay there range from $200-$750 per night) and by some careful eavesdropping of conversations at other tables, it became apparent that a film crew were currently staying there. Chatting with a waiter later on revealed that the film starred Omar Sharrif and was titled something along the lines of “One Night with a King” or maybe “King For One Night”.

We had a small lunch and a couple of drinks (the Palace Colada was particularly good) and Vic wandered the grounds a little taking photos.

We then returned to the hotel for an afternoon and evening of relaxation.

It’s about 350km from Jaipur to Jodhpur, which meant a journey of about 6-7 hours. I’d been suffering with an upset stomach and sore throat since Monday so we opted to pay the extra Rs250 to have the air-conditioning turned on in the car.
The journey took us off to the West, along different roads. The out of town driving in India is as crazy as that in town but for different reasons. The roads are often wide enough for three lanes of traffic, however it’s not unusual to be faced with three lanes of oncoming traffic and to have to swerve off the road to avoid them. The lorries all seem to trundle along at about 50km/h and rarely make way for you if overtaking.

As we headed West, the number of camel carts and Jeeps decreased, and the number of lorries increased. The journey was pretty uneventful, apart from us passing the first road accident we’d seen in India; a head-on collision between two lorries whcih had mangled one cab pretty badly. There were a couple of policemen directing traffic around the spot but little other fuss.

We arrived in Jodhpur at about 4pm, and checked in to our hotel, the Haveli Guest House. The first room we were given didn’t meet expectations (tiny window with no view) so we moved to a much nicer room with a large bay window looking out onto the hilltop fort of Jodhpur.

Another early start to head back to Jaipur. The journey back didn’t seem too bad, as the roads were all pretty good. We got back to Hotel Diggi Palace in the early afternoon and retired to our new room (also nice but not quite as good as the one we’d had during our first stay.

We had considered going shopping in Jaipur but the travelling had left us tired so we stayed at the hotel and used the internet cafe there. I finally got to upload my blog entries using the machine I had downloaded the drivers onto during the previous week. We sorted out our hotels for Jodhpur and Udaipur as well.

The Thakur had arranged for his nephew to guide us around some havelis in the neighbouring town of Ramgarh. We had arrived at Mahansar via Ramgarh so it didn’t take long to find the rough 6km road back there.

The first place we visited was one of Ramgarh’s 50 or so centotaph sites. This was similar to the one we had visited at Gaitor near Jaipur, though not as grand as the structures only held the cremated remains of wealthy merchants and their families rather than Maharajas. Each was painted with pictures from local life or Hindu texts.

Next on the tour was a temple to the goddess Kali. The day we visited was particularly auspicious as it was a day on which Kali is worshipped. We were welcomed by the priest and shown around the temple. There is only one temple to Kali in Ramgarh, a town of approximately 35,000 people. The temple’s idol of Kali depicted the goddess as a black-faced woman with a necklace of severed heads.

Following that we moved on to a temple to the Lord Sun, who is the god of Saturday. The temple is covered in many mirrors, and lit only by oil lamp which creates an amazing flickering effect.

Havelis were next on the tour, and we spent some time wandering around the haveli section of Ramgarh. There around 400 havelis int the town, though around 95% are no longer occupied. Many are simply locked up and left to decay, while others have caretakers who will let visitors in for a look around. A few are occupied and are still used to house the descendents of the original owners. In the majority of cases the original owners moved away to the large cities, some even living away when the havelis were originally built, using them as status symbols to show their old home town how well they were doing.

Sadly, now many of the havelis have started to crumble, the paint is wearing off the outsides and no one seems to care for them. We did see one which had had some recent restoration work carried out on it by the current owner but this was definitely the exception rather than the rule.

We were shown around the inside of one haveli which is still occupied, and went up onto its roof terrace to look over Ramgarh. A large part of the town must be made up of the now disused havelis, along with the similarly crumbling cenotaph sites.

Jumping back in the car we headed back to Mahansar to visit another closed haveli, just by the entrance to the castle. The entry hall to this building was fantastically decorated; divided into three sections, one each for Rama, Krishna and Vishnu. Each ceiling panel told a story from the god’s life and was beautifully painted in rich colours and real gold. Some of the local people had scratched off some of the gold, possibly to try to sell but the vast majority of it is still intact.

Back to the castle for lunch and an afternoon taking photos of the room and the view from the roof, before a candle-lit dinner on the terrace outside our room and then to bed.

Setting off at about 10am on Tuesday, following a breakfast chat with Ramesh Jangid, the owner of Apani Dhani, we headed for our next stop at a small town called Mahansar. The route we took meant quite a detour, but avoided the badly potholed roads which blighted much of the area. Only one of our guidebooks (Rough Guide to India) even mentioned the town, and the hotel manager in Jaipur hadn’t heard of it.

After a couple of hours driving we reached the town, about 5km south of Ramgarh. We were both a bit apprehensive as the town was even more desert-like than Nawalgarh. Tulsee (that’s the correct spelling, apparently) asked directions to our accomodation, the Narayan Niwas Castle. Heading down a series of rough, twisty roads we came to the entrance gate to the castle; a sharp left turn, probably to prevent any attacker from being able to built up any speed.

The castle was a warren of buildings, now divided into seperate dwellings for the nine families which live there. The owner of the castle is the local Thakur, a kind of feudal mayor, and the other families living in the castle are all his relatives such as his brother, the local prosecutor. The Thakur welcomed us personally, and we were then shown to our room, number 5.

I’m fortunate to be able to say that I’ve stayed in some very nice hotel rooms during my life but nothing has come close to the grandeur of the room at Narayan Niwas Castle in Mahansar. The room was very large, and had an upper galleried area all the way around. Every wall, pillar, archway and ceiling panel was beutifully handpainted in a similar way to the havelli we had seen at Nawalgarh. There was a huge double bed, with a fan above it for cooling. The room was almost at the top of the fort, only the smaller room 6 was higher, and the views from the large terrace area outside the room or from the windows were breathtaking, being able to see right over the town, down to the scrubby desert at the outskirts where camels could be seen pulling carts.
The bathroom was down a short corridor from the main room, and had a shower and a “western-style” toilet, but no heated water.

We took a few photos but I don’ t know when I’ll be able to get them uploaded. I would strongly recommend that ayone visiting the Shekawati area of Rajasthan books a visit to the castle (+91 1597564322).

After recovering from the shock of how fantastic our room was, we were invited down for lunch. Unlike our previous stops, there is no restaurant at the castle. Meals are usually taken in a dining room shared with the Thakur’s family. A cook prepares the meals which are comprehensive and filling, with at least 4 different dishes accompanying the rice at lunch and dinner.

The Thakur introduced us to his father, and lent us a couple of books about the painted havelis of Shekawati, including one by Ilay Cooper who had stayed at the castle while writing the book.

We watched the sunset from the terrace and then had dinner. As with most rural (and urban) parts of India, power cuts are commonplace and we suffered one during dinner, my pocket torch came in handy as the room plunged into darkness.

After power was restored we retired to our room to rest and enjoy our surroundings.

Up early to repack our bags and get ready for our journey to Nawalgarh. We were introduced to our driver, Thulsi (?), yesterday and we had arranged to set off at 10am. A few delay meant we didn’t set off until after 10:30. The going was slow as we made our way through the ever chaotic traffic in Jaipur.

As we left the city, the traffic and landscape changed, with a higher proportion of camel carts and jeeps on the road and the rows of shops and houses giving way to open scrubland.

Further into the journey, most of the cars were the Indian-made Jeeps, usually loaded to bursting point with people. Many had people hanging on to the outside or even sitting on the roof.

During the journey Thulsi was very quiet, and we realised that this was because his English wasn’t verygood, though it was still better than our ability to speak his language!

We finally arrived at Nawalgarh at about 2pm, but our driver didn’t seem to know the town or the location of our hotel. After numerous stops to ask directions, we arrived at another guest house owned by the man who owned our hotel. It was only a short drive from there and we finally arrived at Apani Dhani Apani Dhani (meaning “our hamlet”) is an eco-lodge, providing food and accomodation to visitors on a working farm. The hot water for showers is heated by home-built solar panels, and photo-voltaic cells provide some of the electricty for the accomodation which consists of several traditionally-built huts with thatched roofs. It was a big change from the Hotel Diggi Palace but we had stayed in similar huts during our two trips to the Maldives.

We were greeted and shown our room before going to register and chat with the manager about local sights etc.

We rested for a while before heading out in the car again. The manager Apani Dhani gave our driver instructions on how to get to the Poddar Haveli / museum, but the lack of road signs or names meant that we were soon stopping to ask for directions again. Thulsi had picked up ona amention of Roop Niwas Palace during the directions and so took us there. It’s a hotel and so wasn’t really much use for sight seeing. After 10 minutes there we asked to go to the musuem and after backtracking 1km or so did finally get there.

The museum also serves as a charity school for around 1,000 boys and 50 girls, taught in two shifts in the upper rooms of the haveli. Whether the proportions are indicative of most schools in Rajasthan, I don’t know, though the guidebooks do say that the literacy rate is low, and the mortality rate high for women in Rajasthan.

The haveli has been restored by the Poddar family who are merchants who now operate successful businesses in Mumbai. They also pay for most of the costs of the school. The entire building is covered in colourful frescos, many of scenes from Hindu mythology, but also others of typical Rajasthani scenes and paintings of trains, British soldiers etc.

There are several galleries of objects of which our accompanying guide gave us a comprehensive tour. time was drawing on so we had to return to our lodge, this time without having to ask directions and only taking one wrong turning.

Our evening meal was taken with two Belgian ladies who were staying in the adjoining hut. The meal was traditional vegetarian fare, starting with a cauliflower, spinach and pumpkin soup, followed by dry potatoes, dall, spinach and rice, with a rice pudding dessert. This was all served on plates and bowls made from leaves which could then be composted.

We’re in Jaipur, I’ve written lots of text but can’t get it onto this PC in the Internet cafe at Hotel Diggi Palace .

I’ve turned off blog commenting as I was getting too much comment spam. A shame someone always tries to make something out of other people…

We’re well and I’ll update as soon as I can get text off the PDA….

Up early so we could eat breakfast in the sunshine on the restaurant terrace.

Off with Ali again, this time to Amber Palace. On the way there we passed streams of people heading for the Palace along with several painted elephants. They were going to the Palace for a nine day festival, resulting in the whole area being very crowded.

We walked up the hill to the Palace along with some of the pilgrims but the sight of the queues for entrance put us off venturing any further. We set off back down after taking a few photos of the views, hoping that Ali would then take us to the nearby fort. Sadly, we had expressed an interest in buying Vic some trousers, so were instead whisked off to a factory/shop where we were given a hard-sell on some bedspreads, pashminas and trousers. We weren’t impressed by the prices, being asked for Rs1,200 for a pair of plain cotton trousers seemed a bit rich to us (and you can get them cheaper at H&M or Uniqlo in the UK!)

Ali seemed disappointed that we hadn’t made a purchase, no doubt he would have received a wedge of commission. We asked to be taken to an ATM where we replenished our cash reserves for the forthcoming trip, as the Diggi Palace doesn’t take credit cards.

Then it was back to the hotel for some more lounging and cold drinks.

That brings us up to date at time of writing. The internet cafe here is a bit more expensive (Rs1 per minute) than at the Hotel Ajanta but I’m hoping I can upload this (written on my Sony UX50 PDA) using my USB card reader.

Later: The card reader needs drivers for any version of Windows before Windows ME. The machines at Diggi Palace are running Windows 98SE, I downloaded the drivers but haven’t had a chance to copy stuff off yet.

In case anyone wants to drop me a
message, I’m turning comments offon the blog as I’m spending too much time in internet cafes deleting comment spam. As a result you’ll need to email me using the link near the top of the bar at the side.