Rajasthan

Back in India!

We arrived on the 19th of August in Mumbai, landing in the centre of India's Swine Flu outbreak! We got quite scared by the number of people wearing masks at the airport and train stations and a nice man took pity on us, giving us some masks which we felt rather obliged to wear on the spot. Looking lovely, attracting even more attention than usual..


From Mumbai we took a night train to Bundi, a quite little town in Rajasthan, to allow us to plan our trip round the North, experience yet another upset stomach for Sylv and adapt again to the humid heat of India.

Rajasthan is much more touristy than the South of India. And there are a lot of French tourists, many teachers.. giving the reasthouse a sort of 'salle des profs' atmosphere!

The landscape is very different too: drier, more uniform, flat. No more coconut trees. But flat little white houses. And women in bright colourful saris, their head covered with their shawl. And men dressed in white with big moustaches (think Salvador Dali), gold earings and huge bright turbans.

In Bundi we met Daniel, a french traveller who has been travelling the world on his bike for over 2 years (his blog: http://www.mondancyclo.canalblog.com/). It was a lovely and lucky encounter that was meant to be (that's India for you) and came as we started to think about how we were going to cycle SE Asia. Daniel very kindly showed us his bike and equipment and we're both dreaming of being on the bike...

Next stop Udaipur, the white city, city of lakes and palaces. Nice guesthouse with a view on the palace and a resident tortoise on our terrace.

Udaipur has an amazing City Palace on the lake shores and a palace (now a luxury hotel) set as an island on the lake. In the evening women bathe on the ghats of the lake, a colourful spectacle and by the night a thunderstorm struck, a wet but welcome breath of cool air!

Here are some pictures from the City Palace - stunning decorations in a palace hugging the top of a hill

Next was Jodhpur, the blue city, so called as a lot of its houses are blue.

An imposing fort dominates the city which has a palace and temples within its fortified walls. It's a real change to be wandering around plush palaces and noisy bazaars - a welcome change, a comfortable tourist chanage... but a great chance to learn about the history of this part of India and admire the beauty of Moghul decorations!