BIKANER
The LP recommended Hotel Ajit where we took a small if decent room for 125rp.This was one of the first times we had been with other travellers, Bikaner is not much visited thus there are few hotels and restaurants listed. We ate in the restaurant of the Green hotel where the food was tourist bland but the curd was excellent. We both liked Bikaner and would have stayed longer but for the urge to go to Bundi and Udaipur after a preliminary look at Puskar to get a booking for the Camel Fair. Visits to the fort, palaces and camel farm were excellent.
We were lucky at the Camel Farm to join up with a German couple who were being shown around by their hotelier, whose father was the Vet and his grandfather had founded the farm in he first World War to breed camels for the Camel Corps. Nowadays they bred primarily for export to the Arab countries where a good camel would fetch 100,000rp. The life span of a camel was 25 years. There were three types being bred Bikaner (whitish), Gugurat (black) and Jaisalmer (red). Later at the Pushkar Camel Fair we were told 25,000rp was top price for a racing camel, but 2,000rp for a shot one who would be dead in 6 weeks. We saw them fed in a silent orderly fashion from a long trough. Only as they had eaten enough did they start to walk around. Apparently they much prefer green leaves in the desert and on this diet can go 7 days without water or 31 without food.
The final evening we met
three interesting men in quick succession. First a young lad with
excellent English, who merely welcomed the chance to hone his skills, he
was with the school the English teacher from a local school (with
far poorer language skills) who invited us to the school the next day
and would ask us to speak to the children. Unfortunately we were already
committed to travel to Pushkar the next day so had to refuse. Just
afterwards as we were buying sweets from the excellent shop associated
with Hotel Joshi we met another who ran camel safaris from Bikaner. No
pressure at all, he merely told us about them, the overnight stays could
be in local villages or in the open air. He had thought a lot about
what to offer and seemed very genuine. We have unfinished business in
Bikaner which merely demonstrates the advantages of longer stays, by the
second day people become used to seeing you around and start to
approach and engage.
A hard single seven hour bus trip took us to Pushkar. We looked first at the White House hotel which wanted 200rp now but 1500rp for the festival. A new hotel owner took us there and waited in case we rejected, we did and went to his place Prafful (his son's name) and although y the marble floor, electrics, plumbing, and fittings like shelves and hanging hooks were ready, the walls were still only rough concrete render, reminiscent at the time of Geoffrey's house, looking back I had probably just finished his front first floor room following watching Stilts and a friend had being doing his bedroom. He was asking just 100rp now and 700rp for the festival, his d first booking, just half that of the White house. Was it just coincidence? Anyway we decided to stay and booked another 4 days for the festival. Later we found similar prices for the newly built Oasis Hotel complete with a swimming pool and fully tiled bathrooms. But we felt happy with the friendliness of the owner of Prafful and were only too glad to help finance his continuing investment, he stressed success over the festival was vital to provide him with funds. We knew felt we could leave our heavy luggage with him whilst we made a side trip to Bundi and Udaipur, hoping to meet up with Bryn and Mary in Bundi who were expected to visit for the night on a Jules Verne package holiday.
Pushkar had considerable religious significance was very pleasant but full of long stay hippy
style Europeans which was not to our taste. Never the less it is
beautifully situated around a lake and with large hills at either end
and mountains in the distance. It is a holy place for Hindus and a big
event for them was in progress the day we arrived
Cheap buffet meals were available at OM Shiva, a wide range of choice but rather bland for budget tourists and longer term hippies. Such hot buffets are one of the major sources of Dehli Belly, even in expensive hotels with much of the food being kept in cold storage from one day to the next. I remembered the Ministry of Defence pair from Hong Kong we met whilst trekking in Nepal who frequently traveled to India on business and said cheap hot street food never caused problems but high class hotels were far greater risks. A much better option was the DK Restaurant just across from the Brahma Temple, of which we became regular customers frequently finishing up eating a selection of sweets whilst sitting down on the mezzanine floor in a very Indian shop on the nearby shopping street, into which other tourists stopped to look but rarely ventured.
The second day we went onto the festival grounds, where
preparations were in hand and perhaps 1000 camels and many horses had
already arrived. It was a magical scene with everyone in good spirits
and none of the hassling of tourists so common in town.
BUNDI, 16-18 November
Another long bus journey took us to Bundi from Ajmer.
We stayed at the Haveli
Braj Bhushangee, the only place recommended by the LP, as my birthday
treat for Joan at 400rp. The small room was quite unique and charming,
quite the nicest we had stayed in true to its heritage except for the
addition of an electric light and very compact well fitted bathroom.
The entrance was by heavy double doors secured by a heavy chain, inside were carpets, pretty paintings, ornaments and mirrors, all totally in character. When I challenged the price I was told the price was needed to maintain the building. The current manager was the son, though the father ran the antique shop downstairs.
The haveli was named after his
grandfather who was an invited guest at King George 5th's coronation in
India. He confirmed that some of the Jules Verne party were expected the
following night, but there was some doubt because they had several
members had refused their rooms at the Kothi Aiwari Niwas (Nivas Palace)
and been rehoused at the Haveli. Apparently the previous night some
had to sleep in the corridor due to overbooking at the Samode Palace in
Jaipur. The following night we met the party who were staying in Kota
not Bundi but didn't include Bryn and Mary because the party had to be
split in two with their half travelling the circuit in the opposite
direction. Tomorrow the two halves would be together in Udaipur at the
Heritage Hotel which was out of town which explained why we did not meet
up.
Bundi is a quite charming walled town, lots of interesting architecture, palaces, forts, town houses, step wells and above all very friendly people. In the meantime we made friends with the man who had developed a lassi for 12rp from ice cream saffron, cashew and pistachio nuts, and currants. Joan and I were addicts - two a day if not three, the first for breakfast the last after dinner.
he LP told us about the Billu Guide who we were anxious to meet.
When we mentioned the absence of suitable places to eat meals he recommended the home cooking of the wife of the Billu Guide.
me
hours later we were taken aback by a man who invited us to his house to
eat. All was revealed when we looked at his papers for he was the Billu
Guide. He had been taking parties at Indian
prices for over 15
years, first as a hobby but now as a business. His proud claim was that
every client started as a customer but left as a friend. Excellent food
cooked and excellent cycling tours and sight seeing were the feature. He
was another very
nice sincere man, his wife cooked our meal in a spotless kitchen on the
roof of his home where he had also built a few simple rooms for rent.
Using shining stainless steel dishes and a whole range of spices, I
specifically asked for authentic Indian spicing and it was hot even for
me, far too much so for Joan's tender mouth.
Not
for the first or last time on this trip I played street cricket with
young boys using tennis balls and batting with the wooden stick used by
their mothers to beat washing, which were vaguely bat shaped with a
handle but far lighter and less than half the size of a real bat. The
first occasion was shortly after checking into the haveli, my batting
was OK but they delighted in hitting my, now over slow bowling, for
straight sixes. Another day I was playing in a narrow street when a
father, recognising I could bat but was at a severe disadvantage from
the short washing stick, brought out his own real cricket bat. I
remember shortly after hooking the ball down a side street and hitting
some one at the nearby stall.
The longer we stayed the more we liked Bundi, wandering around to take photographs we ended up being invited to a boy's study bedroom accompanied by his proud mother and sister. He showed us his school books which looked impressively familiar. Very articulate in English, obviously good at maths, he was studying hard at school intending to become a doctor. Later as we were on our way to the station in a rickshaw, he waved us down and shook hands and wished us goodbye.
One disadvantage of our haveli was that it was locked at
10pm, because of the value of the antique stock. When and we arrived back to
street music and dancing, presumably once again associated with a
wedding, we were shown a back way which
would be left open for us.
The colour and spirit made one of the best
photo opportunities of the trip as you can see. On one occasion a
trombone player objected being photographed as I stood on a wall high
above the crowd and blew his instrument directly into my ear, painful
and deaf making.
We investigated the step wells in more detail.
Some exquisitely carved cenotaphs at
Shar Bagu? For five rupees the local guardian came and unlocked the
gates letting us in there and to the nearby hunting lodge. The palace
was also superb, if neglected, part is lived in by the current Maharajah
but the rest is left to decay.
The last day we climbed above the palace
to the fort and the magnificent views, traversed the fort area
discovering more step wells on the top of the hill.
We descended by a
short cut trying to avoid the monkeys. An alternative route by road via
the radio station but this is 10 as opposed to the 1.5km of the short
cut.
UDAIPUR, 19-21 November.
We were ready on the empty platform to catch the 8am train to Chittorgarh which did not arrive till 9.15am. On the train we had a deep conversation with a young man returning from his engagement party. He was a representative of Total Oil and travelled widely in Kristan. His views were well expressed in excellent English, he valued the Indian idea of marriage to a single partner for life, thinking it the cornerstone of the means of transmitting the culture from one generation to the next, which providing the stability for raising children and caring for the extended family. He explained that as his duty, though one that did not prevent someone from leaving home or emigrating. We learnt of the enormous changes in Rajastan resulting from recent irrigation by Himalayan water. He sold a lot of his products to farmers who were now adopting tractors rather than camels for ploughing etc. Not bourne out by a view from the train window which revealed just one such tractor. He was amazed we had had a train which left early and was certain that could not have happened even a few years earlier, thinking that too was symptomatic of the changes now taking place in India. His is an address we regret not having or even a photograph. the reason was that a far less interesting passenger insisted on giving us his address and asking for a photograph to be sent to him.
The afternoon was spent viewing the vast palace complex at Chittaugarh . It was impressive but tiring though we had hired an extremely good English speaking tuk tuk driver as our driver and guide.
UDAIPUR
Around 7.30pm our bus arrived in Udaipur. a young fellow showed us where to get off, joined our rickshaw to the Lalghat GH. He was a painting student who was going to Manchester next month with a part of a team to promote Rajastan. We were later to meet a bunk of around 25 who were going to the Tate, Whitechapel, Imperial college, plus the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham on a similar exercises.
This town was
a centre of painting and Joan was soon fascinated by the work and
especially the technique involved in the miniature paintings, the full
beauty of which was revealed using a magnifying glass - though they were
painted using only naked eyes. We bought one first day painted on camel
bone plus a much cheaper one for 400rp on marble with far less detail
but a nice motif of an old chinaman, both miniatures now hang in our
hall. The combined cost was 7,000rp. The next day we all but bought a
very well executed piece on a similar Indian theme with a starting price
of 20,000rp. He came down to 16,000 but would not entertain 10,000rp.
These paintings are almost always copies of masterpieces or good interpretations of them by master painters. What their value is in the UK we had no idea, the prices being asked seem almost European, but the work involved is clearly huge and skillful.
Udaipur is the most beautiful city we have yet visited.
With justification it is referred to as the Venice of India. Nobody
visiting is allowed to forget that it was was the setting for the James
Bond film Octopussy, which was on show all over tourist areas.
We visited a sort of Welsh St Fagans museum depicting traditional life.
On
the third day we a walked around including the northern section up to
the monuments through pleasant gardens, though no where near as good as
those in Bundi.
At the palace Joan again saw some of the same party of
Jules Verne but did not make contact. The palace itself was very
beautiful and full of Moghul style painting and photographs of a bygone
era. Udaipur would be worth visiting again for its beauty and
atmosphere.
Our room had two
small windows which looked out from the lake retaining wall of the lake
from close to water level and we could see the expensive hotel island on
the lake. The Lalghat GH was well run, when we asked for blankets
we got clean white over sheet as well, two sheets on one bed - quite like
home! But we slept under a mosquito net.
I drank milk here for the first time of the trip at a stall which was very busy with trade from local men preparing for bed. I too hot my regular nightcap. Mine was served in a cheap throwaway unglazed pottery cup with at nightfall. True locals were served in far better cups which were washed up after use. Later experiences led me to belief this was because Hindus would not share food with us and that might be a sign of the Caste system at work. There were lots of restaurants around us but we were very unhappy with two of the five we tried, the exceptions were Majur and Anjani Roof Top.
The LP recommended Hotel Ajit where we took a small if decent room for 125rp.This was one of the first times we had been with other travellers, Bikaner is not much visited thus there are few hotels and restaurants listed. We ate in the restaurant of the Green hotel where the food was tourist bland but the curd was excellent. We both liked Bikaner and would have stayed longer but for the urge to go to Bundi and Udaipur after a preliminary look at Puskar to get a booking for the Camel Fair. Visits to the fort, palaces and camel farm were excellent.
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| BIKANER Palace |
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| BIKANER Palace |
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| BIKANER Palace |
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| BIKANER FORT? |
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| BIKANER, beating the train |
We were lucky at the Camel Farm to join up with a German couple who were being shown around by their hotelier, whose father was the Vet and his grandfather had founded the farm in he first World War to breed camels for the Camel Corps. Nowadays they bred primarily for export to the Arab countries where a good camel would fetch 100,000rp. The life span of a camel was 25 years. There were three types being bred Bikaner (whitish), Gugurat (black) and Jaisalmer (red). Later at the Pushkar Camel Fair we were told 25,000rp was top price for a racing camel, but 2,000rp for a shot one who would be dead in 6 weeks. We saw them fed in a silent orderly fashion from a long trough. Only as they had eaten enough did they start to walk around. Apparently they much prefer green leaves in the desert and on this diet can go 7 days without water or 31 without food.
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| BIKANER temple? |
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| BIKANER, High Street |
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| BIKANER Haveli? |
A hard single seven hour bus trip took us to Pushkar. We looked first at the White House hotel which wanted 200rp now but 1500rp for the festival. A new hotel owner took us there and waited in case we rejected, we did and went to his place Prafful (his son's name) and although y the marble floor, electrics, plumbing, and fittings like shelves and hanging hooks were ready, the walls were still only rough concrete render, reminiscent at the time of Geoffrey's house, looking back I had probably just finished his front first floor room following watching Stilts and a friend had being doing his bedroom. He was asking just 100rp now and 700rp for the festival, his d first booking, just half that of the White house. Was it just coincidence? Anyway we decided to stay and booked another 4 days for the festival. Later we found similar prices for the newly built Oasis Hotel complete with a swimming pool and fully tiled bathrooms. But we felt happy with the friendliness of the owner of Prafful and were only too glad to help finance his continuing investment, he stressed success over the festival was vital to provide him with funds. We knew felt we could leave our heavy luggage with him whilst we made a side trip to Bundi and Udaipur, hoping to meet up with Bryn and Mary in Bundi who were expected to visit for the night on a Jules Verne package holiday.
 |
| PUSHKAR, First brief visit |
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| PUSHKAR, Instrument for sale |
Cheap buffet meals were available at OM Shiva, a wide range of choice but rather bland for budget tourists and longer term hippies. Such hot buffets are one of the major sources of Dehli Belly, even in expensive hotels with much of the food being kept in cold storage from one day to the next. I remembered the Ministry of Defence pair from Hong Kong we met whilst trekking in Nepal who frequently traveled to India on business and said cheap hot street food never caused problems but high class hotels were far greater risks. A much better option was the DK Restaurant just across from the Brahma Temple, of which we became regular customers frequently finishing up eating a selection of sweets whilst sitting down on the mezzanine floor in a very Indian shop on the nearby shopping street, into which other tourists stopped to look but rarely ventured.
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| PUSHKAR BRAHMA TEMPLE |
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| PUSHKAR, pre-Festival, just starting |
BUNDI, 16-18 November
Another long bus journey took us to Bundi from Ajmer.
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| BUNDI TOWN |
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| BUNDI looking up at Palace and Fort on high |
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| BEDROOM in HAVELI BRAJ BUSHANGEE |
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| BEDROOM in HAVELI BRAJ BUSHANGEE |
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| BEDROOM in HAVELI BRAJ BUSHANGEE |
The entrance was by heavy double doors secured by a heavy chain, inside were carpets, pretty paintings, ornaments and mirrors, all totally in character. When I challenged the price I was told the price was needed to maintain the building. The current manager was the son, though the father ran the antique shop downstairs.
 |
| HAVELI BRAJ BUSHANGEE, GROUND FLOOR ANTIQUES SHOP |
Bundi is a quite charming walled town, lots of interesting architecture, palaces, forts, town houses, step wells and above all very friendly people. In the meantime we made friends with the man who had developed a lassi for 12rp from ice cream saffron, cashew and pistachio nuts, and currants. Joan and I were addicts - two a day if not three, the first for breakfast the last after dinner.
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| BUNDI ICE CREAM SHOP |
When we mentioned the absence of suitable places to eat meals he recommended the home cooking of the wife of the Billu Guide.
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| BILLU GUIDE and WIFE cook for us in BUNDI |
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| BUNDI STREET CRICKET, very first night |
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| BUNDI STREET CRICKET, with proper bat |
The longer we stayed the more we liked Bundi, wandering around to take photographs we ended up being invited to a boy's study bedroom accompanied by his proud mother and sister. He showed us his school books which looked impressively familiar. Very articulate in English, obviously good at maths, he was studying hard at school intending to become a doctor. Later as we were on our way to the station in a rickshaw, he waved us down and shook hands and wished us goodbye.
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| BUNDI, STUDENTS FAMILY PORTRAIT |
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| BUNDI, STUDENTS FAMILY PORTRAIT |
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| BUNDI MILK DELIVERY |
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| BUNDI GATE |
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| BUNDI MILK DELIVERY |
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| BUNDI Dancing to celebratewedding, just outside Haveli |
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| BUNDI Dancing to celebratewedding, just outside Haveli |
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| BUNDI Dancing to celebratewedding, just outside Haveli |
We investigated the step wells in more detail.
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| BUNDI STEP WELL |
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| NEAR BUNDI, KSHAR BAGH |
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| NEAR BUNDI, KSHAR BAGH |
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| NEAR BUNDI, KSHAR BAGH |
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| NEAR BUNDI, KSHAR BAGH |
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| BUNDI FORT |
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| BUNDI FORT |
UDAIPUR, 19-21 November.
We were ready on the empty platform to catch the 8am train to Chittorgarh which did not arrive till 9.15am. On the train we had a deep conversation with a young man returning from his engagement party. He was a representative of Total Oil and travelled widely in Kristan. His views were well expressed in excellent English, he valued the Indian idea of marriage to a single partner for life, thinking it the cornerstone of the means of transmitting the culture from one generation to the next, which providing the stability for raising children and caring for the extended family. He explained that as his duty, though one that did not prevent someone from leaving home or emigrating. We learnt of the enormous changes in Rajastan resulting from recent irrigation by Himalayan water. He sold a lot of his products to farmers who were now adopting tractors rather than camels for ploughing etc. Not bourne out by a view from the train window which revealed just one such tractor. He was amazed we had had a train which left early and was certain that could not have happened even a few years earlier, thinking that too was symptomatic of the changes now taking place in India. His is an address we regret not having or even a photograph. the reason was that a far less interesting passenger insisted on giving us his address and asking for a photograph to be sent to him.
The afternoon was spent viewing the vast palace complex at Chittaugarh . It was impressive but tiring though we had hired an extremely good English speaking tuk tuk driver as our driver and guide.
 |
| CHITTORGARH |
 |
| CHITTORGARH |
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| CHITTORGARH |
Around 7.30pm our bus arrived in Udaipur. a young fellow showed us where to get off, joined our rickshaw to the Lalghat GH. He was a painting student who was going to Manchester next month with a part of a team to promote Rajastan. We were later to meet a bunk of around 25 who were going to the Tate, Whitechapel, Imperial college, plus the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham on a similar exercises.
 |
| UDAIPUR |
These paintings are almost always copies of masterpieces or good interpretations of them by master painters. What their value is in the UK we had no idea, the prices being asked seem almost European, but the work involved is clearly huge and skillful.
 |
| UDAIPUR |
 |
| UDAIPUR |
 |
| UDAIPUR |
We visited a sort of Welsh St Fagans museum depicting traditional life.
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| SHILPGRAM CRAFT VILLAGE near UDAIPUR |
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| SHILPGRAM CRAFT VILLAGE near UDAIPUR |
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| Traditional Blacksmith SHILPGRAM CRAFT VILLAGE near UDAIPUR |
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| UDAIPUR, PALACE |
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| UDAIPUR, from our bedroom in lake wall |
I drank milk here for the first time of the trip at a stall which was very busy with trade from local men preparing for bed. I too hot my regular nightcap. Mine was served in a cheap throwaway unglazed pottery cup with at nightfall. True locals were served in far better cups which were washed up after use. Later experiences led me to belief this was because Hindus would not share food with us and that might be a sign of the Caste system at work. There were lots of restaurants around us but we were very unhappy with two of the five we tried, the exceptions were Majur and Anjani Roof Top.
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