We left BCS in a slight panic on Monday evening last week and caught the overnight bus to Delhi. Then we spent the day wandering around the city, saw Parliament and the Presidential Palace where the recent BRICS talks were carried out.
Then jumped on the overnight train to Jodphur, caught a tuk-tuk to our havelli and explored the city. Over the two days we checked out the old city, the fort, Umaid palace and a maharaja's memorial to his late wife, a kind of mini Taj Mahal.
Then there was a five hour bus ride to Jaisalmer, a beautiful, remote city built around a fort whose claim to fame these days is running camel safaris. So we sourced a bloke who had some blokes who could pay some blokes who would take us out into the Thar Desert on a couple of camels. It was a brilliant thing to do, it sounds really cliched and touristy but I'd forgotten how amazing it is sleeping out under the stars in the desert. Then we checked out Jaisalmer fort, which is still in full use, with people living, working, eating and doing everything else inside the walls. Not quite as big walls, massive towers, full on cool fort as Jodphur but just as interesting.
After pottering around for a bit longer we jumped on a bus and slept the night away to Jaipur. Despite it being part of the Golden Triangle our first impressions were slightly underwhelming but after a bit of time by a pool and a visit to Amber Fort we left the city with warmer feelings.
A 18 hour bus brought us back up to Shimla, it would have been a fair amount longer but our bus driver got high and then sped up the Himalayas with tyres squealing centimetres from the edge of 100 foot precipices. All good fun and at least we got there quickly.
I'll write up each city properly soon but for those who have proper jobs or loads of kids and then here's the bulletin.
Cheers
Max
No comments:
Post a Comment