Rajasthan Part 1, on the way to Bikaner

We had been wanting to go to Rajasthan for a long time. Both Cindy and I were too busy to do the trip planning so we called a travel agent we use sometimes and asked him to put together a tour for us. Maya was sick the week before the trip, so we almost ended up cancelling, but in the end Maya went along and she recuperated along the way. We had seen Jaipur on our trip to Taj Mahal and Jaipur in 2008, so we skipped Jaipur, and started with Bikaner.

We didn't actually start in Bikaner, we flew to Delhi and then got in a car for a 6 hour drive to a horrible little hotel not far from Jaipur. Diwali is a busy time in Rajasthan, so we weren't able to fly to Jaipur which could have saved us a day in the car, but so it goes. The hotel, Gulmohar Sariska resorts, was a substitution since the travel agent had enquired about if we would have to cancel and our original hotel had then given our reservation away. This one was supposed to be better. The restaurant was just in the entry hall which was this large cavernous room, with poor lighting, the tables weren't particularly clean, and the food was average. The rooms were not well kept, the back door to our room didn't close properly, but you couldn't leave it open as there was no mosquito screen and there were monkeys ready to invade. We were really wondering what we were in for with this first night. When we got up in the morning, there was no hot water. Apparently the power was out and the geysers dont run on the backup generator.

When we checked in they told us we could arrange for a visit to the nearby wildlife park and it would take about 4 hours to see. Then we could start on the 7 hour trip to Bikaner. We declined the wildlife park, we've seen others and wanted to not have too long a day for Maya as she was still recovering from Strep.

We left the following morning early on recommendation from our driver Mr. Sardar Singh. He was really a good driver, very cautious, and a genuinely gentle soul. Unfortunately his english was not the best, so long conversations were not easy. He packed us in the car and we started off. I got my first photo of the trip of a truck we followed down this narrow road. I just loved the messages on the back of the truck. Not perfect grammar or spelling, but it gets the point across.


We soon discovered that one of the main reasons for the trip taking so long to Bikaner, was the road. As you can see it was one lane wide, if that, and full of potholes. So going 30 Kilometers took us over two hours. Fortunately most of the roads in Rajasthan were excellent and this was a true anomaly. As we were going further into Rajasthan and more into desert country for the first two days, it got hazier and hazier. To the point that I was truely concerned for our desert camping plans as we were to see the lovely stars from the desert. But more about that later.

Yes it is a bi-directional road and many times we had to pull over to the side to let some large truck or bus go by the other direction.

It wasn't quite desert yet, but the landscape was very different from what we are used to seeing in Bangalore.

Everything was very dry, hardly any trees. Along the sides of the roads, trees which had been planted were surrounded by protective walls about 1.5-2 meters high so that they could grow without getting eaten by the goats, cows, camels and other animals which would come to browse. We also encountered the first of many 'mini-buses' along the roads. These were large Jeeps. Usually the women would ride inside, and if there was room, the men would too. Here you see the men riding on the back because there are about 25 people inside. These were commonplace all across Rajasthan. Also Rajasthan is the first place where I have seen it common to ride on top of the larger busses. In south India I haven't seen that so much. 50Kph, or 30Mph wasn't an unusual speed for these jeeps with hangers on...

We stopped along the way at a water tank which is several hundreds of years old. It looks abandoned, but is used obviously for partying as evidenced by all the broken beer bottles. The driver told us it does fill with rainwater still and gets used when it has water in it.


Fortunately after a couple of hours the road opened up and was in excellent shape. So we didn't have to bounce the whole way to Bikaner. We had intended to make a side trip to Mahensar to see the Havelis there, but both the driver and the hotel had told us this would be a 2-3 hour diversion. So we looked in the guide book and found another town which had interesting Havelis as well. We stopped off there for a while, wandered around the town and saw the Havelis. Also got to start seeing the Rajasthani Women in their colorful dress. Some of the locals were absolutely beautiful, but I didn't dare ask them if they would stop for a photo. I should have.

And by comparison, the men dress very western for the most part. The one difference is there are a lot of turbans. This guy was proud of his donkey, but a bit shy.


We stopped along the road at a "tourist restaurant" for lunch. We had the experience the day before of having a tremendously overpriced meal at one of these stops and noticed that the Indians got a different menu. Well actually the same menu with lower prices (often by an order of magnitude). So we were determined not to be taken advantage of again. When we saw the prices being high again, we complained to the waiter, he talked to the owner and gave us a discount. At least the food was pretty good. And we felt like we'd gotten a better price, though still overpriced. But these places do offer a service, clean bathrooms and a place to stop on the long dusty roads.


After lunch we arrived in Bikaner and met our first Guide. He showed us the fort, the first of many, with its gold painted rooms, swing for Krishna, and many additions over the years. It was in relatively good shape, built along the Silk Road in the 15th Century, started by Rao Bika.

After touring the fort, we visited a camel research farm run by the local government. We learned that there are 3 types of camels in the area, one of which has curly hair. Also the best camel wool comes from the chin of the camel. We got to see them milk the camels, and I even had a taste of camel milk ice cream. Very rich, I have to say. Supposedly it is a bit salty, but I couldn't tell. Cindy had a coffee with Camel's milk.

We ended our day at a hotel which was a former palace on a lake, it is now run by the descendant of the former king of Udaipur who has a set of these hotels and other ventures to try to keep the heritage of Rajasthan alive and fund the things he needs to do in his "kingly" role.