Rajasthan

From Agra we made our way towards Rajasthan with our private driver, Babu. Babu was the nicest man, in his mid-50s, did not speak much English, but was very sweet and friendly. We spent a lot of time in the car over the next few weeks - traveling from city to city takes several hours as public transportation is slow and infrequent. Plus it was a nice perk having a private, air conditioned car waiting for us whenever we stopped off to do some sightseeing or shopping. On our Rajasthan tour we would make stops at Jaipur, Pushkar, Jodhpur, Ranakpur, and Udaipur before circling back to Delhi.
We stayed in Jaipur for 3 nights, as it is a rather large city with a lot of sights to see. The hotel was the nicest we've stayed at in a long time - it was very new and beautifully decorated with bright, traditional Indian fabrics and paintings. We loved how everything in India is so bold and colorful, from clothes to jewelry to wall coverings to temple sculptures. The colors radiate happiness and give a positive vibe. We saw tons of sights in Jaipur - Fatehpur Sikri, Amber Fort, Karnak Garden, City Palace, Jantar Mantar, Hawa Mahal, Albert Hall, Nahargarh Fort, Birla Mandir, and Jaigarh Fort. It's probably not much to read the names of all of these temples and forts without any pictures, but they are all truly beautiful inside and out. There are statues and paintings covering the walls, and bright flowers everywhere as offerings. We will try to get some pictures up as soon as we can, but in the meantime Google a few of them and check them out... We also added another mode of transport to our list by climbing on the back on an elephant for a quick ride down a road.

Pushkar had more of a small town feeling to it than Jaipur, the town is centered around a lake where everyone gathers to watch the sunset and relax. Pushkar is also where the annual Camel Fair is located but unfortunately we were a few weeks early and did not get to see it. Sarah and I share a love of camels and were a bit disappointed that we missed the camel beauty contest, but at least we did get to see tons of camels alongside of the road chilling with the sacred cows. The markets in Pushkar were exactly what we had been looking for - small mom-and-pop owned shops lining the sides of the streets that offered a wide array of clothes, jewelry, and trinkets at very cheap prices. Sarah is the master bargainer and worked her skills to get us some dirt cheap earrings and bracelets, I'm talking less than US $1 for a set of 10 bangle bracelets. By the time we left India we were both covered in bright colored jewelry, scarves, and clothes.

We next headed to Jodhpur which is another semi-large city with more sights than Pushkar. Jodhpur is called "The Blue City" because many of the houses are painted sky blue. From Mehrangarh Fort you can overlook the entire city and see lines of blue houses, very pretty. We became friendly with one of the guys whose family owned the hotel we were staying at and he promised to take us to get some really good, really spicy Indian food at a friend's restaurant. Sarah and I both love spicy food but were slightly disappointed at the spice level we'd encountered thus far - at every restaurant we would tell the waiters to make our food VERY spicy but most of them raised their eyebrows in disbelief that 2 Western girls were requesting very spicy food so we are convinced that they toned it down. The food was always delicious, but not as spicy as we hoped so we were excited that our friend would be able to tell his friends at the restaurant that we were serious about spice. We order our standard dishes - chana masala, dal makhani, stuffed tomatoes, and mixed vegetables - and this time we finally got the desired spice level, our tongues burned in delight. In Jodhpur, Babu took us to a textile studio where we bought some beautiful handmade duvet covers and pillow cases. We told ourselves that we were done shopping but could not turn down the amazing prices and knew that we would think of our journey every time we use them in the future.

After Jodhpur we switched gears again and headed out of the city into the wilderness to stay a night in Ranakpur. We stayed at an awesome little lakeside lodge that was surrounded by green mountains and was just so peaceful and serene. In the afternoon we relaxed by the lake and read (we have both become hopelessly addicted to the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer). At night all we could hear was the sound of crickets as opposed to the constant honking of tuk-tuks, it was a very pleasant change. The main sight in Ranakpur is a temple that most tourists skip over...big mistake, it was our favorite temple on the entire tour, and we saw a lot of temples. The inside of the temple was open so there were trees and plants growing inside, and birds flying around and making nests at the tops of the columns. It had a wilderness-type feel to it and was so quiet compared to many of the temples we had seen in the big cities. In our opinion, it was definitely worth the long drive to Ranakpur to see it.

Our last stop was Udaipur. The wife of the Ambassador of Finland was staying at the hotel and she asked the owner if he could arrange a show of traditional dancing and food for her and her guests so we were graciously invited to join them. The owner of the hotel arranged for several musicians and dancers to come and he set up the roof top balcony with candles, flowers, and cushions for us to sit on and watch the show. We drank some wine, ate some great Indian food cooked by the hotel owner's wife, and watched the dancers perform. The Finnish people were having the time of their lives and went crazy when the dancers pulled us all up off of our cushions to dance with them, it was a fun night that we will never forget. During the day we visited the City Palace, Jagdish Temple, Pichola Lake, and Ghangharu Ghat. The Palace was massive and had incredible views of the entire city. All of the palaces and forts are situated at the highest point in each city so they can look over everything. Our last stop was Siglp Village where we were able to see how families from all different parts of Rajasthan live and how their customs are part of their lives. We saw everything from traditional huts to small temples to schools, all of which were so different from region to region.

What impressed us most about India is the vast differences between each city and town that we visited. While we were only in a relatively small region of the country, every city had its own unique feel and culture. We both wanted to spend time in the South but were happy that we decided to focus on the North to really get a feel for each city instead of running around too much to see more. India is a country that is so culturally rich and beautiful, being in all the temples was especially touching and special. It was an unforgettable experience.