Day 1
of your of trip - you will be met by our rep. at Delhi international
airport and will be transferred to hotel.
From your first glance
at the sprawling metropolis of Delhi you will immediately begin to
appreciate that India is a land of contrasts, a land of diversity
and variation unparalleled anywhere else in the world. Abject and
squalid slums sit incongruously alongside amazing modern buildings
of stunning beauty, like the lotus shaped Ba'hai temple. Five star
hotels are served by 1950's-vintage taxi cabs with engines the same
size as their batteries. Ten million people somehow manage to eke
out an existence in this city whose levels of activity continue to
escalate at an apparently unsustainable pace. At times confusing, at
times challenging and at all times chaotic, Delhi is never still,
never restful and never boring.
Day 2 will be used to break you in gently to the culture
shock some people experience in Delhi. We'll take a half-day guided
tour of Old Delhi including the Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque,
the impressive Red Fort and perhaps a rickshaw ride through the
tiny, crowded streets of the bazaars around Chandni Chowk. We can
also do some last minute shopping and preparations for tomorrow's
departure. We will need to be up and about early tomorrow, so a
quiet night is called for. Don't try to drink all of your duty-free
whisky tonight.
Day 3 has us rising early to leave the chaos of Delhi behind
before the peak hour traffic begins in earnest. We set a leisurely
pace and enjoy the burble of the bikes as we briefly take National
Highway 8 southwest from the capital and soon enter Rajasthan. We
leave the highway as early as possible and take to the back roads,
travelling only 120k for our first day's ride to Neemrana Fort
Palace. Covering some 25 acres of land and built in 1464, it is the
oldest heritage resort in all of India.
Day 4
The state emblem of Rajasthan
is the peacock and many can be spotted roaming freely in the rural
areas we traverse today on our way to the Shekhawati region, famous
for its beautiful havelis, those centuries-old mansions of wealthy
merchants and noblemen. Intricate frescoes and murals depict the
history of the area. Our stop for the night is a mediaeval castle,
the Mandawa Castle Hotel, near the regional capital of Jhunjhunu
where the British based their famed Shekhawati Brigade.
Day 5
sees us heading
directly west through arid wastelands, approaching the Great Thar
Desert which constitutes much of Rajasthan. Our destination today is
Bikaner, a town of half a million, once an important staging post on
the great caravan trading routes of the middle ages. Our
accommodation here is the impressive Gajner Palace, built on the
banks of a lake. Its architecture is a splendid example of the skill
of early craftsmen.
Day 6 will take us through progressively sparser vegetation
and population, to the remote outpost of Pokaran. An obscure little
spot until very recently, Pokaran is the nearest inhabited place to
the site of those notorious nuclear tests which India flaunted at
the rest of the world in 1998. The nearest we come to the site is
about 65km however, so we're not in much danger of radioactive
contamination. Still, if anyone's roommate should start glowing in
the dark, our tour leader would appreciate hearing
about it.
Day 7 brings us right into the heart of the desert. As we
approach the western extremities of India near the border with
Pakistan, an amazing spectacle rises from the floor of the Great
Thar Desert. This is Jaisalmer, a stunning fortress city looking
like something straight out of Arabian Nights or Ali Baba and the
Forty Thieves. With its incredible array of bastions, battlements
and ramparts, the colour of this sandstone fort at sunset has led to
Jaisalmer becoming known as the Golden City.
Day 8 is a
rest day which we will spend exploring Jaisalmer, perhaps with an
afternoon camel safari. In earlier days it truly was a golden city,
a place of great opulence on the caravan trading routes between
India and central Asia. In Jaisalmer, some of the population still
live within the walls of the Old City and fortress but in recent,
more peaceful times, the buildings have sprawled out into the desert
all around. A feature of Jaisalmer is the abundance of splendid
havelis; intricate carvings and works of art are commonplace and
visitors are welcome to roam freely.
Day 9 is our longest day in terms of kilometres travelled,
but the 300k to the Blue City of Jodhpur is mainly on good sealed
highway without too many traffic hassles. The Maharaja of Jodhpur
gave the world those wonderful horse-riding breeches of the same
name, which he had specially made by the court tailor after he found
it quite impossible to play polo with the British in his long,
flowing regal robes.
Day 10 is spent exploring Jodhpur. Although not appearing
blue from down at ground level, the view from the huge fortress of
Meherangarh Fort over the town is a true spectacle as all the
blue-washed Brahmin houses shimmer in the sunlight. The fort was one
of the film locations for the recent Disney re-make of Rudyard
Kipling's splendid The Jungle Book. We may also visit the Umaid
Bhawan Palace for lunch, a stunning Maharaja's palace now converted
into the largest ground-area 5 star hotel in India, with the Royal
Family still resident in one wing.
Day 11 and we proceed to Mt. Abu. In the very south of the
state on the border with Gujarat, this is the only 'hill station' to
be found in Rajasthan. The climate is a cool welcome relief from the
plains below, with the town spread along a hilly plateau at 1200
metres. Beautiful Nakki Lake is the primary attraction in the town,
very popular with honeymoon couples who come here and walk around or
paddle across it. The entire town is very picturesque.
Day 12 We start with a visit to the superb Dilwara Temples,
5km out of Mt. Abu. Dilwara is possibly the best preserved group of
Jain temples to be found in India, with intricate designs and marble
carvings unmatched anywhere else. In the afternoon we ride to
Udaipur, famous for the beautiful white Maharaja's palace in the
middle of Lake Pichola.
Day 13 is a rest day. As every second local will tell you, a
segment of James Bond's Octopussy was filmed here in Udaipur.
The lake palace, like so many others, has now been converted into a
luxury hotel and we can visit for lunch or afternoon tea to have a
look around. We shall spend some time on the lake in a solar-powered
tourist launch, and the sunset over the lake with a stunning white
palace provides great photo opportunities.
Day 14 Chittorgarh, perhaps more than any other fortress, is
symbolic of the futile, idealistic chivalry which was a way of
Rajput life in the middle ages. Frequently plundered and sacked by
superior invading armies, the warriors of Chittorgarh responded by
declaring jauhar, a ritualistic, macabre suicide pact. The men would
don saffron robes and ride out of the fort to meet certain death,
whilst the women and children would throw themselves on a huge
funeral pyre. Death before Dishonour was the paramount
consideration. In one single tragic case, 13,000 women and 32,000
warriors are said to have perished in this manner. Chittorgarh is
our destination for today
Day 15 We proceed to Pushkar, a peaceful and picturesque
little town for the eleven months of the year which do not have the
world-famous Pushkar Camel Fair. Thousands of camels, horses, cattle
and oxen are bought and sold with the enthusiasm and gusto that only
an Indian crowd of around 200,000 traders can muster. It's always
held at the time of the full moon in November, and is one of the
most colourful and flamboyant festivals in India.
Day 16
At other times of
the year, Pushkar is a peaceful and picturesque little town with its
beautiful lake a pilgrimage site for devout Hindus who come to bathe
in its waters. If we rise early we can catch the dawn bathing and
praying rituals ('puja') and watch the town come to life before we
ride to the Rajasthan capital of Jaipur, the Pink City. Pink is the
traditional Rajput colour of hospitality and many of the homes in
the Old City are this colour. The Hawa Mahal, Palace of the Winds,
is a fine example of Rajput craftsmanship in the centre of town.
Built 200 years ago to allow the ladies of the court to watch
everyday life in the streets below without themselves being observed
by probing eyes, the palace is virtually only a facade of fine
latticed windows in pink sandstone.
Day 17 sees us arriving at Ranthambhore National Park. This
is the headquarters of India's rather unsuccessful Project Tiger, a
noble but futile effort to ensure that the magnificent Bengal Tiger
had a sanctuary in the wild where it was safe from mankind's
ruthless greed. Unfortunately the Park officials, like so many of
India's bureaucracy, were often susceptible to bribery and
corruption and 'occasionally' turned a blind eye to poaching, with
the result that tiger numbers fell to an alarming 40-ish at one
stage. Things seem to be gradually improving in this regard however,
and the chances of seeing a tiger here are now better than anywhere
else on the subcontinent.
Day 18 will see us in the Park around sunrise, for an
elephant-back safari in search of the elusive tiger at his most
active time of the day. No guarantees though! Then we hit the road
again and head north to another sanctuary of a different kind;
Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. Even for non-birdlovers, this place is
quite spectacular. Some 415 bird varieties have been identified
here, migrating from as far away as Siberia in huge, apparently
unsustainable numbers. Upwards of 3000 painted storks have been
counted in one square kilometre of marshland.
Day 19 is when we leave Rajasthan behind and cross the state
border (although you won't notice it) into Uttar Pradesh. We shall
visit the incredible deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri, once the
capital of the Moghul Empire for a brief period before being
completely abandoned, due to a total lack of foresight in obtaining
a reliable water source! Then we proceed to Agra in time for a
sunset visit to that most famous of all Indian monuments, the Taj
Mahal. This mausoleum is without doubt the world's greatest symbol
of love, constructed between 1631 and 1653 by Emperor Shah Jahan as
an eternal tribute to his beloved wife Mumtaz who had died in 1629
perhaps not surprisingly, giving birth to their 15th child in 17
years.
Day 20 and those who wish can make a second pilgrimage to the
Taj Mahal at sunrise, to see the amazing change of colour effected
by different times of the day on the brilliant white marble. We then
head off on the last leg of our Safari to cover the 200km between
Agra and Delhi, which we should do easily by around lunchtime on
this recently improved highway. We convince you to return the
Enfields to their rightful owner, farewell you this evening with an
early meal in one of the popular restaurants in central Connaught
Place, then transfer you to the airport for the midnight . It's been
a lot of fun !
Day 21 Home sweet home. Go tell all your friends. |