Ashoka Hotel Jodhpur

We reached Jodhpur early morning and checked in our hotel. After a quick breakfast we left for sightseeing the place. We hired an autorickshaw for Rs350 for the entire day. Our first place of visit was Umaid Bhawan Palace, a massive modern palacial complex which is now a heritage hotel. Only a part of this palace is open to the visitors. The things that you must see here includes the collection of ...

... Each group was trying to cut down the nearby kites with swift manouvering of their own kite, and hollering with glee when they succeeded, just like in The Kite Runner book. The kids on our roof managed to cut down about 5, one of which went down over the wall of the fortress as the kites soared so far up! We both had a turn but weren't very good, and the kite soon came plummeting down into the sea of blue building-block houses. <br><br><br><br> <br>

... a little into his cupped hand and the guest drinks it from his hand. I was allowed to try it but elected to drink in from my own hand. Judith declined but instead was given a small bead of opium to chew. Neither one of us had any effects but it was interesting. It turns out that this area consumes a lot of opium-to the point that addition is a social problem. We said our goodbyes, paid a nice tip to Chief, and headed back ...

... world. Stunning is probably a good way to describe these mainly white buildings, particularly within the context of the lake and the backdrop of mountains to the west. The boat stopped briefly at the winter palace, which now operates as a rather swish café. We strolled around this for about 15 minutes only and enjoyed the ambience of the place before getting back on the boat for our return to shore in time for another lovely sunset.

... Jess bought a beautiful sheet with red elephants and mirrors on it. love it. Our third stop was a shepherds village which was practically deserted as all the livestock and their minders had gone to find greener climates but our guide insisted that we see inside their houses which were made of mud and straw but we felt a little like we were imposing. We walked around the village for a while and then were invited to have lunch at a local house where the owners were from a ...

... at a little hut that seemed to be empty, for lunch. Tiger made it, it was simple but really good. We slept for a couple hours. We were mayve a ten minute walk away from the sand dunes. We had the option of sleeping there, which is cool but not as nice as the wind blows the sand in your face, or outside the hut, or inside I suppose if we wanted. Jess and I decided to sleep by the hut, but walk over to the dunes, a very good decision as it ...

... and they were lots of fun but it made me realize how much I like traveling alone as well. I'm doing much better at that now. My first two days were kind of lonely and stressful, and I was rather desperatley hoping I would meet up with someone to travel with. But now I'm really happy on my own. If I meet up with Sarah or Amber I'm not sure I'd spend more than a few days with them. Then this morning, I was considering taking the 5:45 train from Jodhpur to Jaiselmer ...

... on yesterday and was totally covered, but this sun is brutal. So, cannot tell you about the safari to look at crafts of the locals, except to say one stop included tasting liquid opium, which is drunk freely by the natives.. But I did explore this palace/hotel. There are columns throughout each floor, and one quickly discovers, there are security guards hiding everywhere. A guest barely begins to walk before being approached by a ...

... How do such things become holy? Whilst in Bikaner we took a bus out to Deshnok to visit the famed Karni Mata temple. The night before I sent several emails informing my nearest and dearest I would be wading courageously through the "thousdands of holy rats" that call Karni Mata home. The guidebook informed us that having a rat run over one's feet is deemed very lucky. I wanted to be petrified, I wanted to stiffle squeals, I wanted to boast afterwards. The temple was ...

... into your bag for stuff which surprised me. But most people seem to really like having their picture taken with a digital camera because they can see it immediately on the camera. So I have alot of very posed pictures, luckily you don't have to see them all! We then headed to Jodhpur for a night and visited the fort and saw all the blue houses in town. spent some time in the market and just ...