Hotel Shankar Palace Ajmer

... early morning walk up to Savitri Temple (Lady Brahma in brief) & the views over Pushkar (w/out the ghat) & confirming fewer camels. Always impressive to see the faith in the older people struggling up to the temple, conversely they then litter all over the place outside the temple. Monkeys, cafe, music shop(?) & offerings stall at top. Came back via the main Brahma Temple.
Back for a tortuosly slow lunch & then we took up an insistent ...

... where planting takes formal square and terraced forms, just like Persian water gardens. The old blue city was a real pleasure to walk thro’, after leaving the fort, as these were lovely narrow little streets with tiny, tiny shops and very small fruit and veg displays! Time is certainly standing still here!!

I had my first masala veg omelette in Jodhpur at Mr Omelette's stall (a place of some repute!), which was different!! Altho’ there was nothing ...

... was great. Whilst we waiting for our driver to stop taking the ****, Krishna told us the 'truth' about a lot of things; the 50% commission drivers/guides get for taking tourists to their restaurant or shop, the tourist traps, tipping etc and gave us advice on how to deal with it and the places to go instead. He was a funny chap, a part-time tour guide and part-time teacher, and my favourite Krishna quote of the day was 'they'll try to tell you to come to this restaurant ...

... nous mitraillons de photos !!! Bien oui moi j'avais jamais vu un elephant d'aussi pres. En voiture Deepti a essaye de prendre ces meme elephants en photos avec son telephone portoble, resultat, avec le mouvement : un cul, une tete, un espace mort entre deux elephants et un milieu avec une vague oreille, bref pas tres concluant de prendre un elephant d'une voiture :) Une fois dans le palais, nous suivons le guide qui nous explique l'histoire de la famille qui vivait ici ...

... was actually agreeable with me (it was probably 15 degrees with lots of cold cold desert air). So after enduring about 5 minutes of being followed around by a persistent dude in a neon orange shirt, I caved. "Take me to cheap hotel, yeah? 100 rs, yeah?" Well, I got 200 rs. a night for a massive cement block with a shower and flush toilet and a fan- pretty sweet deal, I'd say. It's in a place called Chit-chat [I have only been here 1 day so I can't say ...

... and driver for our time in Jaipur. Shakti was a very calm and safe driver - YAHOO! He took us to the Amber fort which was built in the 1500's by Raja Man Singh 1. This place had fantastic marble carved-walls and mirror-inlayed ceilings. From the look and layout of the palace, this king really knew how to live. After that we had a bite to eat at a local restaurant and went to the Jaigarh fort which houses the world's largest cannon. The ...

... at 2:00. You have to laugh, or you'll lose your mind.. Sooo... yeah, no 10:45 pm train to Ajmer, where we were going to make that bus connection and see Pushkar. PLUS... I'd booked overnight tickets from Ajmer back up to Delhi for the following night- I have a plane that leaves out of Delhi today (that's actually where I am right now) and couldn't miss that. Because I wouldn't be able to get a full refund (again, only half) of the ticket ...

... there prices up but this is extreme, to be fair though at least in this case the price rise is mainly sue to massive improvements to facilities probably funded by LP following tourists. Horrified at the expense i waste an hour an a half in the heat trying to find somewhere cheaper before giving up and getting a 500 rupee room. It's a great room full of things i don't really need,, like hot en-suite bathroom, a TV to watch the ...

... in the sacred lake.Ajmer is a travel delight, bustling with activity and noise, sights and sound, it is a place that's guaranteed to overwhelm the senses of any tourist. for complete article, go to http://www.dazzlingindia.com/aboutajmer .html

Day 86 Thurs 2nd Feb 2006 I LOST MY SHADES!!! A lot of stuff happened to day but above all I LOST MY SHADES!!! I am absolutely gutted about it, these are the limited edition Police shades I brought from Dubai. They are the ones I'm wearing in my picture on the landing page for this site. I don't know what happened or where they went, I think either the driver from this morning has them or someone took them from my room this morning. Anyway this is how it all went... I woke up at 6 ...