Our Tour Through Rajasthan

Sadly, our trip through Rajasthan is all finished :(  We had some great (and not so great) experiences while we toured through this beautiful province.  I think another picture story is in order.

Jaipur was not only the first stop on our toar but one of my favourites.  The people were very friendly- not unlike all of India but here was different.  Yes, it was a tourist stop (one of the stops in the popular Golden Triangle) but you could walk just a few blocks away from the old walled city and enter a more authentic, non tourist district.  The sights where fantastic, varied and different.  The five days that we spent here went by in the blink of an eye.  Go to Jaipur, you won't be disappointed !

One of the many instruments at Jantar Mantar, an astrological

observatory built in 1728.

Don't ask me what this particular device does as they were all very complicated.

The main bazaar in Old Jaipur.

In 1876, the old walled city was painted pink to welcome

visiting royalty and is still kept up to this day.

This was a Bazaar unlike any other as it was clean, organized and had numbered shops.

These Elephants make the hike back and forth, up a steep hill to

the Jaigarh Fort, just outside of Jaipur.

As tempted as I was to ride the elephants, I refrained.  Due to the lack of water

these elephants are suffering from overheating and stress.

Our lovely oasis just outside of the Old City.

It was a nice change to wake up to a rooster crow instead of

honking horns, dogs barking and salesman selling produce.

And who doesn't love a rooster friend?

Ah, Sawai Madhopur, what can I say, I hated this place.  I had a moment (the first one) where I questioned

how long I could handle India.  The town was overpriced and had nothing to offer other than an alarmingly large amount of mosquitos.  The resident animals here weren't cows or dogs but boar.  Freaky wild boar.  They reminded me of Princess Mononoke and it weirded me out.  Gross!!!  We saw Tigers, that was sweet

but other than that- don't go to Sawai Madhopur unless you like boar and bugs.

He He , moving on to my favourite- Udaipur.  I LOVE Udaipur.  We met some great people here and had a chance to learn a bit more about Indian culture.  We experienced a puppet show, the freedom of scooting around the coutryside and drank 'special lassi' on Shiva's Birthday.  I had the greatest, most life changing massage and a stuffed potato (Dum Aloo Masala) that should only exist in dreamland!  Chai, Chillum, Chapati anyone?

A sweet puppet museum.  Kinda creepy but super cool!

Everyone- this is the largest turban on EARTH!!  Yeah, are you jealous yet?

So random, I love it!

The view of Udaipur from the rooftop of our Guesthouse.

We heard many stories on this rooftop, made great friends and had some good times, including the hookah below.  Dan waited for a long time to have this and it was TASTY!  Mmmmm apple!

Wandering through the back alleys in the town.  Beautiful :)

After we left Udaipur, we took a long bus ride to Pushkar.  Boo!  I wasn't the hugest fan of this town.

There were too many tourists and hippies, which meant high prices and an all around shitty vibe.  This city is a great place to hang out if you want to get away form India, chill and buy souveniers.  Not a fan.

OK, it did have one thing going for it- the cows where SUPER friendly.  We pet this one like it was a pup.

Beautiful South Indian style temple.  I was so excited to see it, took off my shoes to enter and was stopped by a guard before I could enter the grounds.  Apparently, this temple is for locals only!  I was pissed!!

I was able to take a picture from the gates but left pretty angry.  That was the first time we encountered this on our trip and I was shocked.  This didn't help the Pushkar vibe much at all.

Sunset at the ghats.  Yes, this is beautiful and I enjoyed this moment.

All in all, a wonderful trip through Rajasthan. I hope you enjoyed our journey as well! As a side note, I have changed the settings on our blog to allow anyone to comment, not only 'Followers' with registered accounts... So if you have a comment or question, feel free to post!