Returned from our Thar Desert experience, we find ourselves in the golden city of Jaisalmer (Jye-sal-mere). Like Jodhpur, this remote city of 75,000 centres around a fort. The difference with Jaisalmer, is that it is a living fort and its precincts contain many homes, shops and hotels. This fact has also been the cause of major problems, with drainage and water causing subsidence and erosion of the fort's ancient foundations. It has resulted in Jaisalmer being ranked in...
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Now we have moved into southern Rajasthan, the scenery has altered from flat sparse horizons to mountainous and rocky, with verdant terraces of fledgling wheat crops and orderly regiments of sugar cane. Water is suddenly part of the scene and we stop to watch a man riding a bullock in circles. The animal’s effort drives a wheel of cans that lift water from a pond, to then pour it down the culverts surrounding the fields.
In all our driving I have been curious to note...
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We are progressing further into the lush zone as we leave Udaipur. We have a long drive and pass many large faggots of sticks with legs striding underneath, and there are rust coloured haystacks in the fields and many more shady trees.
Ganeshji takes us as far into the town of Jojawar as he can on the bus. We then get out and walk through the narrow streets and market stalls to find our last heritage hotel of the trip. Again, we receive a rolling drum welcome and...
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There is no denying the attractions of Pushkar. Famous for its annual camel fair, it also rates highly on the holy scale. The focal point of this valley town is the lake with its various bathing ghats.
I am now sitting in a rooftop café with a perfect view of white and blue walls, archways, cupolas and steps, all dutifully reflected in the fractured olive green glass of the lake. The golden afternoon haze makes this city blush bronze and the sparkles of distant saris...
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We have left Rajasthan and now find ourselves in UP (Uttar Pradesh). The scenery is becoming more lush and more widely cultivated. We pass many fields of mustard plants that remind me of the solid yellow rapeseed fields in Switzerland. The fields that aren’t bright yellow are bright green with wheat. Also more prolific now are the stacks and rows of drying cow patties. We pass them in circular fortress structures and in rows like plates in a drying rack. Every small...
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Even during the overnight train trip to Varanasi we could discern the rise in temperature. If we needed further evidence, the surrounding farmland was more extensively cultivated and was lush, bordering on tropical.
After we have had time to re-humanise ourselves following the thirteen-hour trip, a local guide takes us on a tour of the nearby town of Sarnath. This place is considered very holy due to its connections to the life of Buddha. It is here that he gave his...
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***Warning: this piece may engender severe derisive lip-curling in the more scientific amongst you***
Post morning pujah, I have granted myself the rest of the day off to try and reverse my exhausted consumptive state. Sarah ‘Holy Cow’ McDonald’s dicing with death by pneumonia is starting to figure in my imagination. And just quietly: what a killing that woman must be making on her story about her year off in India! I have not been in a single bookstore where it is not...
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