Travelling through Rajasthan

It’s the fifth of January now and it is freezing cold.. Or at least that is how I perceive the, say, twelve degree Celsius temperature we face outside. After four months of seemingly never ending summer the sudden shift in temperature is quite unwelcome. Worst part is that buildings here are not equipped with central heating and the like because eleven out of twelve months those facilities are rather superfluous. Now however the fans at the ceiling haven’t moved in weeks and the cold in creeping in through the walls, we are wearing jackets and scarves inside the house and at night several layers of blankets are necessary for a good night of sleep. Another surprise of India I’d say.

Little hinder from cold I had the days in between Christmas and New year’s eve, when I was travelling with Antonia from Denmark, a good friend of mine who came over for ten days. Rajasthan is known as the ‘desert state’ of India and the clear blue skies and the ever present sun make weather conditions even pleasant this time of the year. Five days and four nights our journey took and we have visited some of the most beautiful places of India. Not having slept in a hotel room even once during this time must be a good indication of the distance we have covered, as the nights were consecutively spent on a train, a bus, the desert and again on a bus.

Udaipur is a lovely town with cozy buildings, a beautiful inner city, foothills with wild parks surrounding the conglomerations, and the famous lake palace as the outstanding tourist attraction. After having spent one day there –far too little but lack of time made us do so- we moved on to Jaisalmer, where we engaged in a so called desert safari by camel. Spending the night under the starts with nothing more to cover ourselves than some dirty blankets was definitely a great experience!

The journey back to Delhi by bus took another 21 hours but was definitely enjoyed to the fullest extend. Please take a look at the pictures, I hope they can supply some insight in the great time we had!