Day 28: Jaipur - Bikaner

Amber Castle


Maharadjah Palace


Lining up to worship Shiva and Durga

We spent the morning at Jaipur visiting the castle where an immense line of pilgrims, men on one side, women on the other, came to worship Durga, wife of Civa and mother of Ganesh.
Normaly we get to the castle on an elephant back, due to the number of pilgrims, for security we used jeeps instead. I am not sure the security improved drasticaly.
We then drove to Bikaner, getting deeper in the Rajastan desert, close to the Pakistan border. It is hot, still 43C in the car. For the first time we took some rest in the pool. Refreshing.

Day 27: Delhi - Jaipur

Short drive to Jaipur; 222 km, however it took us 5 hours, or an average speed of 44km/h. This in spite of a 4 lane divided highway. The notion of a highway is slightly different here. Nothing keep people from making U-turns, drive on the wrong side, use ox-cart, so minimum speed may be close to zero, mostly if a truck drivers takes a nap next to his truck, right on the highway itself.
The scenery has changed, sand and palm trees have appeared, together with camel driven carts and elephants. During this journey, we will have seen a very large sample of the animal kingdom.

Camel cart

Elephant ride

Jaipur is called the “Pink City”, which is the color of the st cartones used to build the palaces, the fort and the walls. It is where we spent most of the afternoon.

The gate of the winds
We visited also the bazaar where you may find anything except what you are looking for. Next to each and every monument, there is a cloud of souvenir sellers that will never give up, they follow you until you buy or until your car is at full speed.
Surprisingly there are no beggar, this mean that the country, however poor, has made significant economic progress in the recent years.