The Two Laid-Back Towns of Pushkar and Bundi - March 10-17 2015

We started our journey to Bundi with a local bus (190 Rs, 4 hours ) from Udaipur bus station that dropped us off at Beejoliya junction where we hitchhiked on the back of a pickup truck (0 Rs 10 Min) to Beejoliya bus station and from there took another local bus (38 Rs, 2 hours) to Bundi. In hindsight we realize it was probably a better idea to take a train from Udaipur like people suggested to us (but it arrives late at night so we decided to go for the bus option, oops).

Udaipur and Around by Photos- March 4-9 2015

Stayed at: Udaipur- the lovely Hotel Hanuman Ghat @ 500 Rs, nice rooftop restaurant as well- yummy mix veg, Kumbhalgarh- Lucky Guesthouse, tent @ 400 Rs.

Ate at: Black Pepper great eggplant curry (offers good value cooking classes), Queen Cafe  delicious mango curry (the charming owner Meenu also does cooking classes and culture tours that are highly recommended @1200 Rs each, we passed). 

Did yoga with: Prakash, near foot bridge, 2 daily classes on donation basis.

Roaming around Rajasthan - the Pink City and Shekhawati's Havelis-Feb 19-23 2015

Welcome to Rajasthan: where every man wears a turban, every building is a Haveli, and every city has a fort, a palace or both!

We arrived in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, worn out after a 36-hour train from Puri and splurged on a room in Rajputana family guesthouse (the excuse was that it was Daniel's birthday), which was a nice and welcoming place with a very friendly owner but not really worth the price of 1400 Rs (though it did include a nice home-cooked breakfast). 

We explored the old city known as the Pink City for the color of many of the buildings in its impressive list of monuments, checking out the Hawa Mahal, the Jantar Mantar observatory, Swargasuli Tower, and no less than three forts: Nahargarh, Jaigarh featuring the worlds biggest canon, and the spectacular Amber Fort + Palace (two in one!) just outside the city. For his birthday Daniel's only humble request was to see a movie, so we watched yet another Bollywood movie Badlapur at the famous pink Rajmandir cinema in town, though we were rather disappointed to find out it was a serious drama telling a story of revenge (no dancing or singing at all) and was hard to follow at times considering our lacking knowledge of Hindi. We had a nice dinner at the Peacock restaurant on the roof of the deservedly popular Pearl Palace hotel (where we originally tried to book a room but were too late) and a nice coffee at the modern Nibs cafe, when we were not sampling Rajasthan's great street food. 

Our next stop in our grand month-long Rajasthani tour was the Shekhawati region north of Jaipur, famous for the beautiful and colorful painted Havelis which are historical private mansions found all over Rajasthan. We took a government bus to the town of Nawalgarh (women get 30% discount!) and stayed for two days in the homey and serene DS Bungalow (room @ 600 Rs) owned by the friendly Bunty and his wife Pinky who cooks delicious fresh food (though a little over-priced). We walked around town hunting down the many Havelis, some more impressive than others, and encountered a nice street parade honoring lord Krishna, hitching a ride back to the hotel on a donkey-drawn carriage. The next day we cycled to the nearby village of Dundlod ( bicycles @ 100 Rs from the guesthouse) where we met some friendly locals and visited yet another fort, nowadays functioning as a hotel. We left early the next morning heading to the town of Bikaner.