Alternative Christmas in Rajasthan

My recent experience of setting sail across the rough seas of divorce have taught me that no two people sharing exactly the same experience will remember it in the same way. It all depends on your life experiences, how you see things and what you are interested in. I say this by way of a caveat, this blog is merely MY experience, to give anyone interested in a similar trip some sort of a taster, but it can’t convey the smells, the smiles, the kindness and the wonderment that is India!! The first dilemma when travelling alone is the single supplement! I have travelled a lot and recently I have been visiting places in Europe and staying at hostels with up to 12 people sharing a mixed dormitory so I am not bothered about sharing but this holiday was a luxy treat for me .... What if the other person snored or spent ages in the bathroom??? In the end I decided to save my pennies and as luck would have it everyone else paid the supplement so I ended up having a room for myself an...

Delhi We arrived early morning at Delhi and met up as a group for the first time ...... 8 of us, all travelling alone except two ladies who are travel buddies and all women except for one, Julian.  Amazingly all of our names turned out to begin with an "A", "J" or "L"! We were met at the airport and transferred to the Claridges hotel.... where Christmas was already in hand....... A quick wash up and we left for a tour of Old Delhi. A sheik temple where food was made and available for everyone, thousands of meals a day.  Anyone can volunteer to make chapatis and we were made to feel very welcome to join in, learn and make a few.....  but there was also a more industrial machine that made them in much larger quantities to cope with the enormous numbers of people who come to eat at the temple every day. The quantities of food made and the size of the cooking containers was amazing. This is a social leveller - it doesn't mat...

Entertainment en route to the airport was a quick look at the "brides and grooms wanted" section! We flew to Udaipur and the n drove about 3 hours to the Castle Hotel in Bijaipur  where we received a warm welcome.   The central part of the Castle was  built  in the early 16th Century by Rao Vijay Singh a  descendant  of the great Rajput warrior Shakti Singh, the younger brother of Marharana Pratap.  The present family are thirteenth generation to call the Castle home. This is a special place - words don't really do it justice - images give a flavour but don't convey the smells of the flowers and cooking and endless smiles of the staff.                                                                     ...