Alternative Christmas in Rajasthan

Chittaurgarh We were picked up in a couple of jeeps for our hours drive to Chittaugarh. The drive over was very scenic, and at the top of most hills was a temple, but the levels of pollution were clearly visible.   A "whose's looking at who" moment and a temple atop the hill           A lovely drive down towards chittaurgarh              The huge Chittaurgarh Fort, 13 kms in circumference, looks down at the city below           Daily life as we passed by. I think the sacking was probably being used to slow the drying time of the concrete that was being laid. The area is famous for local marble and granite its many cement factories.                     The Fort Now this was a surprise - it is the largest fort not just in India but in all of Asia, and is now a UNESCO world heritage site.  Ashame...

Opium tea-drinking ceremony    Our evening began with a visit to the fields where the poppies are grown. They are grown under a licence from the government which dictates how much land can be used, how many kgs can be grown and the price that the government will pay for it .... Farmers here are licensed to grow 0.1 ha (0.25 acre) of poppies and to maintain their licence have to produce 56kg of raw unadulterated paste for which they are currently paid 3500/-rs per kg (approximately £44). However, if they manage to grow more than the prescribed amount it will fetch 80 - 90,000/- rs (£1,000 - 1,125).  There was a look out den beside the crop so that someone can keep an eye out for animals that might stray there.          The poppy flowers are white and the seed heads formed were larger than I had expected. The skin of the ripening pod is scored with a nushtar or nishtar (from Persian word meaning lancet) which carries 3 or 4 blades 3mm...