Glorious, mad Rajasthan.
So far so good, no Delhi Belly, no holy cow, lots of crazy new experiences.
Day one on our own we very bravely took on the amazing Delhi Metro. Installed in 2002 it is fast, efficient, easy to navigate and very very crowded. I cannot imagine the disruption to an already chaotic city when they were building it. Like many things it is difficult to see the patterns and order and how things are working but slowly it is emerging....I think.
Arriving in the middle of the night meant we missed seeing the Himalayas from the plane but had the huge advantage that we arrived when the city was asleep and getting through the streets to the hotel was painless. At night the heavy deliveries are moved so the taxi was occasionally sandwiched between one truck ahead and one on each side but he swiftly nipped and tucked and we got therein , by Delhi standards, warp speed.

First stop the centre of New Delhi, designed by Lutyens, Connaught Place is all big white colonnaded buildings, all the same, in two concentric circles around a park. The touts were out in force. This is Delhi's preeminent shopping area with all the big international shops from MacD's to Gucchi. Having walked the circle avoiding touts at every step we retreated to a Costa (like Starbuck's) to catch our breathe.....at the price too, gasp.
Next stop the Red Fort, altogether more crazy. Chandi Chowk is aptly named. The people, vehicles, dogs, and pollution was amazing. Our rickshaw cyclist must have lungs of iron. The fort itself was a haven of peace thankfully and the highlight for me was actually an exhibition of contemporary Korean arts. Stunning pieces of ceramic, wood, metal and fabric arts.
By the time we finally mad contact with our group we felt like seasoned Indian travellers.

Our group of twelve come from all over and are a diverse mix. No doubt the next blogs will have more on the various characters but for now I will just say that they are a fun and interesting crowd thrown together with a somewhat common objective. Our guide is a rum-loving Indian of Nepali extraction, called Nivan or "Guru".

The first day was to include several stops around Delhi but by the time we got going and negotiated rush-hour traffic (beyond imagination!!) we actually only toured one area. The spice market, though actually we didn't see much spice for sale was full of men apparently working though it was hard to see what was being done. At the red mosque (red sandstone) we saw nothing much but a huge square able to hold 25,000 worshippers on holy days. Oh well the views were terrific. Much more interesting was the Sikkh Gurdwara. Here they had a very ornate prayer room with singers chanting and people moving in and out, loads of flowers, coloured carpets, and light, and behind a whole complex of immaculate housing for pilgrims and visitors and kitchen all full of volunteers preparing food for all comers. We "helped" with some chapati rolling. The enormous cooking pots all bubbling like cauldrons were almost scary. Like hell's kitchen all steam and giant ladles and people standing on platforms to stir.
The train for 19 hours overnight was a small squash as you can imagine. 8 berths per section was fine but luggage storage was difficult. I spent he time fighting a migraine and throwing up so cannot say it was a fun experience.
Jaisalmer is glorious though and well worth the journey. Our room in the fort looks over the

battlements and is semi-circular so has windows on three sides. Built of yellow sandstone it is the last inhabited fort in India and glows in the desert sun. Just exactly like something out of the Arabian Nights. The buildings are extremely ornate and haven't suffered from erosion at all, it is a Muslim area 150 kms from the Pakistan border and the buildings are airy and full of stone latticework to catch the desert breezes. There are also hundreds of wind turbines on the horizon. 20% of the power consumed locally and the rest sent east to the bigger cities. The seven Jain temples have sculpted towers and are magnificent inside. They have no taboos against using humans and nature as objects of art and one temple had the entire Kama Sutra on a frieze around the central prayer area. Apparently it was a form of education so the children who were to be married could understand the "birds and the bees".
Now we are about to
go on our camel safari, so more anon.

Namaste, Mary and Bernie