It's a long and winding road from Jaisalmer to Indira Gandhi international airport at Delhi. We decided to break the journey down into three sections. The first and longest would be Jaisalmer to Bikaner. Bikaner itself has some features of interest and would under normal circumstances justified some time but after eight hours in the saddle, well back seat to be more accurate, all we were looking for was somewhere comfortable to lay our heads.
The journey is 328kms which you would think is four hours easy, but no you figure without Indian road improvements. When we rebuild a road in the UK we tend to do a bit, finish it, do a bit more etcetera. Not the plan in India. Here you dig the lot up then, slowly slowly lay a toppey for the entire length. So with an average speed of 40 km/hr or 25mph it was a long day.
Sadly I have no pictures of our overnighter at Bikaner but I must give the owners Gaytri and Rishabdev Singh due credit. They had two enterprises on the premises. Udai Niwas was a very well appointed homestay whilst Café Indra as well as being a delicious café was also a sort of combined storytelling/study/playcentre. The sort of place you wish your library would be when we could afford them. I'm sure you can find them on TripAdvisor or the Lonely Planet. If all fails try+91-151-2223447. Before we leave Bikaner can I wave to our Italian beekeeping friends who run Soleterra an organic honey farm and due to bee committments can only holiday in January.
The next day's drive was only four hours, on similar road surfaces except that the last 20kms were worse. We left Bikaner at 10am and arrived in Manhawa at 3pm having stopped for lunch for an hour. There were other obstacles that delayed our progress. This vehicle is carrying animal fodder, most of these were camel hauled.
I selected Mandawa quite carefully and because I particularly wanted to stay in this Hotel. The next picture shows the sign board outside the place. It gives you the flavour of the "non hotel". First of all I am still not sure what a non hotel is, secondly the date is wrong by about 2000 years. Still, no hurry, no worry!
Let me tell you something of the story of Mandawa and district. In the C18 and C19 shrewd merchants left this area to trade in the new commercial hubs of Bombay and Calcutta. They lived very frugally but prospered and sent the bulk of their fortunes home to build grand Havelis. This was partly to show others now well they were doing and partly to compensate their families for their absence. The competition for grander and grander edifices grew.
The painters, originally potters were also recruited from other parts of the country leading to a fusion of styles. The oldest show the floral arabesques and geometric patterns of the Islamic Mughals. Later the Rajput influence was visible in the Hindu mythology, especially that of Krishna. But it is the last influence, that of the British Raj showing C19 and C20 technology that is the most interesting and amusing to us today.
This is the entrance to the bedroom courtyard part of our hotel. The photo is taken from the first part of it reception is to the right and the café garden is on the left.
I was advised by the Lonely Planet to book a decent bedroom as some are rather small. I booked a deluxe double,which in Indian terms means middle of the road. We got given the honeymoon suite,which I think you will agree is impressive. This proved to be the high point of the stay along with the fact that I was loaned a WiFi hotspot to speed up my service.
Some of the naive and more recent additions to the decorations. This effort must be post Indian Freedom. It's a jet!
This picture of a train deserves closer attention. It is full of little mysteries. The engine driver appears to be ahead of the smoke stack. Each carriage is clearly different. Is that a louche lady in the last one? What's going on in the one with all the blinds down? Combine that with the Picassoeque take on the distorted perspective, and your could write a book about it.
Inside the courtyard around which the bedrooms are arranged. The restaurant was to the right above where you saw the reception. Unfortunately the standard of the food did not in anyway match that of the décor. Furthermore as we were leaving at 7-00am promptly we requested a 6-30 breakfast. Nobody rolled up to the kitchen until 6-45. This place could be a wonderful hotel but does require some firm management. I suspect that only one other room was occupied the night we stayed there.
We had a guided tour around the village and either looked into or at several other old buildings, most of which were now hotels. The overall theme below was Hindu.
Another train picture for you. This one I think is a lot older, note the double banked engines.
These were the doormen to the nearby Castle Hotel. Some people will do anything for a quick Rupee.
We left on time with a couple of boiled eggs and an apology in our pockets. We made the six hour drive to the airport without incident so the next blog will come to you from where India dresses up to meet the foreign tourists, or where India meets the Caribbean. I am speaking of course of Goa.
The journey is 328kms which you would think is four hours easy, but no you figure without Indian road improvements. When we rebuild a road in the UK we tend to do a bit, finish it, do a bit more etcetera. Not the plan in India. Here you dig the lot up then, slowly slowly lay a toppey for the entire length. So with an average speed of 40 km/hr or 25mph it was a long day.
Sadly I have no pictures of our overnighter at Bikaner but I must give the owners Gaytri and Rishabdev Singh due credit. They had two enterprises on the premises. Udai Niwas was a very well appointed homestay whilst Café Indra as well as being a delicious café was also a sort of combined storytelling/study/playcentre. The sort of place you wish your library would be when we could afford them. I'm sure you can find them on TripAdvisor or the Lonely Planet. If all fails try+91-151-2223447. Before we leave Bikaner can I wave to our Italian beekeeping friends who run Soleterra an organic honey farm and due to bee committments can only holiday in January.
The next day's drive was only four hours, on similar road surfaces except that the last 20kms were worse. We left Bikaner at 10am and arrived in Manhawa at 3pm having stopped for lunch for an hour. There were other obstacles that delayed our progress. This vehicle is carrying animal fodder, most of these were camel hauled.
I selected Mandawa quite carefully and because I particularly wanted to stay in this Hotel. The next picture shows the sign board outside the place. It gives you the flavour of the "non hotel". First of all I am still not sure what a non hotel is, secondly the date is wrong by about 2000 years. Still, no hurry, no worry!
Let me tell you something of the story of Mandawa and district. In the C18 and C19 shrewd merchants left this area to trade in the new commercial hubs of Bombay and Calcutta. They lived very frugally but prospered and sent the bulk of their fortunes home to build grand Havelis. This was partly to show others now well they were doing and partly to compensate their families for their absence. The competition for grander and grander edifices grew.
The painters, originally potters were also recruited from other parts of the country leading to a fusion of styles. The oldest show the floral arabesques and geometric patterns of the Islamic Mughals. Later the Rajput influence was visible in the Hindu mythology, especially that of Krishna. But it is the last influence, that of the British Raj showing C19 and C20 technology that is the most interesting and amusing to us today.
This is the entrance to the bedroom courtyard part of our hotel. The photo is taken from the first part of it reception is to the right and the café garden is on the left.
I was advised by the Lonely Planet to book a decent bedroom as some are rather small. I booked a deluxe double,which in Indian terms means middle of the road. We got given the honeymoon suite,which I think you will agree is impressive. This proved to be the high point of the stay along with the fact that I was loaned a WiFi hotspot to speed up my service.
Some of the naive and more recent additions to the decorations. This effort must be post Indian Freedom. It's a jet!
This picture of a train deserves closer attention. It is full of little mysteries. The engine driver appears to be ahead of the smoke stack. Each carriage is clearly different. Is that a louche lady in the last one? What's going on in the one with all the blinds down? Combine that with the Picassoeque take on the distorted perspective, and your could write a book about it.
Inside the courtyard around which the bedrooms are arranged. The restaurant was to the right above where you saw the reception. Unfortunately the standard of the food did not in anyway match that of the décor. Furthermore as we were leaving at 7-00am promptly we requested a 6-30 breakfast. Nobody rolled up to the kitchen until 6-45. This place could be a wonderful hotel but does require some firm management. I suspect that only one other room was occupied the night we stayed there.
We had a guided tour around the village and either looked into or at several other old buildings, most of which were now hotels. The overall theme below was Hindu.
These were the doormen to the nearby Castle Hotel. Some people will do anything for a quick Rupee.
We left on time with a couple of boiled eggs and an apology in our pockets. We made the six hour drive to the airport without incident so the next blog will come to you from where India dresses up to meet the foreign tourists, or where India meets the Caribbean. I am speaking of course of Goa.
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