Jaisalmer Ragastan India The Golden City

If you want to feel like a princess or prince then a stay at the Hotel Mandir Palace is a must.  It is truly beautiful and the staff are very friendly.  We had a beautiful room overlooking the pool.  If you are very lucky you may get invited to have tea with the Maharaja as he lives in one of the buildings.  Unfortunately he wasn't home when we were there. 

                

                              

Jaisalmer is build around the foot of the fort which sits high up on top of the hill in the centre of town.  It is called 'The Golden City' due to the golden colour of the stones used for building.  They are in the process of renewing some of the buildings using original methods & design to ensure a flawless merge of both old & new.  The fort is a working fort with shops and cafes scattered inside it.

            

      

           Market square.

                  

Whilst in Jaisalmer we took a tour into the desert which took us past some deserted villages which feel a it like ghost villages.  We headed right out into the desert and went camel riding.  It was rather bumpy buy the views were spectacular.  After about an hour riding we stopped in amongst the sand dunes where our guides prepared a meal of Dhal, rice and roti over an open fire.  It was delicious.  We watched the sun go down as we ate our dinner and then admired the amazing star filled sky.  We were then driven back to our hotel leaving our guides to spend the evening sleeping in the desert with their camels.  Camels have very poor vision in the dark so can't walk home until morning.  You can spend the night under the stars with them but the thought of all those bugs & scorpions didn't go down well with any of us! 

      

        

These ladies travel for miles from their village to get fresh water from the well & carry it home on their heads.  

             Our friendly camels ready & waiting for us.

        Some locals making use of their own camel.

These little girls were overjoyed at our gifts of pencils! 

                               

        

                      

         Our guides now become our chefs for the evening.

     

      

                   

                               

     

          

                  All aboard for our 12 hour train journey to Delhi!!!!

Indias ever growing population is a huge problem with so many living in poverty.  It really is a very sad sight.

It is illegal to walk on the train tracks in India but no one seems to bother.  There are many deaths every week due to this lack of respect for rules.

Shimla India

Off on the Toy Train up the mountains to Shimla from Kalka for some fresh cool air after our very hot & sweaty India tour.  It took us 6 hours to reach our destination of Shimla.  The train track was built by the British government during the British Raj as they used Shimla as their base for 8 months of the year to escape from the heat.  The Toy Train is a 2ft 6in narrow gauge railway.  It was built in 1896, has 102 tunnels & 864 bridges.  In 2008 it became a UNESCO World Herritage site.

Engineer Colonel Borog dug the longest tunnel by digging from both sides, unfortunately his measurements were slightly off & the tunnel did not meet in the middle.  He was subsequently fined 1rupee.  The shame of this mistake drove him to commit suicide within the unfinished tunnel.  The views on the way up were beautiful & you could feel the temperature drop as we ascended.

                                          

           

        

         Us Brits did a great job on these bridges.

  We didn't know this but these are private trains you can hire for the journey up to Shimla.

     

    The local police dressed in their Sunday best.  Must have been expecting someone important.

       Checked in to the beautiful Oberoi Hotel.   

    Josh had some cooking lessons with the chef.  

   

 Time for some down time!

                     

We took a stroll up to the Viceregal Lodge which was the formal offices of the Indian Viceroy.  It was built in the 1880's using a Scottish Baronial style.  Felt like being in a castle back home.  The lodge hosted the 1947 Partition discussions which lead to the modern day India & Pakistan.  It is now a private school. 

                                

     

                   

                                 

           

            

            

                       

     The white family proving to be popular once more.  They we're queuing up at one point! 

           

Cars & trucks are banned from most of the town canter so if you need something moving you hire a Shimla porter.  There were many of these porters, quite a number of them of the older generation but all carrying extremely large heavy loads.  

      

Obviously no seats left in the passenger carriage. This would not be a comfortable 6 hour journey!

          

It really was a spectacular view from Shimla and pleasant Scottish summer temperature was a great relief. The air was so fresh and it even rained for an hour!