Author Archives: daveandannette

Went to see the tigers. The tigers went and hid. Ranthambore was previously a royal hunting ground and home to tigers, leopards and marsh crocodiles. It’s now a nature reserve. Only 20% of the area is open for tourism and there are reported to be less than one hundred tigers in the area. Presumably theContinue reading “Saturday, 9th November 2019 – Ranthambore”

A fine example of a step well. Ranthambore was the first area in India to set up a protected area for tigers. We’ve booked a couple of days here in the hope of seeing some in the wild. After the disappointment of the step wells in Bundi, we were delighted to find a much betterContinue reading “Friday, 8th November 2019 – Bundi to Ranthambore”

And the rains cried with us. We’d chosen to visit Bundi as we’d heard it had some amazing step wells. What a disappointment. The place is filthy, two of the three step wells are a disgrace and the third is not much to write home about. As we got to the third step well, theContinue reading “Thursday, 7th November – Pushkar to Bundi”

It’s our first and only full day in Pushkar. I still don’t like it but the camels are all right. First Impressions of Pushkar The road to our hotel was closed because of the camel fair when we arrived last night so we had to walk down a slightly dodgy back alley to get toContinue reading “Wednesday, 6th November 2019- Pushkar”

I don’t like Pushka. I should do, but I don’t. Even with the camels. We spent a fairly uneventful five hours or so driving up from Udaipur to Pushka and there were only two memorable things of note: At one point on the journey there were twenty to thirty miles of marble yards along theContinue reading “Tuesday, 5th November 2019 – Udaipur to Pushka”

When is a Palace not a palace? After the miracles of our Ayurvedic therapy sessions yesterday, we were up for some sightseeing. The Monsoon Palace We started at the Sajjangarh Palace about 5km from Udaipur on the peak of the Aravalli hills at 3,100 ft above sea level and the hills you see in theContinue reading “Monday, 4th November 2019. Udaipur”

Liz Earle meets Black and Decker After the frenzy of Jodhpur, Udapur turned out to be something of an oasis. Like most of these places there is an old town and a new town and we were in the old down by the lakeside. Last year the lake had been empty due to the lackContinue reading “Sunday, 3rd November 2019 – Udaipur”

It dawned on me today that as a result of being driven everywhere I didn’t have a mental map about where we are and where we’ve been. I know we’re in India and so far we’ve travelled from Delhi to Jaipur to Jodhpur and now to Udaipur.   Anyway, with the help of good oldContinue reading “Saturday, 2nd November 2019. Jodhpur to Udaipur”

Oops. The previous top travel tip about not buying anything on your first day in a new place needs to be updated to include not buying anything on your last day either. We started the morning by looking for the Jodhpur Step Well which was always around 100 yards in whichever direction we’d just comeContinue reading “Friday, 1st November 2019 – last day in Jodhpur”

It’s difficult to convey in words what Jodhpur is like. It was named after a local brand of trousers and is an absolutely glorious place. Noisy, bustling, friendly, full-on and wonderfully mad. I love it. Our accommodation is based in the old heart of the city and because the roads are so narrow, cars areContinue reading “Thursday, 31st October 2019 – Jodhpur”