#bikaneer

Coming to the end of my journey and the last month was the hardest. Not knowing how much travelling around India would change me, the last two months had been nothing but truly amazing and a real eye opener. Being free to do what I want for so long meant coming back to reality was depressing thought that was round the corner. The last month was a battle to try and fit as much into my journey as possible, with careful planning of where to go and for how long.

I had noticed a major pitfall of travelling, by going on a conquest to find paradise or see sights that you can’t imagine, you were almost left disappointed every time you visited a new place, the one you left always seemed better.  Similar to the ‘grass is always greener’ mixed with a weird sentimental value for the place you left behind which had become home for a couple of days.

From Jaipur I went to Pushkar (above), this was another place that on arrival didn’t seem that great. However it became one of my favourite places to chill, shop, relax and paint. Having not painted for years, I found a great art studio to paint a picture I took in Rishikesh.

Pushkar was a fairly touristy place, with very easy laid-back nature with no cars and near a desert, it was surrounded by mountains and similar vibe to Rishikesh.

Pushkar had an amazing atmosphere brewing by the fact we were a few days away from Holi, there was beating sticks around fire in celebration of beating the bad spirits away. Fireworks were set off the night before Holi and more banging of sticks and dancing plus a major bubble blower.

Holi started at 10 am, walking to the main square it seemed like christmas with all shops closed and people roaming around. In the main square my shirt was ripped off me in seconds and everyone was trying to blind me with colour. The local kids were loving life, dancing and chucking powder with all the tourists with huge sound system playing ridiculous techno. I survived 5 hours of dancing and chucking powder in the baking sun. It was rather painful on the eyes and hole body, close to a survival of the fittest.

From Pushkar I went on my first sleeper coach to Bikaner. Bikaneer had hardly any tourists around and hotels were generally rather expensive. With only a few museums and gallery’s to visit the main reason to go is for the camel safari. The desert is quiet boring with everything looking the same, however it was amazing for making you feel like you escaped civilization and finally truly alone.

From Bikaneer I travelled 1st class to Delhi, it was miles better then what I had come to be use to (in sleeper class) and it felt a fair deal safer. Travellers had warned me about Delhi, and they were correct about it being expensive but not about safety.

In Delhi I stayed in Connaught place, I was fairly surprised to see Marks and Spencers, and restaurants the same price as London!

From Delhi I took a fast 3 hours train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Hearing so many mixed opinions, I thought about missing it out.

After seeing the Taj Mahal the mixed reviews had made sense, I was glad to go early morning before the sea of people that visit this supreme building every day. At first it was hard to understand the building, which seemed to be a mass of ego and art, that took close to 22 years to complete and 22,000 people to build.

It is a symbol of love, which uses deception and trickery to make it easy on the eye, flawless and beautiful. Unlike looking at the Taj in a picture, in real life it sticks out like a saw thumb, the glistening white of the building is close to blinding and dwarf’s the 1000’s of visitors that visit daily.

 Back in Delhi, glad to only spend the day in Agra. I was coming to the end of my trip and feeling excited and gutted to be going home. The food in Kake-Da-Hotel was not helping, they served some of the best curry’s I had tasted in India.

The train from Delhi to the airport rivalled the sort of service you would want in London (amazingly clean, on time and reasonably priced.)