A few updates:
Today we went to a suburb of Delhi to the house of Mohan, the owner of Travelscope which has been organizing all of our hotels, guides and transport. We were treated to a wonderful demonstration of Indian home cooking by his wife and mother which became lunch. The food was delicious.
Train to Jaipur and Amber Fort
We had an early start this morning with a 4 hour train journey to Jaipur at 6am. The scenery on the way was magnificent. After arriving in Jaipur we visited the impressive Amber Fort in the hills above Jaipur. We stopped for a late lunch at the delightful and picturesque Samode Haveli before being taken to our hotel to relax. We had a lovely evening enjoying the view and chatting with Peggy and David over a couple of cold beers and snacks.
Jaipur Bazaars and Elephant Riding
Today we started with a visit to a local market. After some haggling Richard bought a traditional indian man’s outfit. We were then taken to an old solar and lunar observatory with instruments built out of stone in the 17th century. Afterwards we visited the house of a local cultural and culinary historian where we were treated to a lecture on the origins of traditional Rajasthani cuisine followed by a cooking demonstration by his daughter in law, which soon became a wonderful lunch. After another stop at a bazaar we ended the day with an elephant ride at sunset followed by dinner. We both fed the elephants bananas before our ride so that our elephant would give us a smooth ride!
Chattrasagar
We were taken by bus to our new hotel out in the middle of the Rajasthan countryside. On the way we stopped at a shop to refresh ourselves with some masala chai and chocolate! The standard of driving left a lot to be desired… Upon arrival we were shown to our tent atop a dam with wonderful views over a lake and plain where we could see world antelope, boar and birds going about their business. We relaxed with a beer before going on a lovely late afternoon game walk.
Chattrasagar Day 2
It was freezing when we woke up but the beautiful sunrise did not stop us from taking tea out on the patio before breakfast. We were taken on a morning excursion through the fields and into the village where we learned about the farming methods used in the area and the village way of life, which has been largely unchanged. We visited a school, a shepherds house and a potter.
The Johnsons 