Rajastan - India - Recommended locations?

Hi,

I am about to go to India and am planning to spend a short time in Delhi followed by about four days in Varanasi. We will then prob fly to Jaipur and make our way to Jaisalmer where we will spend 4-5 days. However, en route in Rajastan we would like to focus our time in one or two good locations rather than spread our time too thinly.

Can anyone recommend some great locations for photography between Jaipur and Jaisalmer, not too far off (or on) the main rail links? The main hubs of Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodpur come to mind. We will prob have 5 full days betwen arriving in Jaipur and arriving in Jaisalmer.

We are looking for places that have substance and are keen to walk the back streets and explore and get off the main tourist trail where possible. The aim is not to tick off the main tourist locations in each place but to find places that have the intrigue off the trail so to speak. We are very happy to explore and get into the areas that would not typically appeal to the average tourist, but might perhaps appeal to a keen photographer.

Can anyone comment on Bundi?

Anyone think 4 days in Varanasi is too much/too little? What about 4-5 in Jaisalmer (the aim being to explore the areas outside the city as much as poss)?

ANY and ALL views very welcome as I have no experience in India at all. Any other tips would be very welcome too!

We are also very keen to find good rural locations too...so comment handy here to.....and anythging we dont do this time we will look at doing on a later trip - if only we had more than 16 days!

It is way off the main route but you must go to Bundi. Because this small medieval town is so off the standard tourist route, it is rather unspoiled. No one bothers you (except maybe for 1 guy who tries to be your guide around the fortress) a large part of the town consists of alleys, too small for cars and as most towns in Rajasthan, it has a huge fortress, part of which is a museum. Inside the first gate of the fortress is also a simple hotel. The staff cooks great vegetarian meals and dinner is served on the fortress wall, providing a beautiful view over the town and the countryside.

If I remember correctly there was no place in town to change money and there was no ATM so bring enough cash.

Jaisalmer is a great place as well but quite touristic of course. We stayed in a very nice hotel inside the lower city wall, an old haveli. If you are interesed I might be able to find the name and location. It was not an expensive place, though not exactly very cheap as cheap goes in India.

For Dehli you might try the Cottage Yes Please hotel in Paharganj, cinema side, in the street directly behind the Metropolis guest house. The Metropolis has unfortunately lost most of it's former glory but the Cottage Yes Please was 2 years ago just new, very clean, helpful staff and it has 2 good restaurants across the street. Because it is just behind the main street in Paharganj, it is not so noisy also.

Should you want to stay on the main route, Pushkar is not to be missed. Somewhere in november there is the famous camel market and the town gets very busy and the hotels get of course much more expensive. Pushkar is very touristic but still very nice. Do not get fooled into a puja by the lake from one of the (fake) priests on the street. Nearby Ajmer has a trainstation and is a very important islamic pilgrimage town.

Jodhpur has a spectacular fortress but I never really liked the town itself. Somewhere between Johpur, Udaipur (another beautiful city) and Jaisalmer are the Jain temples of Ranakpur. There are some hotels nearby to stay and the location is more rural.

All these towns have seen their share of tourists. Bundi is the only one of them that sees only a few and stays unspoiled. When I visited in july/august 2006, my wife and I were practically the only foreigners in Bundi.

As regards getting off "the track" this is easy: just head into the main town centre, turn left or right, and everyone is off doing their usual thing. Having said that I found the tourist areas to be photogenic and worth seeing, although there is more hassle/begging factor. Yes, its the most photographed building on the planet but seriously think of visiting Taj Mahal at Agra. It is stunningly beautiful.

All of the 'purs (Jodh, Jai, Udai) have areas of substantial beauty and you would not go wrong with visiting any of them.
Dont know how you would get to Ranakpur (we had a group and used a mini-bus), but I thought it was amazing and quite unique: would recommend it.
My geography is getting a little hazy but you might be able to get to Fatepur Sikhri (sp?) on your trip from Delhi to Varanesi. This was a royal complex purpose built by one of the Mughals and then abandoned for lack of water supply and so stands empty and mostly unvisited. It is not on the rail lines though.

Good luck and enjoy. Take a good medical kit, a supply of straws for drink cans/bottles, disinfectant hand wash, , get your shots and eat vegetarian (no hardship at all) to minimize your risk of delhi belly and the like.

Thanks! Bundi sounds perfect as an escape from the larger cities and I will look into the logistics of getting there - this was exactly what I wanted to hear! Udaipur looks beautiful and hopefully can explore around Jaisalmer with enough time. I have heard a few people comment that Jodhpur was not as good as they had hoped, so perhaps it would be better weighting time towards Jaipur or Udaipur and just transiting through Jodhpur...

Eating vegetarian for the duration sounds a good idea too.

Varanasi is a fascinating city. You either love it or hate it. First time I got there was in 1992. I hated it. Came back in 2001 and loved it. Would like to stay there for a couple of weeks.

I could recommend a very local restaurant called Ali Chicken in Jaipur for excellent tandoori chicken and chicken tikka. The sign is in hindi or urdu only and it is on the main street near the fountain just into the muslim area of Jaipur. Next to it is a sweet shop. While waiting for my wife to arrive I stood on the street outside the roadside Ali Chicken and someone from the sweetshop came out to give me a small cake, just as a present, just being friendly. Only locals eat there and the prices are very low. Food is fantastic.

I once stayed in India for a couple of months, eating mostly vegetarian. One day my wife had a mushroom dish and I had chicken from a nice restaurant in Madurai. She got sick and I was fine so vegetarian is no guarantee to stay healthy.