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Tag Archives: rajasthan

After two weeks of being in India I was a little stressed out. I had heard before travelling that Pushkar was like a haven in the madness with a backpacker scene in a holy town in the mountains. It had been likened to an Indian version of Pai (Thailand) which is one of my favourite places so far. Any locals who had asked where we were going next had said that Pushkar was really peaceful and spiritual. I was really looking forward to it.

In reality it was pretty awful with some of the worst tout pressurising I’ve seen so far that make Agra look laid back. Either everyone is on a very different wavelength to me or Pushkar has taken a drastic turn for the worst in recent years. Whilst driving to the town the scenery is quite lovely rolling hillside with a spattering of Langkor monkeys by the roadside showing off their shimmering white fur.  On entering the town it looks pretty much like any other city in Rajasthan with cows and street food and litter lining the streets. Walking along the main town road which loops the lake is also very similar to other places except for an abundance of souvenir shops boasting many hippie clothes in 60’s style printed fabric. Also a large selection of leather notebooks which confused me in a meet free town until it was clarified to me that it’s not about killing the animal but keeping the human body clean from the consumption. Read More »

Rajasthan is an interesting state with many beautiful things to see, because of this it is also a place with a significant tourist trail which results in people seeing tourists and seeing them as a walking wallet. Rajasthan is known for being bad at this and as the first place I saw in India it made me very disheartened about the people but now I know it is really just a downside to going to places with big attractions. Of the places I visited in India Rajasthan is my least favourite because of it being so touristy and expensive, but there is always a reason why tourist trails exist and I am the anomaly for liking places without attractions. Here is an overview of my Rajasthan tour, which, I think, covered most of what it had to offer in 20 days. Read More »

Of all the Backpacker experiences I’ve had this has made me feel the most middleclass, like the British of colonial times, with a driver under toe to take me around at my whim, or so I assumed. I don’t know what a good price to pay for a driver is but for two of us we paid £400 (30,000 Rupees) for a 20 day tour so roughly £20 a day. I assume this is a decent rate though it can be impossible to tell what some things are meant to cost. I think we may have got to know more about the Indian attitude towards money and tourism from our driver than we ever would from chance encounters and it’s been a very interesting experience with many pros and cons. These things may of course only apply to the Delhi/Rajasthan circuit; I have nothing else yet to compare it to. Read More »

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