Delhi to Jaipur - The desert trail

Sham - our driver, turns up with a six seater people carrier bang on time outside the Imperial. Its a great car for the long distances, reclining seats, air-con, and a thoroughly lovely driver who has good English. We start a fairly uneventful drive from Delhi to Jaipur along a surprisingly well made road. As we leave Delhi we see a huge statue of Shiva. Once we leave the outskirts and have passed through the industrial town of Gurgaon there is mostly arable land with tractors, camels and women hard at work in the fields. Camels pull all the waggons here, no horses or bullock carts. It takes about 5 and a half hours to get to Jaipur and the landscape is fairly dull, desert scrub land, the hotel is not in the centre of Jaipur but about 8ks outside so we head straight there, dismiss Sham for the day and check out our next two nights home.

The entrance is certainly grand and we walk up a waterfall lined staircase (picture left) and through a huge wooden door where we are welcomed with a tika on our forehead and a seat. We are shown the facilities on our walk to our tent (yes, tent), the bar, shops, dinning areas (indoor and out), through another huge wooden door and into the main grounds (picutre right). Wow. There is a huge garden, the air is perfumed with mogra (like jasmine) and peacocks strut around the immaculate lawns. We view the pool, complete with stone elephant water jets and the Temple to Lord Shiva which sits in its own lilly pond. And then we see our tented villa - solid walls with a canvas roof entered via french doors. The floor is solid teak and the air con makes it cool. The front area contains a large bed, desk, tv and dvd cabinet, two chairs and two tables - all in teak. Through a curtained partition is the bathroom - freestanding bath, separate shower, toilet, 2 wash hand basins and a door to our back veranda, complete with

2 chaise lounges. All around the bedroom are french doors - beautiful cream blinds embroidered with gold elephants cover them. Look up and the canvas is embroidered with gold, red and tiny mirrors in Rajistani patterns. Outside the bedroom is a dining area and small flower filled garden.

Before dinner we take a turn around the grounds. Taking it slowly as it was still madly hot we looked at mango trees, bottle brushes, peacocks, monkeys and lots of birds and squirrels. We visit the temple and the priest says a pooja and marks our foreheads. We then head to the library bar for cocktails and a look at the books. It was a splendid room (picture left) filled with heavy furniture and wood paneling, lots of old books and board games (Keith refused a game of Scrabble). Keith had a whisky sour and I tried a drink with Gin, lime and a local herbal syrup called Khos, made from a root. Very interesting. Dinner was good. Served in the courtyard, incense wafting over the balcony, live Indian music playing. Keith started with soft shell crab cakes and then had lamb cooked in yoghurt - a very Rajisthani dish, they rely heavily on dairy and chickpeas here in Rajistan. I couldn't decide so went for the Rajistani Thali. First up was chicken cooked in the Tandoor; succulent and spicy, then rice, Rajistani bread (made with gram flour), Chicken with sweetcorn, a sour and citris fish dish, sun dried berries and bark and a sumptuous 5 lentil dhal. My Gulab Jamon with fresh fruit was donated to Keith for want of tummy space. There was a short burst of Rajistani dancing (girl spun like a whirling dervish with bells on) and then we succumbed

to the heated and headed back to our tent. We had the historic city of Jaipur to explore tomorrow and poured over our rough Guide to check out the best spots. We figured we would start early at the Amber (you pronounce it Amer) Fort and beat the crowds. So another early night. What a couple of party animals!