Delhi to Ajmer - Pushkar Camel Fair

Trip Start Nov 11, 2005

Trip End May 01, 2006

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Flag of India Ajmer, India
Sunday, November 13, 2005

The first thing I noticed about India was the slightly sweet, hot smell. It's hard to describe really. The second is the traffic. You really do take your life into your own hands if you drive here I reckon, and all of those 'drivers from hell' programmes on Reality TV don't even come close to the chaos here. However, as yet, I haven't seen anyone crash or get run down, so it does work in it's own mental kind of way. As our driver Kumar put it, you need 3 things for driving in India; the horn, the brakes and lots of good luck! Believe me, everyone beeps and honks all the time, to the point that you actually forget it's happening. I suspect it negates the need for indicators.

So, we arrived yesterday and collected our train tickets, then were directed to the India Tourism Office where we met Farooq. As much as I had tried to leave the UK with a totally open mind, as soon as he started talking I was convinced it was all an elaborate plot to rip us off. However, after 3 hours or so of strong handshakes, sweet tea, cigarettes and being called a 'good business woman' enough times for me to think he was actually having a laugh, we came away with a pretty good deal.

So instead of getting an overnight train to Ajmer, we stayed in Delhi for a night and have Kumar, who not only drove us to Ajmer, but drove us around for the entire Rajasthan section of our trip. All of our accommodation is included, along with our return train tickets to Kerala. Considering we didn't want to plan India to a T, it was all pretty much done and dusted. Just a shame we're not spending more than a month though, cos there was a lot of stuff that we had to leave out due to sheer distance.

Ajmer hotels

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