The Golden Triangle

The golden triangle roughly describes the area between New Delhi (The capital of India), Agra and Jaipur. visiting the golden triangle, you will cover roughly 900 or so miles and there are many ways to get around, whether you chose a hire car, a car with private driver, a bus or a train, it will mainly depend on the time you have, the things you would like to see in between and your will to survive. We were staying in one of the many hotels that litter Arakashan Road, close to New Delhi Railway Station, an area that is a constant explosion to the senses of colour, noise and smells, known locally as the old bazar. We chose to utilise India`s fabulous railway network which carries an unbelievable 24 million passengers per day and decided to use the service of one of the many travel offices located in and around the New Delhi Railway Station or Connaught Place areas. By using one of the travel offices you avoid standing in the long queues to buy tickets at every destination, and can choose any package you like based on the quality of hotel and the length of your journey. We went for a 3 star type hotel stay including train tickets visiting Jaipur, Jodhpur, Agra and Pushkar and it wont cost you a great deal more than you would pay doing it yourself.

India`s trains work with great efficiency, you have your ticket with carriage number on it, and when on the platform you find your carriage and check the roster pinned to the outside, your name will appear and your seat or bed number will be there. Unfortunately the same cant be said for the onboard facilities that after a couple of hours of travelling can only be described as grim, but that is always going to be part of the adventure. We were booked on a sleeper train overnight to Jodhpur as it is a 11 to 12 hour journey. The sleeping compartments are cramped but adequate and the other passengers soon settle down for the night. Travelling by overnight train also saves you the cost of a hotel room for the night for a little over what you would pay for a standard train ticket. Jodhpur is known as the blue city because of the colour of the buildings in the older part of the city. Arriving at the station we took a tuk tuk ride to find our pre booked hotel, The Krishna Prakash Heritage Haveli which turned out to be a really nice boutique hotel that was sited right below the Jodhpur fort, a huge and imposing fort that sits above the city and was also the pit scene location for the Hollywood blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises".

As we were early arriving at our to our hotel we spent the day exploring the old city, having a walk around the Sadar Market and the clock tower area and also finding out what times the fort was open to the public. Jodhpur old city is a beautiful city, mainly winding alleyways that twist up towards the fort filled with respectable buildings, most with rooftop access and courtyards at ground level many of which are heritage hotels. Our hotel had a large rooftop patio area where you could watch the children across the city fly their kites from the rooftops, at times in the evening there seemed to be hundreds. We spent the rest of the evening sitting in the rooftop with food and a well earned vodka.

The following morning the obvious choice was to visit the Jodhpur fort, also known as Mehrangarh Fort, a 1200 acre site that sits 122m above the surrounding plain and mostly dates from the 17th century although it was originally started in 1459. Mehrangarh Fort is a former palace that’s now contains a museum displaying a fabulous selection of weapons, paintings and elaborate royal palanquins (sedan chairs). Rooms are also elaborately decorated with rich gilding, paintings and plaster work. The external architecture and stonework is absolutely stunning and standing by the fort canons overlooking the city is not to be missed and shows how a magnificent stronghold this must have been in its day. We also discovered that there was a zip wire course that is run from inside the fort so we had to have a go!. So we booked in for the following day. Returning to the fort the following day we found there were six zip wires that cover a total of 1.2km, the longest with a maximum length of 300m that carries you over two lakes and back onto the ramparts of the fort. These are quite fun and the last one over the lakes is very high and unfortunately you don`t quite get carried far enough to get to the other side so have to pull yourself along to get to the other side. The zip wires also show you just how big the grounds of the fort really are!

The next morning we returned to the train station and caught the train on towards Pushkar, but whilst waiting for the train we became the centre of attention, as lots of locals wanted to have their photograph taken with us until a police officer came over and promptly hit a few with a large stick to stop them bothering us, not that they were, we were actually enjoying meeting and chatting to them. On boarding the train, most of the trains do not take you all the way to Pushkar and you have to get the bus from Ajmer station, around a 30 minute ride. We chatted to one passenger on the bus who had been on the bus for 24 hours with another 36 to go!

Pushkar itself is considered a holy city and many things are banned including drugs in any form and alcohol, meat or eggs are not allowed within 2km of the Brahma temple, so the best advice would not to take these into the town at all.

Pushkar is a temple town and considered a pilgrimage site to many Sikhs and Hindus. The town is filled with temples and arranged around Pushkar Lake with its many ghats where pilgrims go to bathe. Pushkar is also famous for hosting an annual camel fair that attracts over 200.000 people each year. Our hotel, the Gulaab Niwaas Palace was located a short walk from the centre of town, a very grand looking hotel, with spacious grounds, lovely clean rooms and a large pool. (which we didn't use at all as there was often a large baboon drinking from it). The hotel was also a bit strange as we appeared to be the only guests at the time we stayed.

Pushkar itself is a really interesting town, filled with all manner of temples and the strangest of pilgrims wandering around, one man passed us naked all but for a few rags hanging from his body. As you walk around Pushkar lake there are lots of people bathing in the ghats, cleansing their body as they believe that the waters will nullify all their sins and cure all of their skin diseases. Legend has it that a lotus fell from the hands of Lord Brahma, the god of creation, and Pushkar Lake was born, making it as old as creation itself and the holiest of the five holy lakes in India. Another of my lasting memories will always be sitting by the lake in Pushkar in the evening and watching large numbers of huge fruit bats leave their roosts for the evening and flying out over the lake on their evening hunt, it seemed very surreal at the time. We also had a walk up to the Savitri Devi Temple, a small temple that sits on a prominent hill just outside of town, its a nice but steep walk and you are accompanied most of the way by troops of monkeys.

Even though we loved Pushkar it was time to move on again, so we caught the bus back back to Ajmer, but as we arrived well in time for the train we decided to visit Ajmer Sharif Dargah, a shrine and mosque built over the tomb of Moinuddin Chishti, a 13th-century Sufi saint and philosopher. This was again a very unusual place, another place of worship but this time for Islam. We were made to feel welcome and unusually Tracey was also allowed in the Dargah, where we watched pilgrims dance and pray inside the tomb. We were also encouraged to offer rose petals for our visit as this is what is brought in daily for offerings by visitors, sometimes amounting to over 7 tonnes a day. Pilgrims travel from all over the world to visit here.

The train from Ajmer to Jaipur takes about 3 hours and runs with the usual Indian efficiency. Arriving in Jaipur, known as the pink city, again due to the colour the buildings were painted in the 1870`s. We grabbed another tuk tuk to take us again to our pre-booked accommodation, this time an uninspiring but clean and pleasant 3 star hotel, hidden in a side street not far from the centre of town.

Whist we were in Ajmer we also decided to visit the Tree of Life animal rescue hospital. TOLFA hospital is located a short taxi ride out of Ajmer in the small village of Kharekhari and an organisation we had supported before visiting India. TOLFA are an organisation that are passionate about and specialise in the care and treatment of Indias street animal population. Up to date TOLFA has treated over 250,000 animals. We were welcomed by the staff and were please that the care, treatment and accommodation are really well provided, TOLFA also run a rabies programme aimed at inoculating and the eradication of rabies in street dogs, they neuter street dogs in an attempt to humanely control the population and work with local schools in an attempt to educate children in the welfare of animals. we were happy to leave then with a donation. If you are interested in supporting them please take a look by following the link.