Bikaner and the Shri Ram heritage hotel.

Hotel decorated for Diwali

Its been an emotional roller-coaster the last few nights!! Sharing a dorm with people who are less than appreciative of your wife and daughter can be stressful but hey that's life suck it up and get on with it, coz round the corner is the next great surprise...

The journey from Kota bagh to our next destination Bikaner was a mixture of bus and train journeys with a stop off on the way at our friends house Rohit who hosted us in his families house in Rudrapor on our way to Haridwar where we caught a train to Bikaner. Thanks Rohit and family we had a blast!!

View of the Ganges

Rohit and family

The bus journey was again rather crazy with drivers who think they are playing play station and play chicken with oncoming traffic...  We sat on the back seats and a few times found our bums around 30 cms off the seat.. so proper roller-coaster stuff..

In Haridwar we saw the Ganges, which if I am honest was rather disappointing as it was a mere trickle.. apparently the whole place had been a flood back in June with lots of people killed.. but not the day we were there..

We arrived in Bikaner which is in the Thar desert and were met by our host Yogendra (Yogi) he took us back to our new home for the next few weeks, where we were volunteering again..  I have been mostly helping with SEO and website improvement... here one more back link for you..lol... www.hotelshriramheritage.co.nf/ 

I recently wrote this guide for his profile, which lists some of the sites of Bikaner...  I have added our 
photos of the relevant places.
Let me tell you what you can see in Bikaner:

An amazing red fort, this fort dominates the city center with its high walls which are beautifully decorated.  The fort has its own museum which you can visit to see historical artifacts and learn more about our history.

In the old town, there are many Havalis which are large houses again typically beautifully decorated with fine carvings.  There is also a spice market which dates back many centuries to when Bikaner was one of the main towns on the spice routes.  Religion is an important part of many peoples lives here and we are not short of some fine temples.

The camel research center is a great place to visit in the afternoon, you can see hundreds of camels in this place, taste camel milk and even enjoy a camel ride.

The rat temple as it is colloquially named offers a quite different experience... this temple which is around 30 km's from the Hotel is filled with rats who are well fed and encouraged to room free within the confines of the temple... You can roam around with them scurrying across your feet!!

Lallgarh Palace, is the royal residence of our royal family, still inhabited by members of the family and also part taken by a hotel and museum which is open to visitors.  The Palace was designed to similar specifications as Buckingham Palace of London England.

Diwali was held on the 3rd of November, its called the festival of lights and basically its a big night for everyone with plenty of fireworks and household parties... Every household tends to clean their house and paint it in preparation for the arrival of a goddess who likes everything neat and tidy...  Shame they don't pick up all the rubbish on the streets as well!!