After five days in Jaipur, one where we were too indisposed to do very much (I think it was the fried peanuts), we are on the road again. Our first plan - to take the overnight train to the lakeside resort of Udaipur - was thwarted by our inability to book a sleeper. Many of the trains have only a limited number of reservations for foreigners and we had obviously chosen a popular departure date. We had three options: go to the station and hope to be able to negotiate a berth; opt for sitting up all night; or go somewhere else. The beauty of having no hotel reservations to honour came into play here. We abandoned the train heading south to Udaipur and boarded a bus heading north to Nawalgarh, a three-hour journey.
We've become accustomed to travelling through the Rajasthan landscape by now. Through rattling windows we've watched a succession of wheatfields and small, dusty towns pass by. In and between them there are buildings half-finished or already crumbling, piles of rubbish, the circular, thatched huts of farm workers. The herds of goats or sheep, even camels no longer make us sit up and nudge each other.
We're pleased to arrive in Nawalgarh - at first sight just another small, dusty town, but this one with many treasures which we are yet to discover.
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