Left Mandawa slightly later than scheduled as just before we were about to set off one of the other drivers sneezed and apparently Hindus believe this to be extremely bad luck; therefore we had to wait 10 minutes until Kanaram felt the bad luck period to be over!
As we made our way towards Bikaner the terrain became more desert like and the vehicles more crowded.
We arrived at our destination, checked into the hotel and then made our way to the Junagarh, Bikaner's magnificent fort.
We opted for the audio guide and enjoyed a couple of hours wandering around the ornate rooms instructed by our 'guide' which had been voiced by an Indian with an impossibly posh English accent, very British Raj.
At one point a very shifty bloke ushered us through a locked door and into a room which contained the Maharajah's chair. He insisted we sit down on it and have our photo taken and then we had to wait until the coast was clear so that he could let us back out of the 'secret room'. All very strange!
We rejoined Kanaram who was waiting outside for us and he then informed us he was taking us to the 'Red Temple', just outside of Bikaner. We arrived at the temple and took off our shoes to venture inside. As we stepped through the gates we spotted a rat scurrying towards us and then another and another. It suddenly dawned on us that Kanaram had actually been saying 'Rat Temple' and not 'Red', eeekkk.
These are not your run of the mill sewer rats, oh no these will be holy rats and in fact it is deemed auspicious if one of these sacred creatures scampers over your toes. I spent the whole time hoping that I wouldn't be that 'lucky' as I feared I might have to boot one of the little buggers if they came too close and suffer the wrath of the worshipping hindus.
On the way back into town we stopped off at the National Camel Research Centre.
We saw lots of camels but were denied entry to the laboratories which made me immediately suspicious of what they were doing in there. We turned down the offer of a Camel milk lassi and returned instead to our hotel's own roof terrace to watch the kites fly over Bikaner as the sun set.
As we made our way towards Bikaner the terrain became more desert like and the vehicles more crowded.
We arrived at our destination, checked into the hotel and then made our way to the Junagarh, Bikaner's magnificent fort. 
We opted for the audio guide and enjoyed a couple of hours wandering around the ornate rooms instructed by our 'guide' which had been voiced by an Indian with an impossibly posh English accent, very British Raj.
At one point a very shifty bloke ushered us through a locked door and into a room which contained the Maharajah's chair. He insisted we sit down on it and have our photo taken and then we had to wait until the coast was clear so that he could let us back out of the 'secret room'. All very strange!We rejoined Kanaram who was waiting outside for us and he then informed us he was taking us to the 'Red Temple', just outside of Bikaner. We arrived at the temple and took off our shoes to venture inside. As we stepped through the gates we spotted a rat scurrying towards us and then another and another. It suddenly dawned on us that Kanaram had actually been saying 'Rat Temple' and not 'Red', eeekkk.
These are not your run of the mill sewer rats, oh no these will be holy rats and in fact it is deemed auspicious if one of these sacred creatures scampers over your toes. I spent the whole time hoping that I wouldn't be that 'lucky' as I feared I might have to boot one of the little buggers if they came too close and suffer the wrath of the worshipping hindus. On the way back into town we stopped off at the National Camel Research Centre.
We saw lots of camels but were denied entry to the laboratories which made me immediately suspicious of what they were doing in there. We turned down the offer of a Camel milk lassi and returned instead to our hotel's own roof terrace to watch the kites fly over Bikaner as the sun set.
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