Basically there wasn't much to do in Bikaner. I think we mainly stopped there to break up the journey between Jaisemler and Mandawa. We arrived late in the afternoon and much to our delight were staying in a lovely hotel. We had some dinner in the nice restaurant in the hotel where a wedding party were also eating. There saris were beautiful and one of the aunties even came over to speak. After dinner we were delighted to discover we had a movie channel in our room, so had an early night in with a film.

The next morning we visited a fort. It wasn't anything special compared to some of the other ones we had seen in Rajahsthan, but there was a Bollywood film being filmed. The big stars, including Shilpa Shetty, were not going to be there until the evening which was a shame.

We then set of for Mandawa. This was our last stop on the Rajahstan tour. Our hotel was a heritage hotel and pretty nice. We were taken on a tour round the village. At first we werent too impressed with the tour. We were shown one old house after another which all looked the same. However, things all changed. First of all we were introduced to a groom who was preparing for his wedding. He looked pretty nervous. Had his Henna done and was all dressed up and ready. Then...we were called outside. A funeral procession was going past. It was for an old Hindu lady who had died. All the mourners were walking down the street with the lady held over their shoulders. She was wrapped in her red sari with half blown up balloons stuck to her. Only her face was showing. They were all singing and just as they were passing us they stopped and sang some more. After a bit they carried on down the road. It was pretty interesting to see.

We were then taken on to a local primary school. The kids were absolutely lovely. We actually got taken right into one of the classes and introduced to them all. We got to write our names on the blackboard and speak to them all. Lauren read them out a story. Loads of photos were taken and they were all asking for our signatures. Felt like I was famous! They were all so well behaved and the teacher was really keen to show us their work. For the first time in India we spoke to people who wanted nothing from us except to ask questions, it was really nice.

Our day in Mandawa turned out to be a lot more interesting than anticipated. The next morning we were returning to Delhi.