Shekawati area Rajasthan 7.2.10- 10.2.10
Nawalgarh, Mandawa, Parasurumpura

Jo's first experience of an overnight train started well, we left on the dot from Jaisalmer and she was tucked up in her narrow bunk by 7.30pm. After a relatively good night's sleep (in the circumstances) the train rolled into Jaipur station just 5 minutes late, not bad after a 12 hour journey. After a couple of phone calls and a short wait our chubby, smiley taxi driver raced across the car park to whisk us away to Nawalgarh.

Jo had already phoned ahead to book our accommodation and had told the owners to expect us around lunchtime. However, due to the on time train and our driver's constant use of the invisible 'middle lane', we arrived at our 'eco guesthouse cum organic farm' in time for breakfast. We quickly settled into our circular mud hut with sparkling new ensuite facilities before heading out to explore the museum and painted havelis for which the town is famous.

That evening we tucked into the best meal yet. Mrs Singh, a qualified cook, served up three courses of freshly cooked dishes from her organic farm. Nikki almost resorted to licking the bowl of the gulab jamun dessert, (small syrup ball similar to sticky toffee pudding) they are her favourite of all the Indian sweets and this one was warm and truly scrumptious!

The next day we decided to head off to Mandawa. After reading about so many towns in the area in our guide books we had become slightly confused about distances to various places and were convinced that we could complete the journey in a tuk tuk. As we limped into Mandawa an hour and a quarter later it was apparent that the journey was considerably further than we'd anticipated. Still we'd made it!
Some exploration of the havelis and shopping were then pursued. Jo eventually purchased a delightful pair of Rajasthani shoes after we both advised an elderly local gentleman on which pair of shoes suited him best. We discovered that he'd been a regular customer for the last 46 years!

Just before we were due to make our marathon return journey, the skies darkened and a few drops of rain fell. We made for the nearest café just in the nick of time as lightning flashed and thunderclaps rocked the shaky buildings. The downpour lasted for just a few minutes and we returned to find Jo's washing dry on the porch. Unlike us the locals were delighted at this highly unseasonal weather proclaiming the rain a 'Gift from God'. Ten minutes after taking the washing in, the storm caught up with us and we experienced the deluge all over again from the luxury of our mud cotttage!

The next day dawned sunny with deep blue skies. We set off on an even more adventurous mission, to catch a local bus to a place we could not even pronounce despite the expert tutoring of Mrs Singh. It was not an easy task. We tried asking the occupants of five or six local buses, one or two of whom actually understood what we were asking. All to no avail so we ended up having a delightful conversation with two elderly 'travel agents' who appeared to operate from a small room with a wooden table and little else. They were not able to help so we reverted to default mode and hired a tuk tuk for the much shorter journey to Parasurumpura.
When we arrived a local boy jumped aboard to help navigate off road through the desert (due to roadworks to create a new road sometime in the future.) Our rickshaw driver quickly became our guide as he asked the locals of the tiny village where the main sites of interest were and eventually, after several false starts we were treated to the oldest of all the paintings in the Shekhawati area.

That evening we were in for a real treat as we joined Mrs Singh in her kitchen to learn how to make Daal Makhani (we put in a special request for this, a favourite for both of us) and various other dishes. Jo scribbled frantically in her notebook while Mrs Singh kept up her rapid commentary as she cooked three dishes simultaneously. You could get an interesting dish served up 'chez Jo' in the future! Much hungrier than usual we enjoyed each dish…especially the daal!

Shekhawati was fantastic, small towns and villages are the best places to experience India without the hassle. There was one downside though. When we arrived we assumed that the nights would be peaceful as the cottages were set in the middle of the organic farm, well away from the noisy roads. However despite being surrounded by acres of wheat, carrots, peas and onions we soon had to resort to the trusty earplugs. It was the wedding season and the celebrations involved loud Bollywood music played ALL night when we had only expected an occasional moo from the resident cow and to wake to the twitter of birds. Ah well!!!!
What a long one! Congratulations if you made it this far.