Golden Triangle, Rajasthan, India – Part 1
Finally back from my round trip in Rajasthan. Together with Joanne and Simon we traveled along the Golden Triangle visiting Alwar, Jaipur, Agra and finally Delhi. It has been a truly amazing trip, my first look of the rural Indian life, and I’ve seen numerous of unforgettable sights.
We started our trip on Saturday 6 o’clock in the morning in Delhi where we were picked up by a driver and we started driving south towards Alwar while the city was in the process of waking up. I had been busy at work and living in a 5+ star hotel during my five first days here so this was my first true look of India, and to be honest I was quite taken back. Driving along the shabby streets around the airport I couldn’t help but feeling uneasy and the huge lack of sleep didn’t make it easier. After 45 minutes of driving with an, for the moment, annoying sound of Punjabi music coming through the speakers we arrived to the first tourist holes along this trip. Outside this road side diner were two kids, the girl not more than 3 years wearing more makeup and fake jewellery than any other kid I’ve seen, trying to sing and dance and asking for money from the westerners, that is most of the people inside the place.
After approximately two hours of driving we were surrounded by beautiful landscape with farmers and children playing along the sides together with buffalos and camels and villagers getting ready for the celebration of Diwali and the approaching Eid Ul-Fitr. We all felt much better by now after our nap and were enjoying the music and the views and after another while we finally arrived at our first destination.
The Hill Fort Keseroli, outside Alwar, is one of the beautiful ‘non hotels’ in the Neemrana chain and is the oldest heritage accommodation site in India dated back to the 14th century. With breathtaking views, garden full of flowers, tastefully decorated rooms and the best Matar Paneer and dessert buffet I’ve tasted so far, I cannot say enough good things about this place, so please if you ever travel to India, make sure to stay in one of these forts since it will be a truly unforgettable experience.
The fort was lit up in the evening by candles and lights in the true Diwali fashion and there was a ceremony at sunset with the local priest singing chants and blessing the guests who were mostly Indians with the exception of the three of us and an American couple living in Dubai and working with promotion of different kind of arts to ‘bring some soul’ to this fairly young and modern city through their project ArtWorks. We were quite fascinated by their experiences, such as working as a costume designer on Broadway, and were listening with excitement to their stories about living in Hong Kong and Nigeria in the 60’s, or the last time they had Morgan Freeman over for dinner in Dubai…