Blog 4

Blog number4. (I think ) Well after Sri Lanka there was a series of holidays on my own ,one of which was to India with a company called ‘Distant Dreams,’ where I fell in love with India. .The sights and smells and the colour just bombarded my senses and left me in love with the place, despite it being August and over 40 degrees.
I did the tourist ‘Golden Triangle’ in a small group of 5 people but after those 5 days I had booked an extension trip to Rajastan. I was alone for that trip and the guide was not sure what would happen in the end I had a private car and driver and my own tour guide travelling with me and everywhere I went they thought I was Royalty.
I stayed in converted Maharaja’s Palaces and in most of them I was the only guest ( no-one in their right mind goes to Rajastan in August)
At one of the Palaces the grandson of the Maharaja was actually overseeing the work to convert the Palace into a luxury hotel , he had been educated in England and had a better English accent than me ! The Palace was gated and uniformed men saluted me as we drove in through the gates.
After showing me to my room I asked one of them when dinner would be served and was greeted with ” What time would madam like dinner to be served?”
I had a suite of rooms with a dressing room bigger than my lounge at home, The experience was amazing, after dinner that evening the grandson was telling me about the Fort that was behind the Palace and how he felt there was scope to use it to make more accommodation and he invited me to go and look around it.
I agreed to go if the guide could come too , he agreed ( I am not that stupid to go alone !!) He led the way up a very steep path and flight of steep steps behind the Palace that led to an imposing Fort The views from the top of the Fort were incredible as the sun was setting
He pushed away cobwebs and opened doors with rusted hinges that had not been opened in years . There were howdahs, sedan chairs and other furniture that had been there in storage and had not seen the light of day
I felt very privileged to have had this opportunity to see something that no-one else had looked at for years., yes I did get Delhi Belly and I fainted once through dehydration and heat but that was the seeds being sown of my love for India.