The Pink City and camel riding

After another long hot drive, we arrived in Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan. It's known as the pink city because of prevalence of pink limestone in the architecture. Our hotel had a small swimming pool and a lovely rooftop restaurant with musicians who, after finishing, put on a puppet show. The next morning we were ready for some down time after our hectic pace, so opted to move on directly to the small town of Pushkar. However, Menta had other ideas. We had some difficulty communicating our wish to leave directly to Pushkar, as he may have either a) not understood why we wanted to leave so quickly, or b) felt it was his obligation to show us around. We were quite glad in the end as he took us to the Amber Fort, which was an amazing structure with reinforced walls that climbed up and down the hillsides, baths, ornately decorated rooms, and incredible views of the valley.

Pushkar was literally a breath of fresh air. It's a town of about 50,000 people and a sacred Hindu site, popular with Israeli tourists and a full stock of tourist amenities. It's also very walkable which is not something we'd experienced so far as usually walking anywhere here involves dodging potholes, debris, aggressive auto rickshaw drivers, cows, and poo. Our hotel, Master Choice, had a lovely garden and a pool in the back, which meant I now actually look like I've been somewhere slightly tropical. Pushkar is also on the edge of the desert which means sand everywhere and cooler nights. Not exactly long-sleeve weather, but at least the constant stream of sweat down your back stops when the sun goes down.

Being near the desert also means camels and camel treks. With four camels and four guides, we set off for a two hour walk. I've never ridden a camel before and can assure you it is nothing like riding a horse. It's harder to hang on when they run as you're bouncing around like a ping pong on a paddle, but at a gentle walk is quite tranquil, even meditative.

With a quick flight from Jaipur to Ahmedabad, we'd officially reached the end of our few days of holiday and the true purpose of our trip was about to begin—Royal Roads residency.