"Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller" –Ibn Battuta
The countries of the South Caucasus have always been the “lands in-between”. In between the Black and Caspian seas, Europe and Asia, Russia and the Middle East, Christianity and Islam and, more recently, democracy and dictatorship. Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and the territories around them have the mixed blessing of being at the crossing-place of…
January 19, 2014 Sunil and I left Mandawa in the morning, shortly after the breakfast. After 16 days in Rajasthan and 35 days in India, it was my final road trip before reaching Delhi. Despite all the extremes that happened to me in Rajasthan, I made a right decision to come there and see with my own eyes…
January 18, 2014 Pictures of Mandawa Before an incident in Jodhpur, I planned to leave Bikaner for Amritsar, but after spending a month in India and witnessing first handedly the attitude of Indian men and dangers that traveling alone presented, I decided not to part with Sunil and my car and have him drive me…
January 16, 2014 Pictures from Bikaner Having been told a day prior that Bikaner, a city about 330 kms away from Jaisalmer, was having a yearly Bikaner Camel Festival, Shu and I decided to drive there as soon as possible. Against Sunil’s pleas to leave at the later hour, we embarked on the trip at…
January 13, 2014 Pictures of Sam Sands Dunes and Jaisalmer. Sunil and I left Jodhpur at 6 am because I have booked an overnight camel safari out of Jaisalmer (280 kms away) and had to be there by 1 pm to register and check-in. Nico has decided to come with me on the safari, since…
January 11, 2014. Pictures from Jodhpur. After spending 5 days in the old Mewar kingdom (Chittorgarh, Udaipur and Kumbhalgarh), it was time to move on and get acquainted with Mewar’s arch-enemy – the Marwar dynasty and its capital Jodhpur. Second largest city in Rajasthan, Jodhpur has a few names and all of them are correct….
January 11, 2014 Pictures. The great advantage of having a chauffeured car in India is freedom – freedom to drive anywhere, stop for as long as you wish and more importantly, flexibility to come up with a new destination a few days or hours prior, pointed it to your driver and have him get you…
Pictures. January 9, 2014 After a good and warm night of rest, delicious home-cooked breakfast and a thoughtful present from an affectionate and beautiful Parvati’s daughter, it was time to say goodbyes to the magnificent Chittorgarh fort and follow the steps of Maharana Udai Singh II, who in 1568 abandoned the fort for good and…
January 8, 2014 After observing the early morning rituals by the holy Pushkar lake, Sunil and I continued our car journey through Rajasthan and proceeded to another spectacular site, usually skipped by most travelers, Chittorgarh Fort. Located about 180 kms from Pushkar, Chittorgarh is the largest fort complex in India regarded as the epitome of…
January 7, 2014 After 3 fantastic days in Jaipur, I had to abandon the world of luxuries and start a real road-trip around Rajasthan. On January 7, I planned to pay a visit to two most important religious sites in Rajasthan – Ajmer and its Dargah of the Sufi’s saint Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chishti and an ancient…