Dress like a local and have a few sarees and punjabi suits made for your Rajasthan adventure.

You will see a lot of colourful sarees when you travel through Rajasthan, and if you are anything like me, you will want one as a ‘keep sake’. As you browse the exquisite 6 metre fabrics on sale at a local market or up-market Delhi shopping centre you will soon realise why this ancient Indus Valley Civilisation dress continues to be a national symbol for India. Many of the sarees are hand embroidered and take up to 10 days to create the simplest of sarees. The shopping location Rakesh took me to was Hauz Khass Village located in New Delhi. Here you can find multiple stores by famous Indian designers where everything is exquisite. In my case I was also looking for fabrics to make western style clothing out of, but if you’re after a more of a ‘tourist’ purchase then you can wait until your Rajasthan tour starts as there will be plenty of local markets to buy your saree from. For those interested, I did in fact wear my expense ($100 AUD) emerald saree back home in Australia to a Gala event!

The other traditional dress which is a must for your Rajasthan adventure is the punjabi suit. Due to lack of sufficient planning for my trip I ended up needing multiple suits tailored in Delhi before the tour began. I had been informed that the best time to visit Rajasthan is in winter (October to March), as in summer the heat becomes too unbearable for walking around attractions. What I didn’t anticipate, however, was that India could have a winter that reached into negative centigrade. Having packed only light-weight clothing, I needed to find a way to keep warm and the solution was to have Punjabi suits made and to line them with thermal underwear. It also turns out that dressing like a local is the best way to blend in as you less like ‘someone fresh off the boat’ – code for naive tourist who can easily be taken advantage of by a local store owner pimp. India is also a conservative country, so it is important to wear something that isn’t too revealing, so even if you’re visiting over the summer months wearing a punjabi around town is the best way to go.

Sleep like kings and queens at the Royal Heritage Haveli & ride home on your magic carpet.

Jaipur - Pink City

Surrounded by 3,000 acres of jungle, this former maharaja’s hunting lodge is the hidden gem of Jaipur. You will feel like royalty as you stay in your own private suite with sandstone walled gardens, and dip your toe into the tranquil waters of the pool and water features.

Do venture out, however. The city of Jaipur itself is easy to walk around and although busy and chaotic in usual Indian fashion, it’s reasonably clean and safe for the capital city of Rajasthan. Walk the brilliant pink facade of the labyrinth of streets from Johari bazaar to the Hawa Mahal with its stained glass windows with many tiny viewing platforms originally made for royal ladies to watch the parades and festivals happening on the streets without being seen. Jaipur is also a good place to pick-up a souvenir or two as it’s the shopping mecca for Asian designers and carpet exporters.

While you shop and explore, you will most likely be asked for your photograph. Simply politely decline and they will leave you alone. In fact, as sad as this sounds, I recommend not engaging with anyone on the streets as a matter of personal safety. Not even a hello. Just walk on and ignore. This was very hard for me to get used to but it is a must. Otherwise you will be accosted into a store you didn’t want to go to or worse.

Walk the blue streets of Jodhpur in search of the perfect photograph and end your day with a puppet show at Vivanta Taj Hotel.

Jodpur - Blue City

Jodhpur - the Blue City - is the second largest city in Rajasthan, with many bustling colourful bazaars spread around the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort in the centre of the city. Once a palace for Maharaja Sardar Singh, the fort is now a museum, displaying weapons, paintings and elaborate royal furnishings. It is also the perfect place to overlook the blue coloured city and capture the quintessential India ‘street life’ image. The ‘Blue Door’ image in my India gallery was taken here and you will no doubt find capture your own piece of colourful Rajasthan while exploring this captivating city.

As Jodhpur is a tourist city, there is also an unending selection of entertainment. My selection for the night was to attend a puppet show at Vivanta Taj Hotel. The tradition of ‘Kathputi’ puppets dates back more than a thousand years, with these hand-made wooden puppets decorated in colourful clothing entertaining many a king and queen. The combination of the agile hands of the puppeteers and the expressive facial features of the puppets makes for a comical experience and you might also feel inspired to walk away with your own ‘Kathuputi’ puppet as a keep sake :-)