Bikaner  

The 3-hour drive through the desert from Mandawa to Bikaner was not as boring as feared, because there were a light sandstorm. Here in Bikaner, we stayed 2 days in the beautiful, stylish Lallgarth -Palace- Hotel.

Bikaner's main attraction is the famous Junagarh Fort, a huge imposing building complex. We took an audio guide, which was even in German, so we were very informative and exciting guided through the history of the Maharajas of Bikaner. It was absolute super! All the rooms, halls and floors were just all unique and decorated by incredible craftsmanship. We were very impressed.

Then we went from the "Fairy Tales" back to the normal life in Bikaner, directly into the infernal hubbub of traffic, noise, crowds, camels, cows, bazaars in old town. It was India pure!

A true place of rest, however, was a Jain temple on the outskirts, it was not noticed in our guidebooks, but it was a tip from our driver and really particularly worth seeing. We also had the luck that the Brahmin was just in the temple and he explained to us the religion of the Jains and the individual details of the ornaments of the temple with great enthusiasm.

Outside again normal street life. We were the only tourists here and accordingly we were also admired by the locals.

Next stop the camel breeding farm. We arrived just at the right time at the farm, because at 16.00 h the animals come from the desert back to their homes. It is quite impressive when more than 200 “ships of the desert” gallop through the sand. All in all, the visit was very interesting. In this breeding farm live 385 camels from the baby to the age-old bulls.

So now we went with many different feelings to the most unusual temples in India, the rat temple. The temple is very impressive, there are actually thousands of rats here, but relatively small, more like mice. But much more we were astonishing by the many believers who celebrated this rat cult. To watch this was a special experience for us. Thank God, we had not as feared running barefoot, because we got socks at the entrance of the temple.