The Shekhawati Region

Our romantic idea of searching undiscovered and untouristic places took us to the Shekhawati Region. We got immersed into a region full of havelis, beautiful buildings, lovely decorated with detailed miniature paintings of their time.

Our first stop took us to Nawalgar, where most of the buildings were in ruins, and the paintings could hardly be seen on some occasions. Only a couple of tourists we got to see, and this weren't our age, but older. Surprisingly though, the city, though untouristy, it was more expensive than we thought it would be. This shocked us, and it definitely ruined any conceived idea of the money I was to waste in this experience.

On that first night, we met with a 14 year old kid who asked for nothing and helped us much. He was a smart kid, knew what he wanted, and so went for it with determination. His idea was to be a guide, and so he helped uninterestedly to tourists, getting them to his home and showing them the best and cheapest of the area.

I said before that most of the Havelis were in ruins. However, a couple were being restored into hotels. Luxury hotels they seemed to me. This would for sure make the area even more expensive. The kid took us to one of this Havelis and we got good detail of what was going on.

The following day the kid directed us to Parsurampura to show us the place, and got us in the middle of a camel safari, were they offered us food for a 100 Rs. each. The food wasn't ours, and Dan and Charlotte didn't find it appropriate to eat there even though paying. So we said our goodbyes to the tourist of the camel safari and our new little friend.

The following destination turned out to be, without a doubt the most expensive town I have encountered so far in India. Mandawa is a town full of Havelis, some of them already restored into fancy and expensive hotels. Beautiful without a doubt, they were huge havelis, and the little ones seemed to be forgotten.

Having two days of Havelis and this town, made a decisive effect in our relationships, were Charlotte wasn't in a very good mood with Dan, and getting accommodation was starting to make me uncomfortable. Prices were totally out of place in Mandawaand the feeling of being out of the tourist path had vanished. All together kicked us out of the Shekhawati Region into Bikaner one day in advance.