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Ajmer gives us our first real look at the countryside of Rajasthan, the state that borders Pakistan to the west and the Punjab to the north. It’s not lush or tropical as might be expected, but arid and scrubby with stunted trees and ploughed fields which seem to be mostly in between crops. The landscape is mostly flat with a few hills in the distance. Ajmer has a population about a fifth that of Jaipur and is a much more manageable place; nothing like as busy nor quite a dirty or smelly and we feel able to walk around it with some degree of comfort. This is just a 24-hour stopover on the way to Pushkar, which is plenty of time to see the main sights. The hotel, found through Lonely Planet, is just about acceptable for one night, but it would be a whole lot better if the sheets weren’t stained, but at least it’s quiet.
Finding good accommodation in India is proving a little more difficult than in other places we’ve visited. Lonely Planet isn’t reliable and independent reviews posted on sites travel sites like Trip Advisor, Asia Rooms and the like, are few. So getting good accommodation is a bit of a hit and miss affair. Lonely Planet may issue new editions of their guides every year, but even a cursory comparison reveals that often the information hasn’t been updated. For instance they don’t change the room rates from one year to the next. And we’ve come across several instances where the information is inaccurate you have to wonder if anyone has visited some of the destinations recently.
We take a stroll to visit the Jain Red Temple (Nasiyan Temple) and the Ana Sagar Temple, both of which are not too far from the hotel. The Jain Temple is quite amazing. A large two storey high hall is filled with golden models depicting the rather eccentric Jain concept of the ancient world as a flat disc with 13 continents and oceans depicted as concentric circles around a central holy mountain. Alongside the world-as-a-disc model is the golden city of Ajodhya over which hovers flying swan and flying elephant gondolas. The gaudily ornate hall and its contents can be viewed from galleries on two levels which run round three sides of the hall.
The Ana Sagar is a large lake on the banks of the pleasant (for India) Dault Bagh and Subash Bagh parks which today are crowded with people. Overlooking the lake is a lovely marble terrace with three pavilions build by Shah Jahan under which many people are seated to escape from the heat of the sun. The lake itself is smelly and a rather foul green colour, but this doesn’t seem to deter many people from taking a pedalo or boat ride on it. As we meander through the park we are approached by several people who want to have their photograph taken with us. As soon as one person asks for a photo others pluck up courage to follow suit. We must have posed for 20 or more photos in the short walk from the lake to the park exit. It brings home just what a novelty Europeans are in this part of the world.
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