Riding Tours Blog

Day 3 – Early next morning we pulled into Bikaner and went to our rooms in the Maharjah’s magnificent red sandstone palace now converted to a lovely hotel. After cleaning up and having breakfast we headed out to visit the old maharajah’s palace which has now been turned into a museum. This desert city was a major trading center on the old caravan route from central Asia to ports on the Indian coast. After lunch we toured the Government camel farm where different types of camels are raised and their breeding and training is studied. These amazing animals which can go for days and even weeks without food and water carrying huge loads are still used by the army to patrol the long border where it runs across desert areas for hundreds of miles. There used to be extensive smuggling of opium and other contraband across this sparsely inhabited desert. There was just time for a quick visit to the miniature painting school where some beautiful work is being done in the old style. Dinner at the palace again presented us with a broad range of food buffet style or a la carte. I greatly appreciated the chance to savor the Indian dishes lamb biryani and chicken tika so different from European cuisine.