You should not travel through Rajasthan in June, it is too hot!!! You're going to die!!!!
All guide books will tell you this. But due to circumstances beyond our control that is what has happened. Dehli, Agra and Jaipur are part of the famous Golden Triangle and are always going to have tourists, all year round. The weather in each was warm but not oppressive and when questioned by our respective guides we have simply commented, "hey, we live in Sydney, this is like our summer". Now we have either been extremely fortunate with our timing or we have had guides who are prone to exaggeration as we have constantly been told "you were lucky you were not here yesterday, it was very hot". These yesterday temperatures have ranged from 45'C into the 50s throughout Rajasthan.
The further we have gone into Rajasthan, the less tourists we have found. Europeans will arrive in a month or 2 while the main peak will be later in the year. Due to the circumstances of the trip we have been booked into large hotels which at this time of the year resemble small ghost towns. At times I expected to see tumbleweeds moving across their entrances. Pushkar, Bikaner and Jaisalmer would not have had more than 2 other occupied rooms. This scenario always makes the experience of showing up for breakfast and deciding at which one of the 20 empty tables you want to sit at very interesting. I have also felt guilty having declined the waiters offer of cooking an omelette just so they have something to do. It is rather uncomfortable having 3 or 4 staff hanging around just to service your needs.
Having now completed our Rajasthan experience and Silvia and I have coped with the hot conditions rather well, I believe. We have been out in the heat of the day sightseeing for up to 5-6 hours. In fact, I believe, we have survived better than many of our local guides who have at times looked as though they have just emerged from the sauna with a handkerchief in a hand constantly wiping the sweat from their brow.
As a matter of fact, more than once I (Silvia) felt the need to rug up because of a sudden gust of fresh air and constantly every time we were taking a taxi we were greeted by full blast air conditioning that we invariably asked to be turned down since really it wasn’t THAT hot.
Steve has already explained that living in Sydney you’re likely to have experienced far worse weather conditions and I have to say that coming from Italy, if it has one advantage at all, it is the one of coping well with the heat!
We debated several times this curious thing, have we really been so lucky? Or is it that Indians are so jealous of their beautiful Rajasthan (and they should be!) that they don’t want tourists the whole year round?
If that is the case, then I fully understand, sometimes I had the feeling that our presence required an effort not everyone was willing to do. People at the hotels, shopkeepers, rickshaws’ drivers, guides etc... it looked as if they were putting on an act for our benefit, when all we were asking for was not to be noticed and be able to quietly observe daily life in this wonderful region.
Maybe 99% of western tourists have demands that need to be met in such a way that they don’t feel the difference between their respective homes and the places they go on holidays to, but we’re not like that.
Anyway, I’m very happy Steve and I did this. It was a great experience overall and we can now safely say we had a great time.
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