India Must See #4: RajasthanNumber #4 on the India Must See list is Rajasthan. When most people think of India, without knowing it, they're thinking Rajasthan. Men in 1800's moustaches, wearing colorful turbans, women in bright coloured saris, camels pulling cartloads of vegetation, massive plains of desert or near desert—all that's Rajasthan. One of my favorite holiday times was staying in a converted fort-palace hotel, the Neem Rana Fort Palace during Monsoon. Kara and I spent a few days there, enjoying a beautiful negative edge pool which seemed to disappear into the uninterrupted plains. In the afternoon (because it was Monsoon), I used to watch a storm brew in the far horizon and take a leisurely two hours to get to the palace. Time used to feel stretched out like soft toffee (and so did the air, it was very humid!). The rooms were beautiful, very old style, the food 5 star and very rich, both Indian and French (after 3 nights here, I had to eat just fruit for a week!). And that's just one kind of Rajasthan. Neem Rana's only a couple of hours from Delhi by hired car (with driver, don't do it yourself). You need a car because it's a fort on a hill, you don't want to try and walk it from a bus stop on the highway (if there is one)—and it's not the way to arrive! The massive doors are built for elephants with palanquins to fit through, it's just gorgeous. Anyway, back to the India Must See state: Rajasthan... I generally prefer to spend a few days 2-3 nights in a place to really get the feel of it, so I don't necessarily see every city in a trip to one region. For instance, I've been to Jaipur a couple of times (it's a quick, city-break two hour journey from Delhi on the Rajdhani Express train, and Amber Fort (pictured below, with me trying out a pensive look!) isn't far from there) and spent several days in Udaipur (from memory it was meant to be 22hrs from Delhi but was more like 30 due to fog when I went). 
Udaipur is famous for having three palaces—there's the city palace for winter, the lake palace for summer (yes, it's floating in the middle of a massive beautiful lake (featured in the James Bond movie Octopussy) and a Monsoon palace, just visible on a remote mountain, for when it's too rainy down below. Since I was last there, there's been a rather severe drought, so I'm not sure what state the lake is in now. But it's worth going anyway. While you're there, I'm sure you'll have ample opportunity to try a sunset drink of your choice from a rooftop bar, which I did (pictured below). As the sun sets over the mountains with the lake in front, it's quite spectacular. I have a couple of cool panaramic shots of the skyline of Udaipur, but as it's on the 'India Must See' list, I'd rather you went there and saw it for yourself, so hopefully this one page is enough of a teaser...
There's waaay too much to say about Rajasthan to be done in one page, but no matter where you end up, it's definitely a must see.
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