When they said we were going to camp out near the town of Sawai Madhopur we didn’t know what to expect. Well this was nothing from the Boy Scout handbook. We didn’t have to set up a tent. We didn’t heat up a can of baked beans on an open fire. And we didn’t have to sleep on the cold hard ground. A far cry. It was a nice change of pace from the hotels.

Everyone had their own spacious soft sided tented structure. The area is located adjacent to rural farmland.

This was our bedroom with heater. There was a private bathroom with hot running water. Earplugs were supplied to muffle the howling of Jackals all night.

We were entertained by men from the Gujjar tribe, farmers who grow mustard, wheat, and millet. They also rear water buffaloes for milk, buttermilk, yogurt, and paneer. In the dance they narrated a story of how Shiva (the destroyer of evil) and Vishnu (the protector of good) were having fun in Abhaneri while playing hide and seek with Lakshmi (Vishnu’s wife and goddess of wealth) and Parvati (Shiva’s wife, goddess of war against evil and mother of Ganesha).

Men in our group were dressed up in traditional garb.

Step well in Abhaneri from the 9th Century AD. It is 80 Feet deep. Ox-driven Persian wheels were used to draw water from the well.