b'soul-stirring journeysRepublic Day, Desuri Jalebi man, JodhpurAmerican Sadhu, Varanasi Kite Day in Jaipur Man Sagar Lake, JaipurIve spoken to many My Best Everfellow travellers in India,both before and sinceIndian Adventuremy trip, but no one has stories that compare. The freedom my bespokeOn an epic trip to India, its the unplanned, spontaneous momentsitinerary allowed me, tothat allow you to truly connect with the land and its peopleroam where I chose at my own pace, made all theTEXT AND PHOTOS BY RANDALL PEARCE FROM SYDNEY, AUSTRALIAdifference In celebration of an upcoming milestone birthday,I gave myself long service leave to go travelling. Iwho could speak English fluently. Krishan Kumar chose India for several reasons. At 1.3 billion people,Yadav Guruji was assigned to me for a 27-day stretch Indians make up a good portion of humanity. It is thethrough Rajasthan. I called him my Best Ever Indian Backstreets, Jaisalmer Fort Randall Pearce and Krishan Kumar Yadav Guruji worlds largest democracy. And India is the source ofDriver but he turned out to be much more than much ancient wisdom. that. He was my host, in the best sense of the word.I called my trip Randalls Best Ever IndianTogether, we explored Rajasthan. Adventure. I wanted to see Indias most importantKrishan realised that I like photography. He called sites and monuments, interpreted by expert guides,my shots clicks. On Day 16, Krishan and I set out on over 46 days. The itinerary that was planned for methe 300-km-drive from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer. We were ensured I had enough time set aside for impromptuon the look out for a field of yellow mustard flowers excursions or just wandering around a destination.and Krishan pulled over next to a particularly brilliant As it turned out, the most memorable moments wereexpanse of yellow. I was busy taking pictures when the unplanned onesthe spontaneous experiencesa farmer in a yellow turban came up behind me. which bubbled up through the gaps in my itinerary,Through hand gestures, he invited me in to see his during the days spent journeying on roads lessproperty. We walked to his house. He introduced me travelled.to his entire joint family. He took me out to the back I travelled from the capital New Delhi in thefield to meet his prized water buffalo. The memories I north, to Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Then,captured were among the most striking of my trip. west through Rajasthan to Jaisalmer, and on to KeralaFurther along the road, we came upon a caravan in the south. I knew I was going to cover a lot ofof camels. They appeared to be wild but, in a territory, most of it by car, so I requested a chauffermoment, we were met by the herders. Fortunately, 24 \x1a HAYES JARVIS TRUE VOYAGES \x1a 25'