The thing about the Thar Desert is that it's hard to define it's boundaries, both visually and mentally. The word 'desert' implies huge dunes of sands stretching as far as the eye can see, like in the Sahara. But the Thar seems to be more of a moving feast, and a sporadic one at that.

Driving from Jaisalmer to Bikaner you are never really sure where the desert is, though technically it is all around you. But as you journey along the highway, you notice distinct shifts in the landscape. One minute it's desert scrub, then a few kilometres of green, then back to maneuvering around piles of sand that blows on to the road. It's a strange experience.

After the uniqueness of Jaisalmer, Bikaner itself was a bit of a let down. We looked at a number of hotels that just didn't quite make the mark, and generally had a not so positive feeling about the whole place. If you take a look at many tour itineraries Bikaner is a regular feature – but we were left wondering why?

The Junagarh fort and royal palace are worth a stop, but being positioned on low ground – at the same level as the rest of Bikaner, it misses something that you come to expect from the typical Rajasthan fortified residence. Some of the palace rooms are exquisitely finished, and you can easily get a picture of the sizeable wealth of the royal family. Throughout the history of Rajasthan, Bikaner has played an important role in brokering power whilst maintaining its own position in the overall hierarchy. The audio tour is actually quite good and includes a few entertaining stories and anecdotes as well as the descriptive and historical elements.

The second Bikaner attraction that came highly recommended (by books, guides, et al) was the camel farm, or more accurately National Camel Research centre. It's the largest facility of its kind in Asia – although you might wonder how many similar centres there might be in the world. The centre was a series of low, yellow-washed buildings – one housing the museum which gave a basic introduction to the varieties of camel, feeds and products derived from every part of the camel. Our guide walked us around, pointing out the obvious and about five minutes later we moved on to meet some camels and calves. We got to peer over a very high wall (standing on a pile of dung) to the babies, and quickly moved on to the main stables to meet some of the adults, including Mr Camel 2009.

I'm going to be blunt about this – the camel farm was definitely not worth the visit. However, some of the principles behind the centre and its work could have made an interesting experience. The centre exists to provide the strongest and best-trained camels for the Indian army's Camel Corps. With scientific labs and veterinaries aplenty, they conduct all kinds of scientific research in to the the different camel breeds, trying to strengthen the gene pool and define optimal conditions for raising camels. At around two years of age, the camels are trained and then ready to go off to enlist in the army. With a bank of prime males ready, willing and able, locals can also bring their female camels to be mated free of charge. 

As for the rest of Bikaner, well we wandered around the markets for a while and took a couple of tuk-tuk rides, but nothing really captured our imaginations. Oddly enough this was the only place on the entire trip where we really felt seriously let down. But then this is why the Rajasthan Research Run is so important...explore, check and if need be eliminate from the list. Onwards to the next destination!