India - The Land of Death

Marwar – this region, because of the lack of easily available water, rather than any reference to the Indian driving style, is known as The Land of Death.

Given that, in Rajasthan, there are very few road signs, particularly at road junctions, where they would be invaluable, are tour drivers furnished with maps?

What you could do, if you have some navigational skills and it makes you feel better, is buy your own map, open it, close it, then throw it into your bag.  You might as well wait until you get home to read it for all the practical good it will do you.  Your driver may well prefer to ask about half a dozen different, random people directions to your next town or hotel.  There answers will most likely be quite contradictory.  The secret is to hope that he doesn’t ask too many people directions, not unless you’re doing some kind of survey of opinions.  If it were me, I would ask the receptionist at any big hotel, someone working in a travel agency or another taxi driver, rather than his choices: a man mending shoes, a guy with a shop selling mainly crisps, a street hawker with a load of cheap beaded necklaces and a young man who happened to be leaning on our car.  None of them knew.  I wasn't surprised.