It is a region that has kept its past alive but also prepared itself to face the 20th century with all the necessary equipment. Take the bustling, cluttered city of Kota. It's a thoroughly modern, industrial city with its smoke emitting factories and an incredible number of vehicles on its crowded roads. But it also has its majestic fort and palaces. A lot of other reminders of its past are scattered all over the city, like the fort with its museum and the Jag Mandir, the Brijraj Bhawan palace and the Umaid Bhawan Palace. Kota famous for its sarees called Kotadoria. There cotton sarees are very popular as summer wear.

Moving further into the Hadoti region the towns get less crossed and less touristy. The temples and the forts are all there for you to explore, as you drive into the interior you chance upon a ruined temple here and an abandoned fortress there. The people, beyond Baran, are warm and welcoming and can be willing guides to help you understand the area better. Some areas worth exploring are the Badoli temples that date back to the 9th century, the 11th century Ramgarh Bhand deora temple, Sitabari, an ideal picnic spot with temples and seven tanks and the fort and mosque of Shahbad. The countryside has wooded hills and valleys that provide shelter to a large variety of wildlife. The Darrah Wildlife Sanctuary, once used as the royal hunting ground, today protects panther, spotted deer, wild boar and bear. Jhalawar is a typical small Hadoti town where the focal point is the fort itself. Located in the middle of the town, most of it now houses district offices but try and get somebody to show you the Zenamakhas portion of the fort as it has some really exquisite paintings on the walls.

When you decide to move out of Jhalawar, there are other places of interest like the wooden cottage called Rain Basera, the 7th century temples of Chandrabhaga, Sun temple at Jhalarapatan and the magnificent 8th century Gagron Fort.