Jaisalmer

Sorry for taking so long in all this, I've been fairly useless on the whole writing front but will fill everyone in on the shenanigans of the last few weeks soonish.

When dad went to Jaisalmer 25 years ago it was a two day jeep ride from the nearest town. Luckily Indian infrastructure is 8 times better now so it only takes 6 hours by bus from Jodphur through Rajasthani scrub desert, we were picked up by our camel operator and taken to the hotel that he ran. He then sorted us a bus ticket to Jaipur for the next day, ushered us up to the restaurant and then gave us internet. Bit of a legend.

After munching an epic curry we jumped in a little Mahindra and headed for the desert. Our guy stopped at a little village which was the closest thing to Disneyland I've seen in India. It looked almost exactly as a Rajasthani village would've done 100 years ago, it was just a shame about the busy main road and three telephone masts right next to it. There were the usual spattering of Japanese tourists with camera lenses bigger than their... forearms, and a gaggle of children asking for money for photos.

 The expression of the kid on the left really cracks

me up!

So we laughed at them and gave them 10 rupees before jumping back into the car, acknowledging the cold beers that had been bought for us and going desertwards.

Our next stop was at an actual ancient village that was being excavated. It was apparently inhabited by the Brahmin caste before a dispute involving one of their young ladies and the maharaja ended badly for the village.

 

Then it was taken over by the desert. I persuaded the guy to let me drive the car from there (it was designed for Indians and even if I was 5' 2” I doubt it would have been comfortable to drive). Even so it was good fun and felt proper chiller to cruise through the desert, sporting the Wayfarers and a linen shirt of course.

The excitement didn't stop there, half an hour later we pulled up next to a couple of camels and their blokes, grabbed the beers, mounted our camels and the desert safari began.

 

Camel back riding is really good fun for the first 10 minutes. Then you begin to realise that camels are very bony, have a similar gait to a fourteen year old boy and make the same noises and smells as the average foreigner after an Indian curry. Nevertheless they are quite endearing and the experience after dismounting was magical. We watched the sun go down behind the dunes while our guides cooked us authentic Rajasthani food, then we shared notes with them about life, future plans and opinions on politics and philosophy. About as Gap Yah as it gets! 

 

Then just before we fell asleep under the stars a little desert fox appeared and routed around the camp a bit, picking up the scraps of food we'd left behind, then disappeared into the dunes.

The next morning we rode back, I'd worked out the seating position this time so it was less uncomfortable but we were still glad to see the jeep that took us back to Jaisalmer. There we looked around the fort, amazed by how easily the town had grown up inside the fort and now was living and breathing inside the walls.

Then we had another epic curry and made our way to the bus station. I got chatting to a fruit vendor while we waited for our bus, he was very proud of his little moped and seemed happy to let me have a little potter around town on it, good practice if we end up biking over the Rotang Pass as I'm very keen to do.

The bus arrived soon after that and we hopped on, found some space and bedded down for the night.