Someone's getting ratty...

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After a morning of bank problems we were invited to the house of our driver Kulwant to learn how to cook chapattis with his wife, Babli. Here we also met his son and learnt how he felt about arranged marriages. He confided in us about his secret/love girlfriend that his parents didn’t know about. We really enjoyed the home cooked food- including home made butter straight from the cow!

With stomachs full we set off on our ‘5 hour’ journey to Bikaner. 7 hours later we were still people watching in the back of your motor home. We were so overwhelmed by the people in the country side and the villages that we hardly spoke to each other the whole way!

Bikaner to Jaisalmer

We woke up early, ready to finish our journey to Bikaner. Before we came away on this trip there was much preparation, including watching a series of Paul Merton goes to India. From the comfort of our sofas, we cringed as we watched him visit a temple full of rats where people go to worship.

Before we knew it we were standing at the gates pleading with the ticket man to let us keep our socks on! Once we had convinced him and paid our 200 rupees, off we went. It was exactly as could be expected… disgusting!

We were told that it brings good luck if you see a white rat and carefully walking around on our tip toes Lee spotted one. Before we knew it swarms of Indians came running towards us to pray to it- we actually thought we might get bundled!

Escaping the crowds we thought it was our time to go so we headed off on another 8 hour journey to Jaisalmer. Mid nap our driver woke us when he stopped to pick us up some fruit in a small village on the way, all windows down and doors unlocked we were spotted by an Indian. In what we can only describe as total fascination we gradually developed a large audience. Being a bit more awake at the time Nikki swiftly wound up her window, seconds before 2 sweaty hand prints and a forehead hit it.

Without pulling a ‘Kerri’ there was about 30 of them all giggling, shoving, shouting and glaring at us. We quickly locked the doors but were too late for the windows. Before we knew it there were heads all over the place, with people climbing on the boot to take a look! With all our valuables hidden in the seat between us we plucked up the courage to speak to them but all anyone wants to know here is where you are from and what we think of their country.

After what seemed like an eternity, we were rescued by our driver and headed off to Jaisalmer for the night.

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