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Published: February 19th 2009
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We reluctantly said goodbye to our sanctuary at Jodphur and hit the road to Jaisalmer (further west), a 6 hr journey, us now being a bit bus shy, by a little car with white seat covers and no A/C - Roads, cows, horns, desert parchland stretching off into the distance. Every other minute we passed some sort of military vehicle - if India and Pakistan kick off with each other in this region shortly- remember you heard it here first.
*Kat's note - for the animal lovers Im including my observations on the animals of India - as mentioned before the cows have it pretty good here, then horses, goats, sheep, dogs - however what surprises me the most is how people are actually quite kind to the animals most just lack the knowledge of how to care for them properly - ie. dogs need to have water when chained up in 30 degree direct sunlight - a lesson which was taught by Katherine to a local restaurant owner - I was most moved by a camel driver pulling a flatbed of wood who had come across and gazelle which had been hit and he was frantically trying to wave
down all vehicles to take it to a hospital, we reluctantly kept going as there was no way the driver was going to let an injured gazelle into his car - but I was really touched by this camel drivers persistence in helping this animal - more to come from volunteering at Udaipur's animal shelter....
The Meharanghi fort (yes, another one!), which includes a citadel and home to 4000 people, dwarfs the surrounding town. Our booked hotel for the night was on the outskirts. We were given a horrible room on the ground floor, facing a shower block that was so close to the front desk that we could hear the manager shouting into the phone - we were given this room even though we were seemingly the only guests in the hotel! We complained, and were given another horrible room on the second floor. This one had stained sheets, and broken a/c and fridge with birds coming into the bathroom through an opening. We reluctantly reached for our ace up our sleeve, and called the travel agent who had arranged this to complain. Ten minutes later, a representative from the local office was at our door with the
Monkeys
A temple we visited en-route to Jaisalmer manager, both of them falling over themselves with apologies, promising to arrange a better room. We were taken to the roof terrace for a beer (* see below) while the room was prepared which allowed the local agent, who subsequently never left us alone and developed a bit of a soft spot for Miss Katherine, to talk us into a hugely overpriced camel ride in the desert at completely the wrong time of day. And we now introduce Sagar to you, the persistent travel agent who calls and shows up for the rest of our trip...
* these were added to our bill!
Later, the 'improved' room was unveiled with much fanfare - and turned out to be exactly the same as the last - minus the stains and malfunctioning electrics. Resigned to our fate, we trudged into town for dinner, actually we were lead to the restaurant by Sagar and it was all Ed could do to get him to leave once we sat down, he was definitely hoping for a few beers with his new best friends. Our spirits were lifted somewhat later on because when we found the restaurant didn't take credit cards, we had
to go to an ATM for cash. On the way, we got caught up in a wedding celebration, where as you can see by the photos consists of a huge street party with the groom on horse back with all his male pose dancing following behind a truck blasting music with disco lights flashing - it was very cool to see!
Second night, after we told Sagar we would not be spending another night in el crapola hotel, it was also valentines day so we were hoping for a little ambiance - he took us to a beautiful hotel in the fort that had views of the entire city - our room was breathtaking. Sagar acutally got us a very good deal as the room was 50% off normal price - we had 'family' rates as he called them, he now saw us as family not business - oh God... All of the food and chores in the hotel were taken care of by these small chinese looking boys- who turned out to be nepalese (if I can stereotype horribly, their proficiency carrying our heavy rucksacks should have given it away!) - Ed comment. By day we wandered round
the town (a tape recorder to slung around our necks and playing the words "no thank you............no thank you..........no thank you" would again have been very useful) and sat gazing at a 360 degree panoramic view from the roof. Unbelievably, there was a huge area of wind turbines on the horizon. Cans of diet pepsi, ants the size of beetles, and pages of books pass. By day the sun shone through and the continous hum of traffic and tirade of car horns drifted up to us. By night, every hour or so a different wedding party would start its celebrations- right through to the early hours- and we would wake exhausted. We havent heard music played so loudly in years - in London / Calgary there would have been major noise compaints - the people of Jasiamler are serious partiers.
On the final day, we headed into the desert by jeep (the driver really liked Ed and decided to call him his 'brother'after 5 minutes- a novel tip mining technique) for the camel tour. Most come for sunset ride but we arrived mid afternoon thanks to Sagar's stellar advice! It was easily 30+ degrees out and we were roasting
New Hotel!
On the terrace of the second hotel.. - we each had a guide walking our camels, and after 15 minutes the novelty was wearing off as the seats are uncomfortable we were walking through barren waste land. Things really picked up when we finally arrived at the sand dunes and the drivers hopped on the back of each of our camels and we raced back - it was a combination of fear and exhilaration being on a flipping huge camel, running over unstable sand dunes with an Indian man behind you yelling in Hindi kicking his legs - definitely a highlight!
Sadly sunset was spent in a parking lot for 30 mins after our camel drivers abandoned us when we only tipped them modestly. The evening's festivities were ok - their local cultural program was interesting enough. We slept in swiss tents - which were beautiful and we thought we'd finally get a sound night's sleep as we were away from the wedding parties - however there was a pack of dogs that barked and fought all night...
The next morning, we hit the road for Udaipur- a 10 hour drive via car. Armed with only water, modest sunburn, and ipod with a nearly flat
battery........
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