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Published: January 2nd 2010
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Camel Rides
luxury cruiser Back on the road again, this time to Mt Abu. We came here on the advice of others, and it was well worth the trip. Mt Abu is a hill station in Rajasthan and is popular with local tourists trying to get away from the heat. There is a beautiful lake in the town which provides a nice walk, but the main reason we came to this town was to see the Dilwara Temple complex, another set of Jain temples carved in white marble. They were built between the 11th and 13th centuries and are just as impressive as the Ranakpur temples in Udaipur. Unfortunately there are no photos allowed in the complex so we have nothing to show from the temples but some postcards we bought.
After a night in Mt Abu, we decided to go to Jaisalmer. We didn't realise what a mission it would be to get to this town. We had to get up extremely early, it was still dark, and a taxi was to take us to the bus stop which we had been previously told to walk to as it was very close. Good thing we didn't cos the taxi driver couldn't even find
it! We just about made the bus and after an hour, we had to change buses. This was also our first experience on the government buses of India, and my god, do they know how to pack a bus full of people! It was a bit of a struggle with our big bags, but once we got that sorted we settled into what was supposed to be a 5 hour journey but ended up being 7.
When we arrived in Jaisalmer, a local man convinced us to get off the bus and have a look at his incredibly cheap hotel. It had a great view of the citys fort high up on the hill so we decided to stay there. Jaisalmer is also a popular place to do camel safaris from, and this is what most of the hotels make their money from. We had been warned about this so when the hard sell came, we were expecting it. After dinner at the hotels roof top restaurant, we were told how amazing their camel safaris were, better than everyone else in town of course. We said we'd think about it, and what we weren't expecting was that when we
wanted to go to the internet, the owner drove us there, waited for us, and drove us back so that we couldn't speak to anyone else about the camel safaris. The next morning, the owner was waiting for us and caught us trying to leave the hotel. We tried say nofor a safari but he just wouldn't take no for an answer, so after about 40 minutes of discussing the safaris again and again, we agreed to do one with him so we could eventually get out of the hotel on our own!
We spent the day exploring the city, and walking around the fort which is extremely easy to get lost in with all its windy lanes and dead ends. About a quarter of the citys population actually still live in the fort today. Surprise surprise, we went to see some more jain temples that are within the fort. These were slightly different to the ones we had seen in the other cities in that they were not made from white marble, but sandstone like the fort. It is this sandstone that has given the town the name of the Golden city. We also took in an audio
guided tour of the Royal Palace inside the fort.
We decided to do some souvenir shopping. Carol decided she wanted to buy a silk scarf and we found the perfect shop. An indian family was just finishing their purchases and as they were leaving the shop owner made sure to say in english the supposed price they had just paid for their silk scarf, apparently 1500 rupees. What he didnt count on was their young child disagreeing with that price and letting slip the real price of 150 rupees. Do you think this discouraged him? Oh no, his starting price was 1500 rupees, amazing quality of course, and that is what the rich indians before us paid. We did agree that they may be rich but we didn't think they would be silly enough to pay the first price. Eventually after a lot of talking, he apologised to us and agreed that the indian family had indeed only paid 150 rupees and he was willing to give us this same price. The shifty shop owners have no shame what so ever!
The next day we went on the sunset Camel Safari in the Thar desert. It was a
good experience, if not a bit sore on the camels, but probably not worth the money. Especially when we had seen the sand dunes around Dubai on a previous trip.
After the camel safari, we had a quick bite to eat and got the overnight train - next stop Jodhpur.
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