Blogs from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 38

When last you heard from your intrepid travellers they were beating their way through hordes of touts and taxi drivers in Agra. After seeing the Taj Mahal and getting out of Agra unscathed we headed for the city of Jaipur. The third stop on India's golden triangle tourist trail. Again we were waylaid upon arrival by taxi drivers desperate for commissions but by now we were developing hides of thick leather in our dealings with them. We got off the train and drove around all afternoon looking for a suitable place to crash. There weren't many. Those rooms that were available were crappy at much inflated prices, although the bugs seemed to be gratis in all of them. Finally we found a good spot for 300 rupees a night. Very cheap, clean and almost bug free. ... read more

Woohoo 47 degrees Celsius!!!! It was just too damn hot here. The only reason we came here was to go out to the Thar Desert on the borderline to Pakistan and ride some camels, so we didn’t waste any time in booking the trek. The night before the trek we wondered around and visited the local "Government approved bhang shop". Erik and I sipped strong bhang tea and ate some bhang cookies and chocolate, at first we thought the tea was weak, only to find ourselves totally wasted a couple of hours later. A few of the local Indians thought I was sick as I continuously laughed on the way back to the hotel. We had quite a rough night. After only a few hours sleep we got up around 5:30am to take the jeep out ... read more

Today was our first day in Jaisalmer, a desert city in the northwest of India close to the Pakistani border. Its a city where everything is made of sandstone, basically because everything around it is sand. Our main reason for visiting Jaisalmer was to wander the desert on a camel and then spend a night sleeping under the desert sky. The first task for the day was to find a travel agent to book a desert tour with. The first guy we talked to seemed really dodgy so we told him that we'd think about it and come back in an hour if we were interested. However, we managed to find a more trustworthy guy and so booked with him. This caused some problems later in the day unfortunately (see below). We then wandered through the ... read more

The trains from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer left at impossible hours, we had to take another bus although we were not very keen on it. It was said to be faster than the train, but the guidebook warned us against a tedious journey, which proved right. There was not much to see, apart from sand, sand, sand, some interspersed rocks, a few shrubs and no trees, Klaudia spotted three small antelopes, otherwise we saw mainly goats and a lot of camels. Believe us, the guidebook was right when saying that the trip would be “scenically tedious”. We travelled for about six hours, which did Stephan’s back no good, but at least the roads were good, even excellent. When we approached Jaisalmer we found out why, as the Indian army has an important base there, due to the ... read more

After all I said about Jamie being non communicative the other day I was surprised that evening, whilst I was relaxing in a bar watching the sunset and downing Rum and Drambuiie, to be unexpectedly joined by him. Have come to conclusion that this limited conversation thing of his must just be his way, as throughout the hour and a half we sat there communication was still very occasional.... but obviously he'd opted to join me. (Everyone has there own ways I suppose)! Nadine has grown on me also, but more on her later! If you remember I was setting off that night for dinner in the Lake Palace hotel. NOTE…The Lake Palace is located on the Jag Niwas Island and covers the whole of 1.5 hectare of the island in the middle of the Pichola ... read more