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Published: December 19th 2007
(Catherine)
We are now in Rajastan, India's desert state.
We had a couple of days in the capital Jaipur (nicknamed the Pink City although it's actually more of a dirty peach!) before moving on to Jaisalmer. We didn't particularly enjoy Jaipur. It was really busy, we were constantly hassled and it was very dirty. There aren't any pavements so walking around was a nightmare (one evening it took us 10 minutes just to cross a road and that was only after we'd worked up the courage to follow the locals and step out in front of four lanes of fast moving traffic!).
We hired a guide on the second day to show us the main sights which was interesting but all in all we were glad to leave on our (delayed!) overnight train. Train stations at night seem to show India at it's worst and Jaipur was particularly bad. Hundreds of homeless people sleep rough outside the station and in the waiting rooms. To get to the toilet we had to step over children, adults and old people lying on the concrete floor under dirty blankets. To make matters worse there were rats running around the toilet (one
Train
On the sleeper train out of Jaipuractually ran into my foot - thank goodness I was wearing trainers not flipflops!) AND we had to pay 2 rupees to a grumpy man for the 'privilege! Needless to say, we were glad when our train finally arrived at 2am.
Jaisalmer was a world away from Jaipur. It has an amazing working fort carved from sandstone with a palace, temples, havelis and restaurants. The town has a very relaxed feel and there were lots of other travellers to swap stories with. We enjoyed a few days exploring the fort and eating out in pretty rooftop restaurants before venturing into the Great Thar Desert on a camel safari.
Our four day safari was a brilliant experience, if a little scary at times (especially when my camel fell down walking up a sand dune!). We trekked for about five hours each day, breaking for a long lunch along the way, then each night we stopped at sand dunes to watch the sunset and sleep under the stars. I've never seen so many shooting stars in my life (it made the cold nights worth it!).
Our guides were very entertaining too. They cooked us curries and chapatis over a
small fire, lit campfires to keep us warm in the evening and sang old Indian folk songs. On the last evening they insisted we film them singing and put the video on You Tube - we couldn't believe they'd even heard of it!!! Try two links here:
Desert Song Unexpected Funny Version of Song You will probably need to be quite patient while it loads. If the video stops, press pause and wait for the line to get ahead of itself. Then press play
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Sue & Brian
non-member comment
Camel Trekking
The Thar Desert sounds an interesting place and the thought of camel trekking really appealling.We sure it provided solitude after the hustle and bustle of Jaipur.The photos are also great and I would not mind betting the sunset photo over the sandunes was Catherine's work.Great blog.........Love to you both. j