Jaisalmer to Jodhpur

---

---

DAY 14 22nd January 2011
Am sat in a hotel reception, in a luxurious hotel, but again no wi-fi and impossible to sit in own room as there is a wedding in the garden! How lovely we thought when we first arrived and saw all the decorations and then we were told we were having a room overlooking the garden and wedding, we were quite pleased and thought we might enjoy the celebrations! Mmmmm.....the music is sooooo loud its vibrating the window so no idea what time it goes onto or what time we will be able to sleep!!
Anyway to start at the beginning – we left Jaisalmer about 08.30 and had a fairly routine drive through the desert – saw a family of gypsies on the move with their camel leading the way, a goat riding on a trap with the children and the poor little dog tied to the axle underneath the trap – he had no choice but to keep running!! Lots of the villages have little lakes or oasis where in the old days they used to get all there water from but nowadays they are just watering holes for birds and animals.
Saw a whole host of Birds of Prey around one such lake and walked over towards them to get some photos. Also spotted some Nilgri which are a wild antelope but blackish in colour. Stopped for a brunch break and also saw a couple of hoopoes......I quite like the desert!!!
We reached Jodhpur around 14.00 and checked in to our luxury hotel.(Shree Ram International) Our guide met us at 14.30 and took us to the marble .......................We then had the treat of a wonderful tour around Jodhpur Fort which really is quite magnificent and extremely well preserved. Went around the indoor museums and then walked up to the ramparts and out to the temple at the end to get some beautiful views of this blue city. From here we drove into the old town which was really coming alive at this time of the evening and buzzing with everyone on the move and doing their shopping! We then got persuaded to visit a Co-operative where all the women of the outlying villages etc etc...blah blah! You really don’t want to have to listen to this rubbish all the time even though the stuff they show you is extremely beautiful. Escaped after about 10mins and walked around to the centre hub of the market and the clock tower which looked quite stunning in the dusk light. The clock face changes colour so it really is quite beautiful.
Got back to the hotel about 19.00ish and had some really nice food (me – veg lasagne, Chris – spicy dahl and spicy mushroom and pea something!) followed by a sort of sweet dumpling and ice cream.
Off to Udiaper tomorrow via Marwar villages and Ranakpur...................assuming we ever sleep tonight!!!
PS : -asked at Reception and they have fixed a LAN line in or something so Netbook now useable, hence the blog – pretty expensive though at £1.20per ½ hour so I’ll have to get a move on!!

---