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Published: November 16th 2011
Sandcastles
Jaisalmer - RajasthanK - The last thing we did in Jaipur (the Pink City) before Mum & Don left was go to see a Bollywood film. The choice was basically limited to Ra-One, a big budget blockbuster which is not the typical boy meets girl, loses girl, song / dance, gets girl back Bollywood storyline. Instead it was a sort of Terminator meets Iron Man high budget film with more special effects than you could shake a stick at. However we were pleased that they still managed to squeeze in the obligatory song and dance sequences, comic routines and completely irrelevant fight scenes. It was a riot. The best bit though is the audience - they do not exactly worry about rustling their sweet papers - instead they shout, scream and holler when their favorite stars appear and its hysterical. We all had a great time and although the film was nearly 3 hours long we all grasped the basic story (not exactly complex and helped by the fact that all Bollywood films throw in English phrases as a matter of course).
Having sadly waved Mum & Don off we headed off to Pushkar, an important religious town (pure vegetarian and no
Life sucks!
I am NOT that heavy! alcohol allowed) built round a lake. It is also home of the largest camel fair in India - and we were there on day 8 of the 10 day event! A lot of the camels had already been sold but we got a flavor of the occasion - it was great to see all the locals swarming in in their best saris to enjoy shopping and riding on the Ferris wheel. Unfortunately we missed the musical chair competition - I was pretty good at that as a kid and would have quite fancied my chances. Mark talked to a couple of camels but thankfully did not find one he wanted to buy - or swap me for (or maybe the guy didn't want me? Things can get lost in translation!)
After a nights stop in Bikaner - a pretty non-descript City with a very nice palace - we arrived at Jaisalmer (the Golden City). From a distance the golden, sandstone fort looks just like the sandcastles you would build as a child and it also has some beautiful, old Jain temples. The city is very user friendly with lots of small streets and roof top restaurants where you can
Pushkar Camel Fair
Balloons and everything! relax and watch the world go by. We also went on a short camel safari - a couple of hours trekking out to some dunes where we watched the sun down and then back to some huts where there was a camp fire with local music and dancing. Definitely the most touristy thing we have done so far (I have purged the elephant ride at the Amber Fort in Jaipur from my mind!) but actually very good fun.
We elected not to sleep on the dunes because it was a cloudy night (no stars) and we have both slept in the desert previously. However our hut was hot so we slept outside in the compound. The next morning I woke up to find I had lips like Angeline Jolie - courtesy of a mosquito bite on my upper lip. This would not have been so bad (and much cheaper than Restylane!) but unfortunately I had several more on various other parts of my face - so I looked less like an Oscar winning actress and more like a spotty 14 year old. Great!
Next stop was Jodphur (the Blue city...are you spotting a theme?). The fort here is
Haveli - Jaisalmer
Merchants house form 17th Century when Jaiselmer was extremely wealthy very impressive and after our tour we enjoyed an evening in the local market investigating the various food stalls and having an informal dinner of masala omelets, samosas and saffron lassis. The latter are just amazing - more like dessert than a drink. Dinner cost about $3 and we managed to sneak in a cheeky, extra lassi the next morning before leaving town!
The following day was Rankapur, a small town with some lovely Jain temples. At least we hear they are lovely - we didn't actually see them because I was refused entry! The security guard did not like my sarong - despite the fact that it is ankle length and more than appropriate (and has visited many temples around the world). They were so rude that we both decided we didn't want to go in anyway and took our ball home! Childish yes but it was pretty outrageous - all around me were tourists in far shorter skirts / cut off trousers and women in saris. A sari is simply 6 feet of material folded around the body - much like a sarong! Our driver was very indignant on our behalf and wanted to talk to them
but by then we were over it and retired to our pool!
Next stop was the lake city of Udaipur - setting for the James Bond film Octupussy and about which we will blog next time.
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Carl Harris
non-member comment
Buckaroo or Buckle!!!
That camel definately looks like it's about to buckle. Cx