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Published: October 7th 2012
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Driving the Tuktuk
Prettyh tight squeeze in some of these tuktuks We arrived in Jaisalmer after
a 5am get up to catch the 7 20 train. People like to get to the station a good hour early in case of traffic so we have spent a lot of time in train stations over the last few days. The train was filled with loads of enthusiastic locals all wanting pictures and to know more about us. This is what it must be like to be a celebrity! Throughout the entirety of our trip we have been a victim of paparazzi of India! It was a perfect opportunity on the train to try out some of the Hindi that I had learnt, simple things such as Hello, Goodbye, Thank You and What is your name. I've written it all down in a book to try and help me remember things, Hindi isn't an easy language to pick up. Once we had arrived in Jaisalmer, after a quick wash and change, we headed out to explore the city. It was beautiful, nicknamed the Golden City due to the stone it was built from. It wasn't a big place and less crowded than the other cities that we had visited. The main attraction of Jaisalmer was the
fort, the only one left standing in India where by people still inhabit the grounds. Its rammed with temples, shops, narrow alleys and very friendly people or so we thought, but all in due time. Being as I am, I like to talk to people and the locals in particular, but if you say you promise to go into someones shop at a later date it means to them you will go back and buy something. So when we bought something from a shop, all the other shop owners turned from calling us a friend to being called a horrible human being. Careless to say we didn't go anywhere near that row of shops again. Our reason for shopping was that I had a bet with one of the guys on our trip, Fin, that I could get a better shirt than he could with a budget of 250 rupees. That excelled into buying a full indian outfit, turban and all. The rest of the group were then to determine who wins the bet (hopefully the pictures will work). In the evening we headed to a roof top restaurant were we could watch the sunset and enjoy a curry, whilst
sat on the floor. The scenery was stunning, and the sunlight hit all the tops of the temples making them look even better. A few beers later and it was day done, with a record breaking 7 people into a Tuktuk (sorry Mum). The next day we headed out to the Jain Temples, built in the 1500s. They looked like something we imagine to see in Cambodia, lots of fine architecture and statues within. After that we had the day free, a load of us had a massage, what happens when the group is mainly women. Laura had a foot one which she loved, I had a deep tissue one on my shoulder to try and sort it out. Pain central. In the evening we watched the sunset, yes another sunset, but overlooking a lake called Gaidisar Mal, filled with carp and lots of free standing temples in the middle. It was one of the best that we have seen here and the fort was in the background to make it that bit better. Look out for a remake of the Nandos Skank in the next few weeks hitting Youtube, Karen and I are planning to do it outside the
Taj Mahal. Just need to learn it first. Had an early night as we had to be up at 4 15 for
a 5 am bus to Jodphur, the place where jazzy horse riding pants came from. So with about 5 hours sleep we boarded the bus, for a planned arrival of
1pm. The driver from the off wasn't intending making it there that slowly, he got us there 2 hours early. We were warned on the bus not to open our windows as people sleep above the seats in bunks and are quite often sick out of the windows. 3 hours into the trip and one of us got hit with a face full of the stuff. From that moment on the windows were closed. Got to the hotel, cleaned up and had a swim and went off for lunch at a Womens Empowerment Society, whereby local women who are in the lowest economic class come to learn how to sow, write and speak english. The language barrier was a problem, and the entire time was filled with smiles and hand waving more than speaking but it was the best we could do and it definitely made their day and ours.
250 Bet
This was the bet! After lunch we headed out to see the biggest fort around and reminded me very much of Hogwarts. Although it was good you can guess what will be inside, lots of statues and nice buildings but very similar to other ones we have seen. The best part of it was we got to play cricket with some of the local kids inside the fort. That was pretty much the last 3 days in a nutshell, so much is happening its hard to remember it all and shrink it down into a few hundred or thousand? words so sorry for rambling, I will try not to next time. But to some up India so far is that you cannot expect any plan to run smoothly, cows and goats free roam the city streets, shop owners aren't as nice as they seem and in all this chaos and noise is a system that runs, from the onlookers eye, smoothly and without the trauma experienced in cities at home. No one knows how it works but it just does. James and Laura
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uncle rich
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sounds great and keep enjoying yourselves. small piece of advice - keep in touch with your mum (+dad), she's blubbing fom missing her little lov! Rich, katie, arch, annalise