The Sandcastle in the Desert

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Arrived in Jaisalmir, Rajastan after a 19hour sleeper train from Dehli. It was really bizarre entering a desert town after being in the jungle. The city is in the middle of the Great Thar Desert and in the centre of town is a giant sandstone fort, rising out of a hill. Basically looks like a giant sandcastle. All the buildings are made of sandstone and look golden in the sun. We're on the tourist trail though, so prices are exspensive and their are lots of middle-aged western couples wandering about. This is kind of a relief, but also annoying as you get a lot of hassle from shopkeepers etc.

Have to mention our 3 day camel trek: We imagined clear blue skies, riding across the desert in the boiling heat. But the first day it was randomly completely overcast and it actually rained (i didn't think it was supposed to rain in the desert). However it was still pretty fun. We stopped for the night in a desert village and were attacked by screaming kids. We slept in the village school. Chloe only managed a few hours sleep as she stayed up talking to a vaguely crazy but really interesting brit called Zoe, also was v.uncomfy sleeping on concrete floor and the camels were snoring and goats were trying to break in.

Luckily next day weather completely cleared up, sky was cloudless- proper desert weather. We met up with some nice Finnish and Aussie people that hadnt wanted to go on the trek the day earlier. Its really fun riding on camel, but vaguely painful after a while, you can't avoid geting covered in spikey burrs , and it was quite sketchy at times- almost fell into several cactus bushes. However it was well worth it- reaching the sand dunes was spectacular- rolling golden hills of sand. Was really fun running/rolling down them and making first footprints in the sand. Watching the sunset from the dunes was also fantastic. Once the sun went down we lit a campfire on the dunes and the camel drivers sang us songs- including 'Im a Camel Rider' (to the tune of Im a Barbie Girl). We sat around the fire eating, suprisingly tasty 'desert cake' (basically a fruity mush) and talking to the others about travels. We slept on the dunes, under the stars, there was even a full moon. Slept ok- but desert gets pretty chilly at night and Jesse had an unfortunate encounter with a giant beetle.

Sorry about lack of photos- we finally found a fast internet cafe, but forgot to bring camera!

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Photos

The Sandcastle
The view from the roof of our hotel

Jesse and Chloe and Lalu
This was Chloe's camel

Dog On Dune
This dog followed us for miles

Comments

[Frances Place]

camels
love the camel pictures - what are you wearing Chloe?