Desert City!

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Week 3!

Hi, sorry for the lack of updates on here, Jodhpur was not the most amazing experience. Rhian was sick for 2 days there and there's not a lot to do there except go to the Fort (which is amazing!) We left there on a bus bound for Jaisalmer, 6 hours on a half decent coach that as the journey went on got more and more full to the point of collapse! It was fun though, buying fried snacks through the window, chatting to the guy in front of us about Enrique inglesias (Enreek..) and pop music in general. He was heading to Jaisalmer on a job for the Indian Air Force!

Anyway we arrived at around 4pm and before we were even off the coach we were getting accosted by tuk tuk drivers and hotel owners, but we had already decided where to stay, not booked but we weren't about to tell them that! Our hotel, The Desert Moon, was a 10 minute walk from town in a very quiet area and we were welcomed by the host, who got us a good room and a welcome chai. We didn't hang around the hotel very long and decided to go for a wander into Jasialmer.
Jaisalmer is an oasis in the Thar Desert, 50 miles from Pakistan, it's a very old town surrounded on all sides by hundreds of wind turbines, with narrow streets, friendly people, loads of shops for Rhian to browse in and the heat is intense!! It's a different heat to what we've experienced so far, it's 40 degrees but there isn't any pollution mixed in which makes it more bearable in a weird way. Proper hot.

We went to the old sandstone fort on our second day, it literally looks like a sandcastle! We went into the Fort Museum (student rates, good times!) and wandered around with our oh so cool audio guide headsets on. We only went there for one reason, the view from the top. And it was spectacular! We could see for absolutely miles around, the town below us looked so small compared to what we've seen so far on the trip. on one side the winding streets and havelis (elaborately built houses of the rich), the other, barren desert with only a few cows to break up the view of sand.
We liked it a lot here, very relaxed, no one rushing around (apart from the motorbike riders in the centre of town incessantly honking). We arranged to stay an extra night so that we could experience... a camel safari!

Our hotel ran their own safari trip, so for the hassle free aspect we went for this. A jeep ride out to the Sam sand dunes, stopping at Bara Bagh, the cemetary for the Mararajahs of the region for a quick look around. We stopped at a small outpost and met our camels, Laki and Michael Jackson, and their owner and our guide Ali. After a small struggle to get on them (they're massive!) we set off on a trek across the desert walking across arid brushland and over sand dunes. It was absolutely amazing!! After 2 hours we got to our camp where our jeep driver had made up camp beds and hot chai for us. We settled down and just took in the incredible surroundings we had found ourselves in! We had food, in pitch dark lol, and then settled down under the stars for an amzing night's sleep, not a sound to disturb us. I've never been somewhere so silent!

We came back in the morning and spent the day just chilling out, and booked our 14 hour (!!!) bus journey to Udaipur for 3 quid!! 😊 We're really starting to fell embedded in this trip now, although our Hindi is still non-existent lol. There's still a hell of a long way to go!
Hope you are all well

G&R x

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