Delhi to Jodhpur

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The train journey from Delh to Jodhpur was overnight, leaving at night and arriving about 9 in the morning. We travelled in the three tier sleeper class without air conditioning and it was a pleasant journey and most of us slept well. I had a bottom berth as I though I might have to go to the toilet a few times in the night but, in fact, I only had to go once.

The others are all much younger than me. Frankie, Sophie, Carl, Wes and Ed, who I met in Delhi are all 20 apart from Ed who is 24 and the Autralian girls (Liz, Elise, Tenniel and Emily) are even younger, about 17 to 19.

At Jodphur we got into three auto rickshaws to go to our guesthouse. The rickshaws here have evolved even more than the mutant tuk tuks seen in Delhi and elsewhere in India. They are a bit longer and more elegant in appearance and the hard carapace has expanded still further. The driver of one of our rickshaws got into a fight with the puller of a handcart on the way to the guest house.

The guest house is in a good location in the blue city of Jodhpur, near the clocktower. Wew all needed a shower and breakfast when we arrived and then we had some free time before the start of our excursion to Osean and the desert.

We drove to Osean in a large jeep and visited the large Sachiya Matta temple there. Then we went off agin to the Thar desert proper and a family who lived there. We wlaked in the desert to a nearby sand dune to watch the sunset. We had supper in the kitchen of the house, sitting crosslegged on the ground. Almost the only light was from the fire on which they were cooking. After dinner some traditioinal Rajasthani dances were performed and we joined in. Because the troupe did not have a female member, a man wore a sari and took the female parts.

Our beds were laid out on the desert sands and we slept there under the sky. The moon was full and beautiful. We saw her rise behind our beds and cross over during the night to the front. Half of the sky was lit up by the moon and when I needed to get up in the night (ther was no toilet, of course - you just found a spot in th edesert) I could see well enough to navigate easily back to bed. There were few stars in the cloudy sky but I couild see about 3 (if I had my glasses on). The moon must have shone through the clouds occluding the stars. The only sound to disturb us was the loud screeching of peacocks.

Lots of peacocks in the desert, surprisingly. I expected camels and goats and wild deer and all those were present and correct, but lots of peafowl too and all screeching dischordantly. Sort of desert equivalent of the cockerel. I saw one run swiftly alonng the ground and just skim above it and then, finally, burst into a fligt and land in a tree. On the way back we saw a peacock displaying his tail feathers proudly.

I did hear sounds before I fell asleep that resewmbled the sound of rain falling on the leaves of a forest. That made no sense in the middle of the desert. I realised that the noise was produced by the sands being blown by the wind. This also produces the characteristic wavy lines that you see spreading across the sands.

We had to wake up early in the morning (five o'clock) so as to catch a camel to go to a further off sand dune to see the sunrise. My camel was very tall . It is funny the way the camels kneel - their front knees go one way and the back knees the opposite way. It is eaven funnier when you are on them and they do this trick, like a lift going down two storeys. Going up was quite wierd too! The camels sway from side to side when you ride them but were very sure footed on the slopes of the sand dunes.

The sun duly came back up and the camels took us back to the house. Soemeone was drawing water from the well.

On the way back to the guesthouse our jeep stopped in Jodhpur for us to visit the Fort and the Jaswant Thada. It was very hot but we did the sights justice. The fort is an interesting one and the audioguide recounted some engaging anecdotes.

Now we have had lunch and are free until this evening when we will catch the overnigth bus to Udaipur . .

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Photos

Sophie, Frankie and Ed
On the train from Delhi. Note Frankie's Israeli top

Jodhpur Fort
And blue city

Rajasthani musician
R

Rajasthani dancing
With a man dressed as a woman!

Water party
Water on the roof outside was three inches deep after the monsoon rain