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Published: August 12th 2010
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We caught the night bus from Udaipur to Jaisalmer, about 12hrs. At around 3am in the morning we were told to get off the bus and change onto another bus. We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere, half asleep and had no idea what was going on!! Luckily 5mins later another bus pulled up and we were on our way.
Arrived in Jaisalmer at about 10am the next morning, as we got off the bus we were met by hoards of touts wanting our business all screaming in our face, was a nightmare!!! Before we got to Jaisalmer we had arranged with the hotel in Udaipur a hotel that would pick us up. We found our guy and were relieved to get in the car. We made our way to the Himalayan Guest House where Patan, the owner quickly got down to business selling the camel safari, before we'd even seen our room. We told him we'd think about the safari and went to our room. The hotel was in the fort and was quite basic but nice and only 150rps a night. We went for breakfast and met Joe and Corina who we saw in Udaipur and decided
we would book the camel safari with them, 3 days, 2 nights. Spent the rest of the day walking around the fort amongst the cows and their shit!! The place stank too, there were open sewers POO!!! Still the fort we thought was amazing, so old and around every corner more would be crumbling away. The views from the fort over Jaisalmer were beautiful. We stopped at the Surya guesthouse for a drink and sat on the balcony looking out over the desert. The Surya guesthouse was nice and chilled with turkish style floor cushions and colourful art on the walls. We throught the rooms here would be super expensive with the views but Ali, the helpful manager showed us one of the rooms and we couldn't believe it when he said only 100rps a night, the room was gorgeous!!!!
Back at our not so nice guesthouse we booked the camel safari with the 2 people we met,Joe from Amsterdam and Corina from England.We were due to leave the following morning at 07-00 am.In the evening we just got our stuff together for the desert and had a quick meal before bed.At around 01-00am that morning,I (Brad),woke up to people
shouting,banging,women screaming..I had a look out the window and saw an orange light which was coming from above us which was the roof.I went and had a look upstairs and saw that the restaurant of our guesthouse was on bloody fire,man it was crazy!!!People everywhere with buckets of water trying to put out the blaze!!!Anyways we were re-assured by the staff that all was under control and that we should head back to bed (Not that easy when one is fearing for your life and the local police are turning up etc etc).
Anyways,we woke up that morning still alive and not showing any 3rd degree burns,so party on!!!Up on our roof was such a shock,the place was ruined and there was ash everywhere.A Jeep took us 4 about 20km out of town where we met up with our guide Ishmail,his assistant Piru and our 5 camels.I was allocated Victor who was like the Bakkies Botha of the herd,this poor guy carried amost of the gear but he was super chilled.Lindsey was on Johnny,who was kind of like a teenager,always up to something dodgy. We were given orange turbans to cover our head and neck. That first stretch we
covered about 8km up until lunch,arses paining like you cant beleive.We unsaddled the camels and chilled under some much needed shade,where Ishmail,who is a local desert village guy,lit the fire and made the most AMAZING noodles with vegetables and chippati bread.A chippati is very similar to a naan bread. The local desert sheperds who farmed goats and cows joined us for lunch and milked a goat to make chai tea for us all. We chilled for a bit after lunch and then got on our camels again.
After another couple of hours of bum torture we hit real desert sand dunes. We watched the sunset while Ishmail prepared dinner of curry, rice and chapati, we sat around chatting for a while before laying on the sand dunes to sleep under the stars.
Next morning we were up early, leaving after a boiled egg and fruit breakfast (oh yes and a cup of chai as Indian people can't function without the tea in their system, Ishmail says no chai, you die!). More camel riding, good scenery, nice lunch, a splash in the cool natural spring, and an afternoon nap under the trees before heading off to settle down for night number
2 (believe it of not in the rain!). The rain was a nightmare, we got soaked and for the next day we could only tolerate a couple hours of the intense heat before asking to be picked up by the jeep. Camel safaris are a great experience but be prepared for no shower, toilet, change of clothes, boiling drinking water and hot desert sun!!
On our return to Jaisalmer we decided to give Surya Guesthouse a go and it was the best decision as we ended up loving it so much we stayed another 4 nights. Our room was unbelievable, stunning view and the restaurant was fantastic. The staff at the place were super friendly and we didn't want to leave!!! On our last night we had dinner and a few beers which they wouldn't let us pay for. Thanks a lot Ali, Aku, Shiva and Gapur for making this our best stay so far!!! Time for us to leave and make the long train trip up north to Amritsar. xxx
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Duncan Boustead
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Legends
Hey Guys, looking great and the stories keep coming.... you are going to have serious withdrawal symptoms once back to reality. Keep it real kids.... D