Jodhpu and Jailsalmer

We arrived in Jodhpur late and it was here that we were able to find what may be the only hostel in all of Rajasthan. It was a good hostel, just 3 months old but what totally sucked was that we were the only two people staying in it. Not many other backpackers in India then. The coolest thing about the hostel was the cut out super hero which provided us with hours of entertainment. Well I say hours, after the two Kingfisher Strongs that we each had it was pretty much lights out. It may only say 8% on the back of the bottle but whatever is in there is lethal. Im not sure if its really alcohol or some other potion designed to knock you out. Jodhpur is referred to as the Blue City due to the colour of the buildings which is was insisted upon by the earlier Maharaja's had to be blue. Not sure of the reason but thats the way it is. Before getting to the old part of the city, we visited the Palace built by the Maharaja at the turn of the 20th Century. Its some place, seriously grand and large in size as well. Its now been turned into one of the Premier hotels in all India with one of the wings being converted into a museum detailing the history of the palace and the story of the Maharaja who built it. The Palace also has a small collection of classic cars with a couple of early Rolls Royce's being the pick of the bunch. The area at the foot of the hill where the palace is built is also under a lot of construction with luxury houses and villas being built. These are more pink in colour, certainly not the blue of the old city.

A visit to the market in Jodhpur is an experience. The place is totally manky with litter and waste lining the whole square upon which the shops sit. It appears that the stall owners/workers are merely concerned that there is not a pile up of filth at the front of their little stall and are quite happy to allow the muck to pile up only a matter of feet away. The stench of the market is certainly not pleasant either and we didnt hang around long there. Its a pity cause the clock tower and the little bazaars into which the stalls are place are quite decorative. The fort in Jodhpur isnt really up to much, not compared to Kumbalgarh anyway. It does contain the same excellent craftmanship which is a constant throughout all Rajasthan and there is a lot of important history surrounding the fort. But the location and the views afforded from the fort are not spectacular. The blue houses are clearly visible and this provides a nice scene worthy of a couple of photos. Although again, like Mumbai, the smog from the streets prevents a better view of the surrounds and the majestic palace built upon a seperate hill in the near distance.

At the back of the fort is a small Memorial Temple to one of the Maharaja's and a statue of him upon horse back next to it. This was worth a short visit but we had the long drive to Jaisalmer ahead of us and so we didnt spend that much time exploring the streets of Jodhpur. It was on this stretch of road that Ganesh thought it ok to allow me to have a shot at navigating the roads of India. Cadge, whilst not in objection to it, I think was a little bit ill at ease with the idea of my good self getting behind the wheel of the little Tata (I had never heard of this car till we got to India but it is the only one to be seen on the streets here) we were in. Under Ganesh's instructions of "Slowly, slowly", I managed along at the fantastic speed of 80KPH (Ganesh wouldnt let me go any faster) to avoid all means of obstacle on the road. I dont even think there were any heart in mouth moments and I quite quickly got accustomed to the usage of the horn Indian style. Its quite easy really, you press when approaching a vehicle and dont let it go until the vehicle you have passed is no longer in the sights of your rear-view mirror.

We had booked ourselves into a Palace in Jaisalmer and were fair excited at the prospect of staying in an old, converted, Royal residence and so we were quite disappointed to learn that nearly all of the guesthouses around the area we were staying were also named "Palace". Still the one we had chosen was a nice place with a free glass of Chai on arrival, so not all bad. We had arranged back in Udaipur through Jamil to head on a camel safari into the desert for one night. We were both looking forward to this more so because the few people we had met in Goa who had been to Jaisalmer and done the safari had told us that it was lots of fun and a good experience to have. We spent a bit of time exploring Jaisalmer during the morning, taking in the man made lake with its countless number of catfish fighting for pieces of bread being thrown in by Indian tourists and then we explored the fort as well. The fort differs from the forts in the other cities in that it is a living fort with many people making there homes and livelihoods from within the forts walls. There are good and bad sides to this. The large number of restaurants from where you are able to eat out of the heat of the sun (it was roasting on this day) whilst still having a view of the fort around you and in some restaurants the city below is certainly a plus point. On the negative though, its the dirtiest fort we visited and with this being India, the constant hassle from those wanting you to "see my shop" or "come eat in my restaurant" prevents you from walking the forifications in peace.

But never mind all this, the main reason we were here in Jaisalmer (apart from seeing the worlds biggest moustache which we were unable to track down) was to get up on a camel and trek out through the desert for the Pakistan border. We were first taken by jeep to the beginning of the desert and this in itself was fun due to the mental Indian music that our driver was pumping out through a couple of large subwoofers under the seats. This merely served as and appetiser for the fun that is riding on the back of a camel. In preparation for our trek we had went out and bought the necessary equipment. A couple of hats adorned with the beast that we were about to embark upon this adventure with. For these we had even been succesful in reducing the price from an extorniate 50 rupees down to 30 so we were already on to a winner.

Upon arriving at the deserts edge we were met with our majestic mounts along with our guide for the day. Piru, a 22 year old Indian (you at least 30) already married with a kid who spent the entire time telling me about his ambition of one day owning a camel for himself and how he needed a lot of tip money to enable him to do this. Well one way, in my opinion, to reduce the tip you may receive by a significant amount is to continually talk about said tip. Piru, however appears to think otherwise.

Asides from this the actual riding of the camels was great. Completely different to riding a horse as you would expect, the rocking back and forth upon its hump is quite relaxing, even when the animal puts in a sprint of around 5kph. My camel was named Number 1 camel whilst Cadge's camel was Peter or something like that. Riding through that dunes was cool, there was still quite a lot of plant life at the beginning of the desert but this soon disappeared to be replaced with sand, sand and more sand. The camel trek only lasted about 2 hours but that was more than enough for me. By then end of it my thighs were starting to feel the constant battering off the camels side. We stopped next to a little nomad hut for the night and whilst Cadge and I went exploring the dunes during the setting of the sun, Piru cooked up some curry for dinner. The sunset over the dunes was as impressive as you can imagine. It was made even better by the bus load of Indians who were dancing around on the dunes with their music blaring. We found out that they were shooting an advertisement for trips into the desert. Would have been cool if we had managed to get in on it. The dinner was real tasty too. Maybe the best curry we had ate in the country up until that point. The best bit though was that we had arranged to bring along a few bottles of kingfisher for the journey and sitting out under the night sky with some beers was fantastic. The sky was clear and the stars were shining bright in it. There was a streak of flourescent white light cutting through the darkness which Piru claimed was the Milky Way. I dont believe that it was but I am not entirely sure as to what was causing this effect. Whatever it was it was really cool and nice to see. Sleeping under the stars is one of the best things one can do and doing it in the middle of the desert, with the sky so clear simply adds to the experience. This was definitely one of the best things that we did in India and I would recommend it to anyone who is in Rajasthan...and try to find the guy with the longest moustache in the world as well. That would be a photo.