Our arrival in Jaisalmer didn't go quite to plan. We arrived at our supposed hotel and it was a complete flea pit! Now maybe we had just been a bit spoiled with our previous few hotels....but this one was awful. I had trouble trying to work out whether it was in fact a hotel. It looked like a building site. Dirt everywhere, no apparent reception. Our room hadn't even been cleaned since the previous occupants. They hadn't even put any effort into trying to pretent it had! The covers were left the way the person before had left them, used glasses on the table, shampoo splattered all over the bathroom, sheets obviously used and hair all over the floor. What topped it off and really pushed me over the edge was the little boy who "helped" carry one small bag up to our room. Now me and Lauren always make sure to carry our own bags so that we do not need to tip anyone. On this occasion we carried our 2 big rucksacks, 2 handbags, 4 bottles of water, one day bag and a couple of carrier bags all the way up the stairs to our room. This little boy carried one tiny bag! and expected a tip!!! I clearly said thankyou to get him to leave and still he stood there. We carried on unpacking and still he stood there. It was getting really awkward so Lauren (obviously a softer touch than me) gave him 10 rupees....which he then turned his nose up at in disgust. What a cheek!! He should have paid us for doing his job for him!

Anyway after complaining a boy was sent up to clean the room. He came in, turned on the tv then didn't appear to do much except quickly sweep a brush round the room. During this time the driver had seen his room, which was completely disgusting, and we decided it was best we went to another hotel. This hotel, however, was worse than the first. Blocked toilet, dirty sheets, very noisy and dodgy wiring.

We were only too happy to leave the hotel early the next morning. We went on a guided tour around Jaisemler. The town is called the golden city because it is golden in colour due to the buildings being made of sand. It was an interesting place full of twisty narrow alleyways and the main fort and mosques. It did prove to be a very smelly place. I'm certainly not a fan of the open sewers and we did see a few rats running around. The flies were a nightmare. No bit of food was left uncovered, eugh!

After lunch we left for the Thar Desert. We trekked into the desert on camels. It was pretty fun. Bit sore on the bum though. We stopped to watch the sunset which was absolutely beautiful. Our dinner was cooked over a fire for us which has got to be one of the best meals I've had in India so far. Me and Lauren attempted to keep the fire alight with not much success, then it was time for bed. Our bed consisted of a blanket on the sand with another thick blanket on top. No tent or anything, just us lying under the stars. It was completely surreal. It was so peaceful and the stars and moon above was amazing. I won't lie by saying it was the best nights sleep of my life! I was pretty concerned by snakes, spiders etc but it was completely fine and I even managed a couple of hours sleep.

The next morning we woke up and watched the sun rise. There were lots of deer running around. We made our way back to the base camp on our camels (even running at times) where we were given a nice breakfast. Then we were back on the road to Bikaner.