We have been in Jaisalmer, the 'Golden City' for the last 5 days. It's quite a small and touristy place, but has a nice relaxed feel to it. When we left our place in Jodhpur, the old lady (I presume mother/grandmother) who lived downstairs gave me a ring as a present. By the time I got to the train station most of the jewels had fallen off it, but it was sweet anyway! They also told us about a place to stay in Jaisalmer, that would pick us up at 5am the next morning and was really cheap. We took the overnight train, on Sleeper Class, as the other classes were all fully booked. There were lots of tourists on thos train, but unfortunately there was a strange Indian man opposite us who thought he would try to climg into my bed (top bunk) in the night! Luckily I was awake, as I was aware he was a little strange, so I kicked him out as soon as he got in, and he fell to the floor (he was small and wirey like most Indian men). I then woke Graham and he threatened him and he got off at the next station. We had been warned about this sort of thing happening to Western women, but so far had been lucky not to experience it. An old Indin lady opposite tried to check if I was ok, but she did not speak English. It was nice anyway to see her concern. Anyway, we are both ok, just a little angry as this has put us off travelling Sleeper Class again.

Back to Jaisalmer.... we have had some relaxing days here. The summer has started so it's getting hotter and hotter each day, so we found a great Italian Restaurant with a good indoor chill out area which has a window seat which overlooks the fort. Below you can watch everyone going in and out of the fort, and it's great for people watching. We particularly like to guess the nationality of the tourists by their outfits and mannerisms!

We went to a great restaurant on our first night, as a treat atfer the train, where they had a buffet and traditional Rajesthani music and dancing. They came to take people from the audience to join in the dancing, gettig them to copy the dancer. Graham hid at this point, so I got up. It's the first dance I've had in ages. We also went back there last night and had roast lamb and roast chicken. Most restaurants here are vegetarian, or the meat does not look very good, so we treated ourselves again last night to something special. It tasted so rich, but it was good!

We have spent time walking around the fort. It is a living fort full of hotels, restaurants and shops. We were planning to go to the lake, as we had read you could hire boats, but luckily someone pointed it out to us from the top of the fort before we went, as it is dried up! Apparently it has been for the last 3 years! We also went to the Thar Heritage Museum (Thar Desert) today, which was small but quite interesting and very friendly. It only cost about 55p and the guy who set up the museum offered to explain things to us (as we were the only ones in there) and they even gave us a cvp of Masala Chai (Indian Tea) whilst we looked around.

Our hotel here is basic. but the room is a good size and we have two double doors leading to a balcony. The bathroom could be cleaner, but for 2.10GBP per night for the both of us we can't complain! The manager is a little strange and tried to rip us off with our camel safari, but we are used to this now, so decided to shop around so he reduced the price when we told him this. We also have the use of the swimming pool in the hotel opposite us, which is ice cold, but in this heat it's just what you need.

We went on a camel 2 day safari a couple of days ago. The jeep took us, plus 4 Canadians we had met in Jodhpur (Jeremy, Oliver, Cary and Tyler) and a French guy (Fabien) about 45k out of Jaisalmer. We stopped off to see a Jain Temple and then eventually met our guides and camels. My camel was called 'Rocket' and was huge, which meant it took forever to get up and sit down, so I was left hanging on a for a while each time. Graham's was called 'Michael Jackson' and had a lower lip which hung down in a really unattractive way! We rode for a bit then stopped at a village, then rode further before stopping for a long lunch during the hottest part of the day, so we could seek shade under a big tree. Eventually we carried on and reached the sand dunes just before sunset. We all ran out into the dunes as they were pretty amazing. As we sat the in the dunes a man appeared, as if from no-where, with cold Pepsi and Beer for sale! It was fantastic, if not rather strange! We then had dinner and they set up out beds (a row of thin matresses) in a row with a blanket each. We lit a camp fire and sat around drinking and chatting, and it was a great night. It's so nice to lie back and look at the stars, but it was really uncomfortable for sleeping! We all said the next day that we thought we'd been awake all night. Also, before we went to sleep the guides had warned us about scorpions, which didn't help and there were loads of huge Dung Beetles around. The next morning we could see their tracks in the sand all around us, so we must have had them crawling all over us in the night! The next morning they woke us early with Chai and Breakfast and it was back on the camels. By this point it was so painful! Me and Graham decided to walk a little of the way, as it was a 3 hour ride, and we had done some running, which is even more painful! We stopped for lunch then chose to get picked up by the jeep then, as we were all ready to go home. We got straight into the cold swimming pool wehn bacj, which was great.

We move on to Udaipur tomorrow, on the overnight bus. It says it is luxury, but I'll let you know in my next blog! We've changed out plans slightly, as we have decided to go to fewer places and stay a little longer at each, as we were trying to fit too much in and just need some time to relax....this travelling can get quite tiring!

Hope all is well. We are just listening to some pigs squeeling outside the internet place, hoping they're not going to come inside (just your average day in India!)

Take care

Maggie x

P.S. We also took a trip to the Post Office. We have been to a couple already and each time it has been an experience (a different experience, as there seems no parity between them all in terms of service and price!) It was really difficult to find, and for a while we thought we were being sent on a wild goose chase (as Indians always like to give directions to help, even if they have no idea where it is you want to be!) Anyway, we got there and they ushered us into the back. Being Western seems to give us this priviledge in a few places. It was quite strange standing there surrounded by all the mail and parcels and various people working on computers. They said it would cost a lot to sew the parcel up (which was strange as this was really cheap to do in Goa) so I could have it put in a box cheaper. They then found various boxex of the wrong size and tried to cram the things into it. Eventually they found a box, which was still a little small, but the best yet, which had pictures of naked ladies on the side as it was a wedding lingerie box! They said they would cover the pictures, then two of them (one seeming to be the manager) spent about 15 minutes trying to find the end of various roles of selotape to tape up my box. We stood there in disbelief as they argued and fought between each other with the selotape! Eventually it was sealed and I put the address on , then they asked for the telephone number (which I'd not been asked for before) so hopefully the parcel will reach you, Perter, Gail, Jenny, Amy and James, but if it does not, maybe someone will call you to tell you where it is!