Hurrah, I have made it out of Punjab and into Rajasthan. I got here by more exciting adventures into the Indian road system. This journey was less breath-taking in the life-threatening department but no less adventurous for all that. We started by getting a sleeper bus to Bikaner. I was overjoyed to find that, in proportion to their respective people's sizes, the beds in Indian sleeper buses are a lot roomier than in the Chinese and Vietnamese ones, so I had a fairly decent night's sleep, even in spite of the bus stopping every five minutes to pick up/drop off random people with random parcels. I really like sleeper buses and trains, you wake up and look out of the window and everything looks completely different. I woke up at sunrise and realised we were in the middle of the desert which was quite a surprise, as I'd left farmland and westernised towns behind in Punjab. On arrival in Bikaner, we took a succession of local buses through the desert to a series of random towns, from which we were directed onto the next bus. The whole thing went very smoothly and it definitely helped to have a local in tow, though I'm pretty sure now I'd be able to do it again on my own (perhaps with some help from passers-by). The local buses definitely beat getting a tourist bus (which did, admittedly, sail past us at one point) because I got to, to put it plainly, stare at everybody. But they stared at me too so it's ok! It was great being with Arvy and Deepti because I could ask all manner of random questions, my favourite being, "why is that baby wearing eye-liner?" Apparently it wasn't actually eye-liner, it was some black paste which cools the eyes down, and all the kids wear it. It does make them look very adorable as they already have huge brown eyes and they stare a lot. The women here are really beautiful as well, especially when they're dressed up in all their gear. The outfits are incredible, all the saris, suits and veils are made of brightly coloured material covered in sequins and other sparkly bits. The women in Rajasthan have to cover their faces to show respect to their husbands and in-laws, which seems a bit much to me but there we go. As we got further into Rajasthan it started to look more like I expected India to look, with lots of wise old men with turbans and huge moustaches and multitudes of children. The boys in the row in front kept turning round and staring at me, I wasn't sure if it was my legs or my MP3 player that was fascinating them so much. I tried sharing the latter with them and they seemed pleased though unimpressed with the music, although I was playing Bon Jovi at the time (please don't judge me, it is most fitting for long bus journeys).

Anyway, after a total of about 20 hours on four buses, we made it to Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer is more like what I was expecting. There's a huge sandstone fort towering over the small city, and all the buildings roundabout are beautifully carved. There is also a very large number of cows. I went for a little walk this evening but we are saving the fort for tomorrow. I'm on the tourist trail now so I can't walk down the street without being "invited" to buy various goods. I did my usual thing of wandering off by myself down a random side street. In SEAsia this would have been perfectly fine, and the street looked to contain nothing more harmless than a couple of boars. As I walked up the hill I saw a group of kids who suddenly started running towards me. I wasn't sure if they were running towards me or something behind me so I carried on and found myself engulfed in a hoard of children saying, "hello, hello". This went well until they started going through my pockets and trying to get in my bag. I'm not sure if they were actually trying to rob me or if they were just being friendly and curious, but I'll definitely be wary of kids from now on. Oh, they also tried to sell me marijuana - the youngest drug dealers I have ever met.

I'm still not sure what to make of India. The people I'm with and their friends and familges are the loveliest, kindest and most hospitable people I've ever met, but I've had mixed responses from others. Some seem friendly and want to help me, others just don't seem very helpful at all. Especially coupled with my attempted robbery by eight year olds. Most seem nice I guess, I suppose I could just be spoilt by SEAsia because they are the friendliest and sweetest people I've met so far on my travels.