I am preparing to depart to Udaipur by yet another overnight bus. I have decided that from my initial reservations, now I've got used to it, I love India. I really like Jaisalmer now and will be sad to leave it but excited about the next place.

Immediately after posting my last blog I got myself into another of my situations. The man in the internet place was very friendly, and helped me put some music on my MP3 player (haven't lost it yet!). He voluntarily told me his life story, which was actually quite interesting; he'd been disowned by his family after refusing an arranged marriage and moved to Jaisalmer to set up his own business, which is going pretty well. I also met his friend, who at the age of 30 was celebrating his 15 year wedding anniversary. You do the maths. His wife is three years younger than him as well. It wasn't until he invited me to his Chillaxin' Room and asked me to have a drink with him that I suspected he may have ulterior motives and beat a hasty retreat. I'm getting better!

I also got asked out to dinner by the man who ran the first hotel I stayed at; I moved rooms after finding somewhere better for half the price (not to escape his solicitations). The advantage of coming in the off season is that everything is about a third of the price it is usually. I loved my second place, the man who owned it seemed to be the Indian Victor Meldrew as he was very surly and gruff, and I didn't see him smile once. He was really lovely and helpful though, and gave me everything I asked for, so I think it was all an act. I did kind of feel sorry for his wife though.

Yesterday we got up at the ungodly hour of 6.30 and wandered round the fort. It was built in the 13th or 14th century and is very well preserved. (Although apparently it's collapsing due to the modern demands on its infrastructure, which is a real shame). I thought it would be like an old castle or temple with lots of buildings and no people, but lots of families still live there, as do vendors peddling jewelery, clothes and camel leather hats, and many many cows. Seriously, what is with all the cows? I have never seen so many, even in fields, and here they're just wandering casually round the town, lying in the middle of the road. Anyway, the fort is very beautiful, all the sandstone is elaborately carved with beautiful designs. I've even seen a few new buildings being made and they look just as good.

Then we went to a haveli. A haveli is (I think) an old house where wealthy people used to live. It was kind of like a preserved house museum, like National Trust I guess. That was pretty cool, the inside is decorated in these really beautiful wall paintings and murals made of bits of mirror and coloured glass. Some of the displays were more interesting than others, I now know a little bit about what the colours and styles of turbans signify in terms of caste and religion (interesting) and that locks are "a device used for securing a door or other entrance" (not interesting).

In the evening we went to watch the sunset at the sand dunes. Most people go by camel safari but, plagued with too fresh memories of almost being catapulted of a very moody camel in the Mongolian desert in -20C, I wasn't too excited about going back on one, and neither were the others, so we walked. Deepti wanted to go on one to get her photo taken but we decided none of the camels were pretty enough to go into the modeling profession. We hope to scout out more attractive ones in Udaipur. The sunset was actually not very good, the sun kind of disappeared behind a cloud, but it was fun to wander round the dunes, and I now have fond memories of Arvy chasing a giant beetle and trying to swat it with his hat. The highlight, though, was watching a group of middle aged American men attempting to learn traditional Rajisthani dancing. Worse than dads at a wedding. Much worse.

I've had a slight foot injury for the past few months, which suddenly got much worse a couple of days ago, and I've been limping everywhere. Honestly, there is always something wrong with me. I had a foot massage and got some potion to put on it yesterday and it felt much better, until I decided to go climbing up and down sand dunes. This morning I saw a sign for a "Dr" who does acupuncture, massage, reiki, etc, and thought I may as well give it a go. He proceeded to press my foot and leg very hard, determining the problem from the severity of my yelps, and rolling and prodding me with all manner of mean looking instruments he kept producing from his "torture box", as I called it. He concluded I have blocked meridians and poor circulation, and the reason I have problems is because I stopped doing regular exercise suddenly. He has prescribed jogging (in 45C heat), cycling my legs in the air, no spices (in India) and lots of fruit and water. I will be entertaining my fellow bus passengers tonight then with my exercise regime!

I'd better go in search of some non-spicy food before I get on the bus I suppose. Till Udaipur!