Hello from the seriously scorching desert! We are in a small town with a population of 50,000 called Jaisalmer on the edge of the Thar desert about 50km from Pakistan. The whole place is built of (surprise surprise) sandstone and so we came from the blue city to the yellow one. It is ridiculously hot here and a little bit set back in time although, as everywhere, geared up for the tourist rupee as they wouldn't be doing much at all in this barren land if it wasn't for it. Open sewers which give the place a lovely aroma flow past internet cafes with lots of thin cows and feral pigs scratching away and eating paper to survive. A flea bitten camel has just strolled past pulling a petrol tanker and the stray dogs have the saddest eyes ever. It is quite unique in that it has a 'living' fort- as opposed to the other ones we have visited which are museums or empty this one still has the Maharaja's palace but surrounding it inside the bastions are hotels, shops and homes with a quarter of the cities population living inside it. It is one of the largest forts in the world and was built in 1156 so is a very important monument. Unfortunately because of the people living inside it the structure is under serious threat and is said to be sinking into the hill it is on top of. The main reason for this is believed to be water. When the fort was built water was extremely scarce (it hasn't rained here for 2 years) and now with all the tourism, hotels and people the excess water is crumbling it. The Lonely Planet does not list places to stay inside the fort and although they acknowledge ethical issues they are not huge on it so that says quite a lot!

So we booked into a guesthouse that had quite good reviews. After a completely sleepless night on the train and because of the searing heat we decided to splash out 10pounds and book ourselves a 'deluxe' room! In other places this has meant perhaps a balcony, a TV and air conditioning. Not here- the place stank even more strongly of sewage inside- the toilet leaked all over the floor, the sink wasn't connected and we were told the deluxe aspect was the small barred window! We stayed the night but decided to move out the next day and found another place for the same price with a nice balcony and even a tiny chlorine filled pool that we haven't been it (this feels a bit strange on the edge of the desert)

On the first day we went to see the fort and climbed up absolutely sweltering to the highest point. The view from the top was absolutely stunning- the town laid out before us and the desert stretched out behind it. A big reminder of where we would be the next day on our camel safari and a bit of a scary thought. The desert is huge but is also covered with thousands of wind turbines- these are solely used to power the lights on the border fence between here and Pakistan as well as the extensive army barracks.

Morning came all too soon and we got up early to climb into the jeep for our drive to the desert with trepidation. We stopped off on the way at Bada Bagh which is the mausoleum for Maharajas. There is a "sihasan" for each one that has been cremated and also a picture representing each of his wives who threw themselves alive into his funeral pyre- this practice, called Johar, does not seem to raise any eyebrows here and some had up to 11 women who jumped into the flames after them. I can't imagine that Kate Middleton would be that keen on William if she knew that would be her faith. After wandering around thee for a while we got back into the jeep and went to visit a tiny village in the desert. We didn't know that we were going to do this until we stopped. It felt a bit wrong as always, especially when all the kids ran up to the car shouting "pens pens rupees, chocolate" but then the adults came and actually a lady was really happy for us to sit in her kitchen whilst she made chapattis. She told our guide that she liked my face and thought I was a good person which pleased me. They then got out a photo album of the other 'goras' that had been to visit with pride.

To be honest I think it is pretty boring in the desert when the only work is stone cutting so they seem pleased for the distraction of staring at us. I would never pay to go on a 'village safari' that is advertised though and would also not give them rupees, chocolate or pens. Although it sounds harsh it turns the children into beggars and is the ethical thing to do. We happily gave kids who we passed our empty water bottles that they desperately wanted though- goodness knows what they will do with them. Although they had nothing as with everyone in India they were happy and it was really refreshing to see a kid have a toy of a stick and a wire loop he rolled along the floor that seemed to give him much joy- better han a computer any day! Of course they all wanted their photo taken and then to look at it over and over again even though they were hard to take because they got so close to the camera and couldn't actually wait until you'd pressed the button to run round to see it!

After that our next stop was further on where our camel man, Elap was waiting for us with our two camels- the ride was about to begin! We climbed onto Carlu and Purla and set off. The desert was stunning but as you can imagine seriously hot and not a vast amount of different things to look at al of the time. We were quite relieved when 2 hours later we stopped under the shade of a tree to get out of the midday sun. The camels had their saddles and blankets taken off and wandered off to enjoy some lunch while we enjoyed lying on a blanket whilst Elap made curry and chapattis. After enjoying this Elap washed up which meant rubbing the bowls with sand and we dozed a little and read. At 3pm we had to wake Elap up and we set off again for another 2 hours for the dunes.

By now all the mineral water that we had with us was boiling- far hotter than any shower we have had in India and all we could crave was a cold drink. Yes we know we are pathetic we couldn't even last a day! Elap promised that we would go to a village that might have electricity and therefore may have a fridge where they are cooling Tanda Panni (cold water) to flog to stupid goras at double price. He decided the best way to keep up our motivation would be tell us it is ten minutes away every ten minutes which went on for an hour. Finally he said "ok before I am lying but now last price- 15 minutes" and sure enough when we came over the pristine dunes there was a tiny village there consisting of a few mud houses with thatched roofs and a solitary electric cable running into it. Lucky! We dismounted from the camels as it is rude to ride them into a village and located the boy with the keys to the one fridge. We bought 7 cold drinks for the three of us (Elap only wanted one!) and gulped them down with joy- they tasted the best ever! We felt even more pathetic though when we realised that despite getting electricity 3 years ago no one in the village has anything but a light they use sparingly and the fridge is there solely for the few tourists that drop in- nothing but drinks is stored in it. I joked to the boy- soon you will start an ice cream parlour and he looked back to me with a serious expression "you want ice cream? I have ice cream too!"

We walked down to the village water trough to give the camels some much needed thirst quenching themselves and this is where I nearly got jacked of all my belongings. Kids ran up to me and tried to pull the rings off my fingers so hard it really hurt- one grabbed my anklet and broke it off and a huge crowd gathered shouting "rupees? chocolate?" It made me sad that this is what they had come to think of foreigners as- cash machines. We are so lucky and privileged but so are they in completely different ways and it is very patronising to turn them into this.

After this experience we headed up to the dunes where we would spend the night. We couldn't quite believe it- it was so beautiful. We were the only people as far as the eye could see (in fact we had seen noone else the whole day apart from the villagers) and we sat down to watch a stunning sunset over the desert with the camels munching in front of us and Elap making masala Chai - a very unique hot, extremely sweet spicy tea. After dinner made with water from the trough(!) we went to the top of the dunes where we laid out blankets to sleep under the stars. Charles had been very scared about this bit and had done lots of furious wikipedia-ing (is that a verb?) before we left about dung beetles and scorpions. The beauty of the stars and full moon made you forget about your worries though and we chatted and laughed as we could see the lights from the Pakistan border on the horizon. As we settled down to sleep in the open air the gentle breeze was soothing and we listened to the tinkling of the bells around goats necks in the nearby villages and the camels constantly chewing away next to us.

In the middle of the night we were woken by a serious wind and sand whipping in our faces. It wasn't the most soothing of experiences and when we got up in the morning our bed and everything was buried under but we wouldn't have slept anywhere else that night and were so pleased we did it. In the morning we felt very sore when climbing back onto our steeds and in fact after the first hour or so when we stopped for a water break in another village we decide to walk the ret of the way. This was also due to Charles not feeling well at all. You might have guessed this was coming from my description of the 'facilities' but as soon as Charles said he was ill Elap insisted "oh dear but definitely not my cooking" over and over again. He was really sweet and desperate that nothing would impinge his livelihood like us writing a bad review in the book that all businesses seem to treasure.

After walking for another half an hour we saw our jeep and were happy to be returning to the comfort of town to be honest- some people do 5/6 days safaris and we respect them muchly- it was definitely enough for us but absolutely fantastic. Charles, sadly is still ill and ha been in bed for 2 days- I think my stomach has disappeared and been replaced with a monster as nothing seems to make me feel bad- I will be the only person in the world to put on weight in India- still I am probably speaking to soon and next time I write a blog it will be about how I have been sick as a dog for days! We now need to work out how to get to Varanasi on the other side of India- it's a bit of a nightmare but we are determined to see it! Oh and we have somehow managed to lose the camera cable so need to work that out before more photos....annoying but will give you a chance to catch up!!