Namaste

As you can see we are now in Jodphur, the place where the riding pants were invented but we have only just arrived so let me fill you on yesterdays adventures.

In the morning our guide met us and took us around the city, we visited various things including the artificial lake built in the 1400's and the gate that you have to enter that was built by a local prostitute who had a statue of Shiva put in there so the Raj could not pull it down!!!

From here the rest of the morning was on foot and included a walk around the inside of Jaisalmer Fort.There are still 3000 people living inside the fort walls and the streets are really narrow so you can easily get lost in there. Luckily our guide took us around and showed us the jain Temples and a local Hindu Temple and there were also great views of the city from up top. Just outside the gate we visited the local bazaar and had a tasty samosa each for Rs6/8p so a great bargain.

We did the obligatory visit my friends shop but are getting good at avoiding the sales pitch and leaving!!! We also visited the Havalis here and they knocked the spots off the ones in Mandawa. They are all hand carved from the sandstone and are amazing to look at. We stocked up with a decent lunch before meeting our camel guy who drove us to the city limits to meet our camels.

Before we could climb on our camel we both got Lawrence of Arabia style turbans fitted which came in handy as the temperature was in the mid 30's and the desert offers no shade. Then we were off for our 20km ride out into the Thar desert, now I know what you are all thinking 20km is not a lot right, well on a camel it is a long long way. We did make a stop at a local village where I got to make balloon dogs for the kids with the balloons we had brought from the UK. By the time we reached our campsite we were glad to get off the beasts and sit on the sand. Our 2 guides whipped us up a meal of Dal and rice while we watched the sunset and all the desert animals running around. We even got a desert mouse visiting us for some food later on.

The temperature really drops and by 8.30pm we were in bed in the pitch dark. Six in the morning came around far too quickly and we emerged into the cold desert air ready for breakfast, before we knew it the campsite was cleared away and we were back on our camels heading for Jaisalmer, another gruelling 20km on the camel which gave us both sore backsides!!!!

Luckily the camels are not allowed in the city so the last part of the journey was by auto rickshaw back to the hotel where trusty Raju was waiting for us. Then we had another 320km journey by car (around 5 hours) to reach Jodphur which is where we are right now. Both extremely achy and tired so we are resting this evening before our day around the city tomorrow.

Lots of Love

M & M