This evening we boarded our first Indian sleeper train. After the rumours we had heard about the safety of our bags, we tied and locked them to something solid before climbing on our bunk for the evening. We were very excited about seeing somewhere new in India and hoped our Delhi experiences were far behind us....

We arrived early than expected in Bikaner, bonus! We were picked up by someone from the hotel called Bobby (Bilal) to be taken to our guest house. Needless to say we were very sceptical and asked him endless questions about it. The Chandra Niwas guest house was the home of a former maharajah (said in Ben Jones posh accent!) bodyguard, Mr Singh where he and his family rent our a few of their rooms. Our room was costing us £3 a night each and was filled with family photos. Mr Singh welcomed us with a cup of Chai (Indian milky tea) and with his limited English made conversation. Bobby arrived and asked if he could escort us to the old Town which is where we were headed. He could clearly see our sceptical looks but explained that he just wanted to show us around, he had no shops and expected no money at the end. We accepted and it was the best decision we made. We visited many sights in the old town that we would never have found on our own including spice shops, food stalls and women in the market drying goods they had just freshly dyed. Bikaner being a less touristy town, we were like celebrities. Bobby took us to a Chai shop and in a minute we were surrounded by Indians coming up and shaking our hands. We had a cup of Chai and a samosa served in less than clean glasses which had been resting in the street, we will see how our stomach is later! It was such an amazing experience surrounded by locals all fighting for a look at the white girls. We were ignoring the mice running around our feet and enjoying the chai and samosa. A highlight of our day was meeting Vijay Kumar Modi, or in other words, the man with the 2 metre long moustache. Tonight as it is the son of the family's birthday, we have been invited to celebrate it at our guest house. The party was in the garden and included balloons, cake and the traditional curry based buffet. The only difference being that once cut, ate a piece of the cake then passed it to his mother and father to take a bite. This continued until the slice of cake had been eaten. It was lovely to see the young boy include his parents in the celebrations even when he was surrounded by all his friends, a nice moment to witness.

Today we took the local bus to visit the Kanimata temple or the rat temple to better describe it. The journey took 40 minutes and gave a good amount of time for me (Carly) to build up the courage to face the vermin invested rat pool of a temple. I was not pleased to say the least. We arrived and after taking off our shoes, the standard for temples, we ventured into having to step on the rat droppings and bits of food. The temple is home to over 20,000 rats which people come from miles to worship. According to law, for every rat that is killed, it must be replaced by a solid gold one. The queue to offer food to the rats exceeded the temple and concern offered the people ring the bell at the shrine. We kept our eyes pinned to the floor making sure none of the critters ran over our feet. The temple was beautiful, the rats were not! I was literally holding on to the walls to steady myself as was walking along on the tip of my toes. Morgane was a bit braver than me and got close to take a picture. I was told off for running out of the temple and made to go back in and leave in the correct direction, I nearly punched the dude.
Once back at the house we sat in the garden with Bobby and a few of his friends. Mr Singh in true Indian generosity fashion was offering out a beer and some whiskey for us and the couple who were staying at the guest house. Bobby and his friends, we decided later, were like the Made in Chelsea cast, too much money and time on their hands. One of the other guests who had become friends of the family had described them as the Indian mafia. Able to get you anything you wanted, even before you knew you wanted it yourself, and if they couldn't they would send Manu out to get it. Manu was the overweight friend who got a lot of stick but took the banter on the chin. After a home cook meal of chickpea curry, Bobby gave us his details with promises that if we were ever in trouble to just give him a call, something which we took him up on a number of times. We went to bed ready for the early rise for our train to Jaisalmer. Bikaner has been our saviour!! Thank you Bobby!

Jaisalmer
We were picked up by a tuk tuk at 6am for our train and were waved off by Mr Singh who we now know if a distant relative of the Indian royal family. We were taken to a different station and payed 95 ruppees (95p) for our 5 hour journey to Jaisalmer. We dragged our bags up the stairs and across the platform whilst watching Indian family's thrown their luggage across the tracks to each other, apparently they don't like stairs. Being female and white we attract a lot of attention, good attention as Indian family's are intrigued by us and our pale skin. We haven't felt uneasy since Delhi and we hope it stays that way. Once the train pulled into the station we stayed close to an Indian family who helped find our carriage. We are trying to figure out just why it is we get so much attention here, we found out that Indian people like to look stare because they are not used to seeing women on their own without men and are puzzled by the independence of western women. On the train we were joined by many people coming and shaking our hands giving us tips on what to do in Jaisalmer. One gentleman full of smiles and not much English was travelling to visit his wife, invited us for dinner if we were ever back in Bikaner. Since Delhi it is clear that Indian people are so so generous and want to make us feel as welcome as possible to their country. We arrived at 1pm and caught a tuk tuk to our hotel Tokyo Palace. It really was a palace. For £5 a night we were given a beautiful room complete with TV and were treated like rock stars by the staff, we love it here already! This evening we explored the town and made plans of what to do for the next few days.

After a fabulous breakfast for 80p we investigated the famous fort. The views from our hotel room were amazing so we were excited to get in their and get exploring. To get to the fort we have to go through the residential area, complete with cows and pigs rummaging through the rubbish which litters the streets. This has been the hardest thing to get used to, people just throwing their litter on the floor. The children here all run after you shouting hello and only a few grabbing our bags asking for money, this wasn't such a shock to get used to as we had seen such poverty in Cambodia. Tourism here is clearly the money maker, with handicrafts and textiles everywhere,much to Morganes delight. Finding our way through the fort was difficult, the roads are thin and narrow and it was easy to get lost. We decided to treat ourselves and had a massage, the first since Asia, not quite the same but enjoyable all the same. We also had our first Indian Henna tattoos done, mine on my incredibly large feet and Morgane on her hands.

Today we had booked to go on a famous camel safari, the reason most tourists pass by Jaisalmer. We were picked up at 3pm along with 3 Japanese tourists, Geoff the Aussie and a professional photographer Ivo from Bulgaria. We were taken to the sand dunes by jeep and then were each given a camel to climb onto. Camels are tall, very tall, taller than Brennan and Bartlett (the2 tallest men I know) and the disjointed way they get up and down leaves you feeling less than glamourous. Morganes girlish squeals make for an interesting sound and made me almost fall off my camel, nicknamed 'Bob', from laughing so much. We trekked in convoy through the dunes and after 40 minutes the camels came to a stop and we had to climb off, cue Morganes squeals. It was an hour and half before sunset, so Ivo suggested a mini photoshop for me and Morgane, seriously how do we get ourselves in these situations. Being the narcissistic girls that we are we jumped at the chance and spent the next hour having natural but not natural photos taken. We loved it. After sunset back on the camels we hoped to head to the jeeps. The jeeps then dropped us at dinner where we were able to watch the traditional singing and dancing of India. As the show was in Hindi for the major tourists in the crowd, Ivo Morgane and I had great fun in making up what the songs were about, childish but hilarious.
Next day was out next night train to Jodhpur at midnight. At the station we found that Morganes seat had been sold to a guy called Amandeep, excellent. After crashing my bed for an hour, she then snuck into the above bunk which had not been taken, a good night sleep was had by all.