Village People

Tordi is supposed to be a typical Indian rural village with different castes and religions living together in harmony. The pictures speak for themselves. Everyone we met in the village was keen to speak to us, show off their children and tell us about their lives.

The children, in particular, were very outgoing and desperate to engage with us. They demonstrated their proficiency in English and mathematics by reading a paragraph from the life of Ghandi and solving 25 to power 3 divided by 5 to power 5. The answer is 1, possibly. These were 10 to 12 year olds.

We also enjoyed meeting the village ironing man. He had a coal burning iron that Susan couldn't even lift off the board. All the way to India to see a man doing the ironing.

Our walk around Tordi was one of the highlight of our trip so far.

Our hotel in Tordi was a former royal palace, now in a state of disrepair. It had been patched up and extended. Our simple room had one light working and no hot water but it was charming and we were very happy with it. In the morning a man came to our door with two big buckets of hot water. It was just like The First Marigold Hotel. Everything will be all right in the end - if it isn't all right then it isn't the end.

At sunset we scrambled onto camel carts to make our way to sand dunes to watch the sunset over the surrounding countryside. We had to clamber up to the top of a dune. As ever, the Kiwis had to be first to the top of everything. We were served chai masala and told the story of why cows are sacred in Hinduism (they are your mother) as the sun set into the dusty horizon and the sky burst briefly red and pink.

Unfortunately, one of of camels had decided that he was going to rut and wasn't going to be too particular about what got rutted. We were warned to stay well back. We didn't have to be told twice. Eventually, we made way back in jeeps. We saw the camel again later on, he had a contented smile on his face. Looked like mission accomplished.

It was party time that night. Down in the village a wedding was taking place and the groom rode into town on a white horse. Later the sky exploded with fireworks as the festivities reached their climax. Back at the hotel we met up with two other YOLO tours and after dinner we danced the night away with our new Indian dance moves. It was one of the guides birthdays and after midnight cake was produced.