19 hours is a rough estimate, but in fairness we were only a couple of hours late (I've had worse of First Great Western). At the station - touts, touts, touts!

From the word go you can see why Jaisalmer is the 'golden city' - almost everything is made from yellow sandstone, and it stands out above its arid surroudnings. Only about a quarter of the population still live inside the fort - the rest are outside, partly for space and partly because so many places have become hotels to cater for the likes of us. Just like Delhi the streets are narrow, and there are plenty of market stalls, but you have a lot more time to think here and if you go into an actual shop there is always chai on offer!

Dinner was good too - on the rooftop restaurant overlooking a desert sunset (and, to the north west, Pakistan).

Alas, the same rooftop did not provide a view of the sunrise. It did, however, give a great spot from where to be serenaded by the bizzarely adapted horns on the motor vehicles in Jaisalmer (Bollywood tunes, I'm told).

We started the day at the Jain Temples - 7 interconnected temples dedicated to a particular type of Hinduism. There is a lot of very intricate carving as well as a maze of passages to follow - very useful for evading the surprisingly mercantile Brahmins.

In the afternoon we toured the city outside the fort. It's markets are a lot of fun, with a bit more room to move around and a bit more time to 'discuss' prices with shopkeepers. Every now and then you pass a haveli (a kind of city mansion), although you can easily miss them as everything is the same colour (yellow) here.

We finished the day off with Maharawal Palace. Cue yet more elaborate carvings, cracking views over the city (including a march to celebrate today's election results) and a good audio tour (apparently, ladies, if the men of the castle suggest having a Johur, your role will be to walk calmly into a burning pyre and die while they get stoned and go to war).

P.s. there were no elephants here, I just can't find a computer with a camera card reader.