Jaisalmer, camel trek, Jodhpur & Udaipur

Hi All,

We arrived finally after our 9 hour car journey to Jaisalmer. The whole place reminded me a little of mexico, very barren and desolate. The hotel we stayed in was pretty minging, there was a big black beatle I found on the curtain rail and 2 crickets, but they were quickly shunned out of the door. In the morning/afternoon, we walked around Jaisalmer (inside the fort walls). It was very cool, with narrow passages and old buildings everywhere. For lunch we found this ace tibetan cafe, where we enjoyed tibetan momo and beer (hard to come by)!!

After a 45 min drive out of Jailsalmer, we found ourselves right in the middle of the desert (a little village called Khuri). It was from here that we started our camel trek into the desert. The camels were hilarious, they had such funny looks on their faces and kept making strange noises. After 2 hours of trekking, we watched the sunset from the sand dunes - it was so beautiful. We decided that if we were going to go for the full desert experience, and that we would stay out under the stars, rather than staying in mud huts at the resort. When the sun finally set we collected firewood and made a camp fire, enjoying the company of a German couple and some desert trekkers. I have never seen so many stars in the sky at any one time, it was just amazing, such a quality experience. I doubt that I shall ever see so little interferring light with the starlight!!
The next day we woke up around 6 to see the sunrise, not as inspiring as the sunset but still very nice. We trekked back to the resort had a quick brekkie and made our way SE (5 hours) to the city of Jodhpur (the blue city).

We arrived in Jodhpur tired and in need of some rest. Much to our delight, the hotel we stayed in was 10x better than that in Jaisalmer, so we very pleased. That afternoon, we made our way out to yet another fort, I say it like this because we thought, oh god not another fort. But we were so pleasantly suprised. It was by far the best fort we had seen in Rajasthan. Possibly the hardest to capture fort in the world - so tall and SOLID. When we were driving around Jodhpur we saw very little reason for it to be called "the blue city". How wrong could we be, when we reached the top of the fort after a hefty climb. The view - unbelievable. You could see for hundreds of miles and the colour blue, was just everywhere. It was weird how down at eye level there were not many blue buildings, but then got a bit higher, it was just totally mental.

I think we have both come to realise that the further south you travel the more laidback the attitude and the less you get harrassed. Although harassment is definitly part of the experience, it gets easier to deal with over time.
A lot of people just see you as a walking wallet, but then again there are many genuinely friendly people only to willing to lend a hand. Most people we have met are much more friendly than our fellow europeans, a couple of leafs need to be taken from this book I feel.

Udaipur - lake city

Our drive from Jodhpur to Udaipur was definitly the best for mountain/lake/greenery views.
We stopped off at a Jain temple on the way to Udaipur. The architecture was really something else. It took 50 years to build and must only cover an area of 12x12M. The level of detail was crazy, every pillar, wall and ceiling was covered in delicately chiseled shapes, animals and other relics - all made from marble.
The rest of the journey there was awesome, valleys and mountains covered with lush greenery - seeing lots of indian culture from the inside of the car.

After reaching Udaipur, we decided to just stay in the hotel for the evening as we were worn out from all the travelling. The next day we woke up at 9 to view the lovely sites in and around Udaipur. We took out a peddle boat on the lake, looked around some nice shops, enjoyed lunch from a roof top cafe, went around the city palace and viewed a very holy Hindu temple. Along with writing this blog in an internet cafe.

Until the next blog, Ta ta for now!!

B>)

Peace out dudes...