Jaisalmer

Kim with new boyfriends
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We arrive in Jaisalmer at 07:00 after racing through the streets of Jodphur in the dead of night (hair raising) in a rickshaw to pick up our night train.  The train has been comfy and quiet, perhaps due to a large number of gun toting troops on board presumably heading up to the pakistan border. They look worryingly young clutching AK 47s etc.

We booked a hostel through the Hostel world web site(reccomended) The desert air when we arrive is refreshingly chilly after the oven like heat of the last few weeks.  Their are really quite agressive touts everywhere on the train, the platform outside etc trying to flog accomodation and camel/desert trips (have nothing to do with them) The good guys are outside the station and stay behiond a line so as not to hassle you.  Pick the one you like the look of or the guy holding a board with the name of your accomodation on, and you'll be ok.  I wouldn't try and decide "on the fly" as it's mayhem and chances are you're arriving shortly after dawn after not much kip, and they know it. We're met by the guys from the accomodation we've booked and landrovered to our Havelli.

The usual Barker pose with Beer. Over looking Golden fort from Hotel rooftop bar.
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Its a lovely room all carved from sandstone, with deep inset windows and window seats and we look straight out at the golden walls of Jaisalmer fort which when lit up at night look truly magical.  The view of the sun setting into the desert at dinner time, on the roof top is just great, the buggers have marmite (not gay vegimite) for breakfast, cook a killer butter chicken, and have icy beers.

We book a trip out into the desert, we'll go by landrover as Kim fears she's allergic to camels.  (I'm allergic to falling from heights so we're even) We spend half the morning bartering ("killing without knives yada yada") for a scarf and hat as Kim fears that 40 degree heat may lead to a chill.  Ok ok in fairness it's to keep the sun off!

We were close to death when natives told us how to extract moisture from this strange desert plant!!
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The trip into the desert is fantastic.  Hammering across the dunes threatens to throw the spine out but its all very exciting.  We arrive at a spot where the camel trekkers will arrive to camp for the evening the silene is total and the dunes stretch away for ever seemingly.

The guys from the hotel have assessed kim and I and brought only the most necessary of supplies... a cooly box full of beers.

We pop them and watch the sun set into the desert, it is sooooo peaceful that India and the hubbub seem a world away. We stay until night fall and stop off on the way back to look at the night sky ablaze with stars so far away from any light pollution, it's a wonderful afternoon and evening.

WOW !!!!
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Next day and into the old city.  What a place! it all looks as if it could come crashing down around our ears at any moment.  There are countless little hideaways where you can stay the night or get a meal, lots of very old temples and a stunning palace to explore, it's a great place to lose yourself for a day and enormouse fun to throw yourself into at night and just explore your way out.

We have a meal in the smallest rooftop restaurant (two tables) where all the diners are forced to share tables looking out onto the town and out to the desert, it's all very comunal and a great atmosphere, food was crap mind, but an unforgettable evening.  At night the ancient town is all lit up, like some golden city from the arabian nights, rising, phantom like from the yellow desert. Fireworks are going off constantly, setting the desert sky aglow, showering sparks down across the city walls and the rank after rank of sandstone buildings that rise up toward the moon, lit here and there by roof top gardens, it's wonderful.

We spend our last day in Jaisalmer hanging around, getting lunch and getting set up for the overnight to Jaipur.  Jaisalmer has been wonderful and we would love to have stayed longer particularly as the hotel is laying on a Diwalli party but we have train tickets booked, its a long long trip to Jaipur, we have again picked a lodging off of hostelworld and have no idea what we'll find when we get there.  On the station at Jaisalmer  we can look back to the city, the moon looks huge, suspended just above the roof lines of the clustered Havellis as the sunset lights the sky bright orange through the sand and dust.

On the station is the "Palace on wheels"  a kind of Indian Oriental express, all frilly curtains, lanterns and beautifully outfitted servants.  Meanwhile the "crap hole on wheels" rolls rattling into the station, we lurch to our bunks, fight the cockroaches for the right to sit down and get settled for the night