We are coming back!!!!

We are flying back from a rainy Goa today! and will be back in London on the 10th at about 9pm all things being equal... look forward to catching up very soon!...

xx

Back from Sam

19 Oct 2010

After a curried rice breakfast we hit the open road again, but not before I tried the third of the dancing lady’s tricks; a bed of nails. Turns out the nails weren’t sharp; standing on the bed of nails is only uncomfortable – not agonising.

Proof I'm as hard as nails!

Back on the road we passed one of the many English Wine and Beer Shops. These often are out in the middle of nowhere, certainly not anything like our off licences.

We passed yet more camels. Take a close look at the photo and you will see that the camels front legs are tied together; ‘scuttled’. The camel owners do this to allow the camels free but to stop them running miles away. There are often very few trees that the camels could be tied to.

Since we couldn’t find it on our way out to the dunes, we decided to take a look at Kuldhra on the way back to Jaisalmer. It is a town that is now completely empty. According to the story, the Maharaja wanted to marry a girl in the town. The townsfolk were placed in an awkward position by this proposal since the girl’s caste and the Maharaja’s caste were incompatible. Rather than rejecting the Maharaja they decided to vacate their town and disappear. Hundred of towns were vacated overnight and nobody knows where the people went!

The town was very eerie, especially since we were also the only people there.

Khuldra- a ghost town

Most of the houses were simple one room buildings, but there were a couple of bigger buildings, one a temple the other a larger house.

We also found their wells which were deep cuttings with stairs all the way down to the water line.

We got back safe and sound and handed the motorbike back to the owner and wandered back to the hotel. Not sure what to do with our last remaining afternoon in Jaisalmer we decided to wander into town for one last explore. Whilst wandering around the backstreets we found this girl totally blocking the way.

Then turning the corner we came across two boys running around with fireworks, lighting them then running off. What’s amazing is how young the boys were, they can’t have been much older than ten! At least they checked for overhead wires before setting them off...

The view from our roof-top restaurant

Later on in the evening we caught our sleeper train back to Jodhpur so that we could catch the bus to our final Rajasthan destination; Udaipur. 

Into the desert

18 Oct 2010

From our window we could see the local laundry service:

The chap in the top right is standing in the 'washing machine'

Today was the big ride into the desert. Having discounted the idea of camels (Olivia’s allergy to them) and a jeep (on the basis of cost) we settled on a much cheaper and more flexible option of riding into the desert. We had found a place the previous day that would hire one out overnight for a fraction of the price of a jeep and he also assured us the roads would be quiet and easy to navigate.

After a trip round town filling up our new Indian lunchbox we headed back to the hotel for a bite to eat just before we left. Right on time the motorbike chap arrived with our steed – a 97cc Hero Honda Splendor ‘Plus’; although only a tiny little engine, the machine puts out about 8 bhp and easily does 50 kph – our cruising speed. Getting two helmets took some serious persuasion but I eventually won through, which was lucky since Olivia looks the bees knees in a helmet! HAHA!

looking good!

With all kinds of junk strapped onto the bike it started to look more local. Looking at the back you can see our ‘lunch box’ which caused much amusement amongst the locals – apparently it isn’t all that cool to use one any more. We thought it was pretty cool!

All the gear

The roads proved to be every bit as good as we were promised – much better than the UK in most cases. Perfectly smooth and car free, an absolute delight. Only problem was the searing heat, but that was expected since we were heading into the desert...

Bada Bagh in the background

The first place we visited was a memorial garden called Bada Bagh where many royals are buried.

The old meets the new - the wind turbines power the flood lights and military camps at the boarder (Ind/Pak)

Taken standing inside the monument

One of the things one has to watch out for when riding in India are the animals and these goats seemed to be oblivious to the road and the vehicles on it. (Maybe it’s because we were on a put-put!)

Next on our list of sights was a Jain temple. This was the first stumbling block as far as navigation goes however; it was just off our map. After asking around we found the town the temple was supposed to be in, there was however no sign whatsoever of the temple. A group of local boys spotted us and came running over to offer their help. They eventually understood what we were looking for and pointed frantically up a dirt track behind us. We gave it a shot since we had no other ideas, it came to a seeing dead end though so we turned back to the main road having written off visiting the temple. The boys had walked part way down the path by this point and told us it was down this track. They showed us down to the point we had turned around, then pointed to a gap in hedge where we were to ride through! We did and lo and behold; a big Jain temple.

Since time was now pushing on, us not wanting to get to the dunes after the sunset, decided not to bother looking around the temple; we could actually see most of it without going inside.

Shortly after we left we encountered the next oblivious herd of animals. Since they don’t give a damn about traffic, you have to weave your way through them.

Moooove (that was for you Mum!)

The Sam Sand Dunes are about 40km from Jaisalmer and were well sign posted so we simple pottered along the road, hardly seeing another car en-route. We knew we had reached the desert when we saw these guys:

They were the first of many, many camels. Carrying on down the road we started to look for somewhere to stay.

The road to Sam (dunes in the distance)

 The first place we asked at had some reasonable looking tents, but were charging far too much. The next place was charging 4000 rupees a night (58 pounds)!! Slightly disheartened by this we found a third place which finally had a much more sensible rate. We decided to take a thatched hut rather than a tent – the shower looked better and boy did we need it after the ride into the desert!

This is the type of hut the locals in the area live in

Having settled down and dumped our stuff in the hut we wandered out to the dunes, trying to avoid the noisy Indian tourists also there for the sunset. There are a surprising number of animals living in the desert; including this lizard.

The sand dunes were really great and by this time beginning to cool down too.

Having found the optimum sunset watching point we cracked open our lunchbox and grabbed a snack.

Our 'tiffin'

With some time to kill we started the pre-requisite series of posed photos required when you go to the dunes:

Having not taken the camel trek option we were pleased to find that camel paraded themselves right past where we were sitting – the best of both worlds?

At last, after much jumping about the dunes, we finally got what we had really come for; a sunset.

After a thali dinner we were sitting around waiting for the evening entertainment to begin when the owner of the camp asked if we wanted to see his new room. With nothing better to do we followed him and were shown this:

Not to my tastes...

Apparently making the room seriously tacky allows him to charge four times as much as a non-pimped room???? Strange bunch!

We returned to the performance area and continued to be the subject of interest for all the Indians. The boys from the school trip that was there were particularly annoying with even Miss Olivia losing her cool at one point!

The evening entertainment was some singing that definitely needed an accustomed ear to enjoy and some dancing whose routines were a bit rough round the edges to say the least. The one girl who could dance did have some good party tricks though.

She was presented with a stack of pots and put them on her head and then continued dancing around, not dropping them once.

Steady, steady...

She then placed a 50 rupee note sticking up in the sand and proceeded to pick it up with her teeth! Impressive stunt.

The evening entertainment was on the whole not very entertaining at all so we retired to our room and waited for the wailing to finish. At last it did and even better everyone bar one family left. Peace and quiet at last.

Weirdly, after dark loads of frogs came out. Since Olivia hadn’t seen the frogs, I picked one up to show her/throw at her... she didn’t seem to find it funny for some reason?!

Gadi Sagar Lake

17 Oct 2010

Today we travelled over to the lake on the other side of the fort, another dirty holy lake, this one full of rubbish. That said, the really big cat fish in the lake are doing their level best to eat all the rubbish and are doing a grand job! We were amused to find pedalos available for hire and what better way to see the lake than taking a trip on it!

The lake has various temples in the middle of it, mostly inhabited by hordes of pigeons.  

The pedalos came in all shapes, ours was a frog and this one we saw was particularly good looking:

Sitting pretty in our frog. We were assured it was the fastest of the ‘fleet’, I can assure you it wasn’t fast!

All over the markets there are various slogans and sales tactics used, this one we saw on the way back from the lake was one of the best:

We found a really nice Italian restaurant for dinner, which luckily served wine – albeit at extortionate prices! The restaurant sits high up on the city walls and just under the fort. A very atmospheric place to eat.

Jaisalmer Fort

16 Oct 2010


Having been disappointed with the previous shirt I had made I decided to give the tailors here a shot. First got hold of some fabric – stripes of course – then started asking around for a tailor. I found one, with plenty of shirts he had made for other people:

More shirts than you can shake a stick at?

The problem came when trying to describe the concept of a double cuff to him. I gave up eventually and found another who was happy to give it a shot. Being more experienced now, managed to get both these shirts for the price of the other one; success!

In the afternoon we decided to do a tour of the fort, which once again included an audio tour. The fort was good but not a great deal different to other forts we had been round (although I’m sure many more trained eyes might disagree!).

Interesting with this for were the defences that were still intact on the walls of the ramparts. I was slightly surprised that some of them hadn’t been removed since they looked as though they might fall down at any moment (like parts of the walls of the fort – due to over development and the explosion of tourism).

Balls on walls!

The entrance to the fort was cleverly designed with two 90 degree turns on the way in. This aimed to slow down an attacking force, allowing time for the defenders to deploy their stone ball defences.

Cunning dog-legged entrance

The Jaisalmer Sate Flag

Wandering back to the hotel we noticed this place which seemed to be the main supplier of water pots for the surrounding area.

Where else would you put your stock?

As with most of India, there are pigs in abundance and Jaisalmer is no different. Just outside the hotel we saw these three picking through the open sewers for something to eat! No wonder they are believed to be unclean!

Pigs being pigs

Another bonus of the tailor here was the speed of turnaround. He made two shirts and had them ready to collect in just 6 hours! There were pretty good too, and most importantly they fitted.

Sweet

 That evening we decided to walk up to the sunset point up above the hotel and look over the city. En route we got a bit lost and ended up walking through a small group of shacks; home to this little girl amongst others. She rushed up to Olivia and introduced herself, then asked to be picked up. We got chatting to her and her family and stayed for about 20 minutes. They were extremely hospitable, even offering us tea and something to eat. Unfortunately we had already eaten by this point but it was nice to be asked.

Having said goodbye to this girl and her family, we rounded the corner only to be mobbed by loads of children. They were all dressed up, presumably for the same festival that we had seen in Jodhpur. They couldn’t get enough of shaking our hands, introducing themselves and taking photographs.

Mobbed

 Once they were satisfied with all the photographs we moved onto meeting family members, hence how I ended up this old boy!

Quite an amusing and unexpected evening’s entertainment! 

Jaisalmer First Impressions

15 Oct 2010


Since we arrived in the middle of the night we booked somewhere that would collect us from the station. Although recommended in the guide book, we weren't so convinced with the guest house and since we were in Jaisalmer for a few days decided it would be worth looking around. We weren’t disappointed...

The most luxurious room yet...

For just 400 a night we managed to find a beautiful place just over a year old. The rooms were well decorated, unusual for guest houses, and the whole place was significantly more comfortable that the one we left.

Even the corridors were decorated!

Apart from relaxing in our new place, we wandered round town in and out of the walls of the old city. We were impressed with Jaisalmer and looked forward to exploring more.

Slightly annoyingly, the wall at the bottom of the bed in our room faced the sun all day long and as a consequence got so hot during the day you could barely touch it. This made the room even hotter than normal so to make things more comfortable we slept under wet towels.