Jaisalmer

We arrived in Jaisalmer on Wednesday evening after an uneventful couple of flights and were met by a lad from our hotel who whisked us straight there in a taxi.  In some ways this felt like the real beginning of our holiday after orientation in Delhi and then a kind of duty call on Amritsar, because Sue has been friends with so many Sikhs over the years. 

Our first full day was largely occupied by a trip to the Royal Palace, which has an excellent audio guide, although we had to struggle through the crowds.  The toilets are strategically placed at the end of the tour, which meant that after an urgent need to have a pee I had to fight my way back through the throng up and down narrow stone stairs.

We have also been around one of the beautiful sandstone family mansions or "havelis" in similarly crowded conditions and apart from that have spent much of our time walking the narrow streets of the Fort and the surrounding city, where our small hotel is situated.

Yesterday we bit the bullet and did the obligatory desert tour in a four-wheel drive followed by a half hour camel ride to some nearby dunes.  As I get older I find camels are a long way up and consequentially a frighteningly long way to fall.  But all was well and the desert was so peaceful after the clamour of Jaisalmer and we even saw a few deer sprinting fitfully in the middle distance.

Our guide, Pupo, was an entertaining and informative companion on the trip.  He has a great CV, imagine being able to begin a story "when I was a camel driver ..."