Jaislamer

This is a hot dry and dusty town on in the Thar desert. It really is roasting here and we stepped off the train (from our 12hr overnight journey) into what felt like an oven. Once we had checked in it was out to wander round the old town. There is an ancient fort built on a hilltop which has 99 bastions. Its a large fort and is still lived in by many folk including the maharaja. The town is not like other parts of India...its quiet and laid back. There are stalls and shops everywhere but the lack of traffic makes for a more relaxing visit. You can do camel safaris from here but after our trip to morocco a few years ago we both swore we wouldn't get on a camel ever again...its very much overraterd! Walking at night here is strange, there are hardly any lights and those that they do have just cast weak pools of light. That makes it dificult to avoid the hundreds of cows roaming about and even harder top avoid all the cow pats. So far we've been lucky but as you can imagine - the thought of standing in a cow pat whilst wearing sandals is not an appealing one.

We have been down to the lake which has existed for hundreds of years. The desert here gets an average of 5cm rain a year which makes a large pool of water all the more impressive. We also had a tour round the maharajas palace which is very grand. The palace along with the rest of the fort is sliding away down the hill because of all the water they use in the fort. It wasn't built to handle much water and as is typical in India they haven't renewed any of the services so the old pipes just struggle on.

Everywhere in India they seem to be renovating some tourist attraction or other. At each of these scaffold clad sites there is a sign saying "we are sorry for the inconvenience or the building work. Next time you return we will be sure to give you an unforgettable experience". Its definately been worth the journey out although I don't think we will return to review the place when building stops.....