Hotel Monsoon Palace Jaisalmer

... as nice as the Red Fort in Agra, wandered around getting lost trying to find the Havelis (flash old houses with intricate detailing). after much needed lunch (where the rickshaw driver got lost) we walked to the water tank (overrated) as the fort has no other water supply and was not designed for hotels etc inside so is basically ruining itself as there is no infrastructure for all the people inside. After a rest in the afternoon I headed out for dinner with ...

... his legs around it to make it ****. It smelled bad but it was funny as hell. We were not prepared for what lay beyond the hill. ****** sand dunes covered and covered with tourists. There must have been about 2000 Indian tourists huddled together on top of one hill. We could not believe our eyes. There was trash everywhere, people trying to sell us drinks, snacks or other lame forms of gypsy entertainment. It was so ridiculous, it was ...

... the woman were home but they invited me to sit with them. It was an older woman and her daughter who had a 2 month old baby. They let me hold the baby which was interesting. They also made me some chai. They didn't speak English so we mostly just sat in silence staring at each other. After a while we moved on and went to Desert National Park. Asu dropped me here with two boys and a camel and they led me out on camel to the desert. The ride was ...

... and the requisite cows. Unfortunately, the hotels here are thriving as vacationers fancy spending a night inside a fort. This is unfortunate because the increase in demand on the sewer and drainage systems is eroding the fort's foundation. Anyway, we timed our arrival here to coincide with the Desert Festival, a 3 day cultural celebration of life in the Thar Desert. The first day entailed interesting contests such as Mr ...

... in the tongue leaving behind a liberal lathering of saliva. Lovely...... It took us an hour to get to the watering hole, where the camels shared water, their long elegant necks sinking and raising to better ease the course of the water down their necks. Our basic camp was lit by torch and oil lamps, tents and a pit toilet. I thought that I would have been traumatised but it was quite pleasant actually. We had local entertainment from a Kika family ...

... complex of temples although I can't fathom why so many replica's of the same god are needed - there were approximately a thousand! Despite the signs saying "do not give money to the holy men", many enterprising residents motioned to bowls for cash. Not being Jain I figured there was nothing in it for me and saved my rupees. I also found my favourite statue towards the end. He appeared much different to the others for some unknown reason and I ...

... did have a dorm room for 10 rupees a person(about AU33 cents) and we shuddered to think what condition it was in. Unfortunately the Himilaya Guesthouse (we are nowhere near the Himilayas) is located inside the fort. The fort is slowly self-destructing due to monsoons and pressure on the city's drainage system because of tourism. A more ethical choice would have been to stay in a hotel outside the fort. Jaisalmer has that exotic former trade route feel ...