Dholu Maru Jaisalmer

... and is listed as one of the world's most en danged historic sites. Overcrowding, lack of water, poor drainage for the periodic downpours are causing this city of stone to sink into its desert base. It was founded in 1156, situated along the camel trade routes between India and Central Asia. The merchants here grew rich off the opium ,silk,and taxes they levied on caravans. They built beautiful homes inside the fortress, made ...

In the morning we went exploring the old fort, making our way through the maze of old alleyways, discovering numerous crumbling haveli's. The wonderful thing about the fort is that it's still used by the indian people and has not been turned into money making tourist attraction, with an extortionate entrance fee and busloads visitors. In fact, Jaisalmer was only discovered as a tourist destination 20 years ago and many ...

... part of the reality in the small villages and the more remote cities like Jaisalmer. He also explained the difficulty of finding a marriage partner. First of all, 95% of all marriages are arranged by the parents and the bride and groom may not even know each other before the wedding. The children are taught from an early age that "love marriages" are bad and inevitably end in divorce. One must not marry below one's caste. The rule in ...

... screw it' and willingly committed travel suicide. The process for making the the drink went something like this. Smash a lime between two wooden blocks, pour the resulting juice into a glass, scoop sugar out of a big tin and put it in the glass, take a old litre bottle filled with sugar paste (a seperated substance that is solid white on the bottom and sorta clear liquid on the top) and poor some into the glass, break open a prefrozen bottle of ...

... pencils and pens we brought with us. Katie was the best at fairly distributing the goods. I seemed to give it all away right away. THe meals were cooked over a small fire and consisted of Aloo and Chipati (potatoes in gravy and bread) it was al made by hand and consumed with out the aide of eating utensils. Florence is quite the trooper and deserves amazing credit for going along with this adventure! The cups and plates ...

... rocky plateau in the middle of the town and can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. Practically all of the buildings in the city are made of yellow sandstone giving it a wonderful mystical desert character. We stayed in a hotel with a beautifully clean and clear swimming pool and our final days there were spent sitting in the sun or going for a dip in the pool while listening to music and chatting to friends that we had made or meeting new people gathered there to enjoy the sun.

... camp and cooked us our supper. The sand dunes looked picture perfect - the ripples across the huge expanse, with no one else there! That doesn't happen often in India. Latha and I decided (well Latha decided) that we would like to sleep in the tent but the kids had other ideas. They decided that they wanted to sleep under the stars. Well I laughed so hard when the guides tucked my parents in under the desert stars ...

... will be having trouble with her lovelife until shes 28..but she will have a fantastic future...lovley anyway, the following day was christmas eve so we decided to spend it in the desert. In the morning, ill admit, there were a few tears but once we had sorted ourselves out we packed our bags for our night out in the desert. There really isn't many other ways to describe just how fantastic this christmas was other than... a once in a lifetime experience.. unbelievably ...

... couple who came along (an Indian designer who lives in Shoreditch, East London and his French girlfriend) around a cozy fire which the herders made from wood they found lying around. The air was pretty warm when we went to bed, but it grew extremely col in the night - we were wearing all the clothes we had and under a blanket but were freezing. However, it was beautiful looking up at the sky and I stared for a long time. Without the pollution, the ...

... weren't so nice from trying to take my camera, asking for my wedding ring and necklace, begging for chocolate, money, pens etc and generally following and staring at us. One girl even groped me and she was big enough and ugly enough to know better. It made me realise what happens to the ...