Hotel Panihari Jaisalmer

... partiti. Prima 30/40 km di jeep per allontanarci dagli itinerari piu` battuti dai turisti, poi a cavallo dei cammelli per due giorni. E` stata veramente una bella esperienza. Eravamo solo io e Stefania, la guida e l'aiutante. Un cammello a testa e scorta di cibo e acqua. Per due giorni ci siamo dimenticati di essere "turisti bianchi" in un paese in cui tutti ti vedono come "turisti banche ...

... and ate great mutton rogan josh, yum!

On our second day we were required to get up early as we had booked ourselves on a desert camel safari! The itinerary involved a jeep ride into the desert where we would meet our camels and guides, then we would ride all day, including stops at villages and a long lunch, then overnight on the sand dunes. Being in the desert meant no shade so no avoidance of the sun ...

... we have observed about the traffic in India is that the drivers appear to be calm in what we would see as stressful situations. For example, we are traveling towards Jaisalmer on a narrow 2 lane highway. A truck is headed towards us, in his own lane and a bus is passing the truck-which puts the bus in our lane. Rampal applies the brakes and when it appears that the brakes are not enough, he calmly moves off the road, onto the shoulder ...

... about an hour and the older boys English was pretty good so we just talked about the usual, where are you from, are you married, how big is your family, etc. When we made it out to the dunes area we met back up with Asu and they took the camel and went home to whatever village they are from. Asu and I just sat in the sand for an hour or so watching the sun set. He had brought me a Kingfisher beer so I drank that and we told stories. He told me that the ...

... we have visited a place quite like this yet on our travels. Yet again, I find myself amazed at how people not only survive but prosper in such harsh conditions, living here literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by desert and scrub land that stretches as far as the eye can see. Cutoff, even from the rest of India, their only link to the outside world seems to be the regular flood of tourists that tread the cobbled streets, bringing with them ...

... cheese which looked really yucking to me as it looked very orangy. M wanted something non Indian with less oil, and quite appreciated the change. I enjoyed my self mixed egg fried rice which omelette was shared with M. They are more generous portion than Hotel Royal. The lunch place was the rooftop of some "Sunset View" Restaurant overlooking the town, the desert to the west filled with hundreds of wind turbines. Jaisalmer ...

... j ecris dans le train et donc je gagne du temps ! Je mettrai tout ça sur le net tout à l heure ! par contre il y a tellement de poussière et de sable que j espere qu'il va tenir le choc. En fait un controleur est finalement passé avec une tete de con et il ne voulait pas croire qu on nous avait dit de monter de monter et de payer une fois dans le train. En fait c est Guillaume qui a dit que Gourri avait dit ca. Moi avant qu on monte dans le train j attendais au guichet pour prendre les ...

... any money for trips to the loo. The fort itself was amasing, not to mention huge, sitting on a hill overlooking the whole town, we are very glad that we decided to throw aside our historical sight seeing prejudices for the day. Still filthy, 'looking like ****' according to kels, we were asked on a date..well, sort of, to a beer with another travller at the hotel..suprising to all of you at home, kelsey replied 'were not drinking' ..unbelievable ...

... of "I could be your hero baby".... it was time to go... BEING AN ODDITY We have mostly been on the tourst trail so far but when we got dropped off at the wrong stop last week , we were truly "off the beaten track" where there were no "whiteys"- we were truly the oddity to the extent that we had people staring at us off buses and one even took a photo of us!! We felt very foreign! MENU ODDITIES (1) Beef Strog Knouf (2) Fried Chapped Balls (3) To be continued.....

... of the opium trade which gave the town its wealth at the time.....though sadly many of them are now being bought up and removed by wealthy Europeans to adorn their summer villas on the Amafli coast and elsewhere. Most of those that remain are reproductions. It struck me as such a pity because the entire town is as close as you'll ever get to a living museum....even the most inauspicious side street holds an architectural delight that would be declared a priceless ...