Jaisalmer

  Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India
Monday, July 28, 2008

Free of charge from my hot henna artist:

My free hand henna tattoo

As promised...photos of the sleeper bus:

Sleeper bus

My sleeper cabin

Jaisalmer Fort

Walking around the Jaisalmer Fort I came across a store run by women (a shock!) and the proceeds of every sale go to support village women that have lost their husbands. It's so extremely rare to find women that not only speak English, but that speak English and are willing to talk to you. Basically, women don't work in India, so it was refreshing to see two young women standing outside their own shop. The shop is run by Bobbi and her sister and they welcomed me and talked to me for hours.

Bobby, Princi and I

Just got back from a 3 day/2 night camel safari in the Great Thar Desert. Damn my ass hurts!!! Now that I got that out of the way...

Mr. Lala and I

I had a hard time finding an agency that had any travelers wanting to go on the 3 day safari. Most people go on the 2 day/1 night, but that just didn't seem like enough time to really experience the desert. I did find a place that had three other people leaving the following day. There was a Danish guy, a Spanish guy, and a Guatemalan guy. The Danish guy didn't speak much English or maybe he was just really shy, but this allowed the rest of us to speak in Spanish which was nice. Well, the first night I was thinking (and the others as well) that I had made a horrible mistake booking the three day because I couldn't imagine another two days of it. But the second night we experienced something incredible that made it all worthwhile...keep reading to find out!!

Sand dune

sunset in the desert

Thirsty camels

Up close and personal

Basically in the mornings we would ride for about three hours while visiting a desert village or two, we'd stop for lunch around noon followed by a two hour siesta during the extreme heat of the day (about 115 degrees), then we'd ride for another 2-3 hours, again visiting villages before we stop and make camp for the night and have dinner. We slept out in the open, no tents, under an amazing star filled sky.

4 of us trying to time a jump w/ camera timer

Mr. Khan and what's his name?...our camel drivers

One of the desert villages

Village model maybe?

Village kids

Alright, I know you're anxiously waiting for the 2nd night's experience. There was a sandstorm! We were just starting to eat dinner and we saw some dark clouds coming our way. We thought maybe they were just rain clouds, but our camel drivers said that it was a sandstorm coming in, probably followed by a rainstorm. All they said was, "Eat quickly! Five minutes it comes." And that it did. They said they normally last for 15-30 minutes. Ha!! Well, this one decided to be with us for about 4-5 hours. There was a brownish cloud quickly coming towards us that started on the ground and reached the clouds in the sky. You can only see about 10 feet in front of you, that is when you could stand keeping your eyes open. I wrapped a scarf around my eyes so I can still watch the storm but at times the sand was too strong so I had to close my eyes for most of it. After about 30 minutes, it wasn't getting any better and we started to see lightning so our camel drivers decided to pack everything up and (wow, how lucky we were there was a village nearby) go to the village. We ended up sleeping in the schoolhouse (really just one room) for the night. Apparently during monsoon season, which is technically now but it hasn't arrived yet, there are maybe two sandstorms a month. It was an incredible experience that definitely made up for a lot of the heat, and ass, torture. And we didn't even have to pay extra for the sandstorm!!

I'm going to be heading back to Delhi tomorrow or the next day on my way up north into the mountains. Hope all is well.

Happy Birthday Chrissy! I had a shot of really warm water for ya!!

Peace,
Jen