i have been meaning to write a new blog for a few days now, however every time i go to write one, i feel to tired to think of anything to write. the heat here has been so draining that its hard to find the energy to do too much in the day.
we are currently in jaislamier in western rajasthan, very close to the pakistan border.
my last entry was from udaipur, from where we hired a car to drive to jodphur. it was a long and fairly hot day, driving through some rather remote and deslolate areas. the area has barely seen rain for the past 3 years, so it was very very dry and dust hung in the air everywhere. we passed through many desolate tiny vilages with just a few cows and kids running about, women in bright saris walking about with pots of water on their heads.
we stopped at a massive fort which was in the middle of nowhere, but was very impressive. it was built on the top of a hill with amazing views and felt like a mix of the great wall of china and machu pichu in south america (or so mum and dad said) and we had the whole place virtually to ourselves.
eventually we made it to jodphur, which seemed even hotter than before. it began to look a lot more desert like, with more sand, les vegitation and more camels wandering about. jodphur felt like a very crazy chaotic city, it was like a sea of noise.motorbikes, horns, people shouting, and the ever calm cows wandering about in the middle of it all.
after tripping over town to find out there was only 1 seat left on the train the following night to jaisalmier, we booked some bus tickets for the following afteroon and chilled out on the rooftop restaurant, watching the sun set over the blue city and taking in the breeze in an attempt to cool down.
next day we checked out the massive fort that loomed over town. it was rather interesting, like the sharp turn before you enter the gate to prevent elephants trying to knock it down during times of a seige, but my favourite part was the gardens. it was like a little oasis in the middle of the desert, and there was almost nobody there.
that afternoon we headed out to the bus stop to catch the bus to jaislamier. after battling our way into our seats, we turned on the air conditioner (by opening the window)and the bus left only 15 min late. but we soon discovered that the driver was rather proud of his musical horn and liked to blow it every few seconds. it was going to be a long 5 hour trip. dad was seated in the audio/visual department, as we was surrounded by speakers, cd players and other goods packed around him..
we trundled deeper into the desert, and the sun began to set. we could see that we were in the absolutle middle of nowhere. as it got darker we began to realise that most things on the road either had no lights or didnt switch them on. so we would come hurtling round the corner and come screaming to a halt to stop from running up the back of a jeep or rickshaw with no lights.
a little while later we came to a screaming halt and there was a flourish of activity and voices at the front of the bus. we leaned out the window trying to see what was amis ourside and we could see througth the gathered crowd a camel and a great big pile of straw. we soon realised that under the straw was a little white car. it had apparently run up the back of the cart of straw that the camel was towing, causing it to all land on top of the car. all involved seemed to be fine, including the camel who wandered off to munch on a tree, but there was a great comotion, as everyone on the bus piled off to put in their tuppence worth, and everyone seemed to be on the phone - although im not sure who to...
eventualy the bus started up and everyone piled back on, only to move about 10m down the road, then everyone was off again, for another 10min before we finally hit the road again, arriving in town just before 10pm.
jaisalmier definatley has that "final frontier" town feel about it. it is only about 200km from the pakistan border in the middle of the desert. it it built around an old walled town on the top of the hill. again, very very hot. yesterday after lunch we went and had a good nap in the cool, something i do do very easily!
