Since I spoke to you last we have been to Jodhpur (twice), Jaisalmer and are now in a wee town next to the sea and quite far south called Daman. Jodhpur was a pretty big place and is dominated by the fort which towers above all the blue city below it. We were staying quite close to the fort originally in the family run, Cosy guesthouse. Was a decent place but I suppose I should have realised that 'family run' means screaming children! The tour of the fort was well worth the money with good views, lots to see and an interesting and helpful audio guide. As for the rest of the city I was slightly less impressed- incessant traffic and not much to see apart from the bazaars, but even these were more stressful than any I had seen before.
After 3 days there we headed to Jaisalmer which is a smaller place and this held a lot of appeal. The train journey was nice and relaxed but arriving at the station was a unique experience as tens of hotel touts shout and push behind a police barricade. We did use this to our advantage as we got a room for 100Rs and stayed there for two nights, then two in the fort itself. The lack of rickshaws in the tiny fort streets made it nice to walk around and we made use of the many roof top restaurants as we took it all in. The idea was for me to go on a day safari into the desert (Jess wasn’t up for it) but the weather ended that idea. Not much point on going to see the sunset in the desert when it is cloudy and raining. This signaled to us it was time to leave and the lack of drainage and truckloads of cow shit meant that the road became manky swamps and at least we weren’t the only ones who smelled on the train back to Jodhpur.
This time round we went to another hotel (Maharani) which had nice big rooms, was central and very cheap. We had also had a good banter with the owner over a bottle of old monk rum the last time round. He took us out of town to a cool club/bar on his moped and was a smashing night even if it did shut too early. The next morning we just made our train (5.30am) and went through the less than fun task of a 20hr journey south and out of Rajasthan.
In a sleepy town now and are the only westerners in the place which is a good thing. Although Rajasthan was beautiful it is such a well traveled route by tourists that you are constantly hassled for all sorts that involves handing over money. My patience was definitely starting to wane and we therefore decided to head south. It was nice then to find that ALL of the people we have spoken to here are friendly and have good intentions, one just wanted to slag off Man Utd and another bought us some fresh sugar cane juice. Daman does has a fair few Indian tourists though and is a good place to relax, even if the beaches are really dirty. With it being a convenient distance from Mumbai there is no rush for anything now (the way I like it).
Have to admit I am not missing all the Christmas build up back home that I know will be driving most mad. It is all good here and knowing I will be spending Christmas day under a palm tree with a cold beer and the sun beating down makes me happy (shame y’all couldn’t be here too). Hope everyone’s well, Sam.
If you were wondering where jessica’s input is you can find her journal which will of course be exactly the same with more thought, detail and pictures @ http://journals.worldnomads.com/jessikat
