Hello again everybody, and me when I read this at some point in the future.
Not so long since the last one as last time, so pat on the back for me. I'm in Jaisalmer at the moment, a place that no Indian person seems to understand when I try to say it, even though when they finally understand where I mean, they say it just the same as I just did.
From Amritsar I travelled overnight to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan and big noisy city. A bit like Delhi, you can't walk more than 10 feet without somebody trying to sell you something- 'Hello my friend! Which county you from? England! Very nice country! How long you in India?' etc. Everytime its exactly the same conversation. Its pretty annoying, as they won't leave you alone and you're constantly harassed.
Despite this, I still had many enjoyable moments in Jaipur. I travelled down with Yoav and Liat from Israel (which easily outnumbers every other nationality), and who I promised last night that they would have a whole paragraph about them. So here it is guys! We took an autorickshaw sightseeing in the afternoon, saw the old obseratory with its weird constructions and the magnificent Amber Fort. I will put some photos up on here as soon as I get a better internet connection.
Then I caught an early train to Ranthampore National Park to go on tiger safari- after much queueing I had a place in a 6 seat open top jeep in the afternoon and again in the morning- at about 7 pounds a pop! Didn't manage to see a tiger (after the monsoon it's too overgrown), but still had a really great time. In the evening I met a group of students from Ahmedabad (prompting te usual surrounding, questions and lots and lots of photos). They were really nice and took me outside the lodge they were staying in to watch a BBC documentary filmed in the park organised as part of their trip. I've arranged to have the day with one of them (although maybe all of them!) in Ahmedabad on Friday.
After this excitment and having not got much sleep the night before, I went back across the road to the small local restaurant I had eaten in earlier, who had a room I had agreed to take, since it was much cheaper then everywhere else. There were a group of locals in the room next door, and one of them asked me to come in as they wanted to play me a song. Soon they were all playing and singing, I know at least 2 were professional musicians and 1 also taught harmonium. I ended up staying up quite a bit longer, and even though most of them didn't speak any English, they were so talented and friendly it was one of the highlights of my trip. The next day (after not seeing any tigers) a bought one of their percussion instruments from them (called Kertan) and they gave me lunch. I also managed to have a bit of firestick practice with a staff that was left in my room, although it wasn't ideal. When I left, the harmonium teacher even said I was his big brother and gave me a small bottle of Indian aftershave called 'Super Havoc!' Watch out ladies!
After an overnight train from Jaipur to Jaisalmer (which was really, really awful- hot and dusty. It was 3 days ago and I still woke up coughing this morning!) I met up with Yoav and Liat again, and along with Audrey and Anais (Switzerland) and Aya (Australia) we went on a 2 day/1 night camel trek through the desert, which was really fun. My camel was called Victor (I was a little dismayed that he already had a name, as I was going to name him after Jeebo), and he was absolutely huge, easily the biggest. It was a bit like riding a smelly giraffe! We slept open air by the dunes, after rolling down them and taking loads of photos of the sunset.
Said goodbye to the guys last night, they're on their way to Jodphur the same as me but they got here a day before me and its so pretty I couldn't leave without a proper look around. Its a massive sandstone fort rising up out of the desert, full of grand old buildings and a warren of alleyways.
So, overnight train tonight (air con carriage this time) to Jodphur (where the riding trousers come from!), then again overnight to Ahmedabad, stay with Harsh, then overnight to Mumbai (Bombay), then a quick look around before another overnighter to Goa, where I'm going to stay a few weeks. Woo! Looking forward to it after travelling around so much, and the beach and sun will be nice after the cool of the mountains. Going to have my look around now, can't go out in the middle of the day, too hot!
Thanks to everybody who has left any comments on here, it's really nice to hear from you even it doesn't seem to be a way of replying (hope you've recovered Binners!)
Byedeebye bye bye
