Rajasthan Trip Days 4-8

Day 4 Continued. First we drove a tuk tuk to the marble palace. It was my first experience here in a rickshaw. They call it tuk tuk in this area because that is the sound the motor makes. The entrance of the place made it look like a small castle with a small lake in front of it. We stayed about an hour and I walked around taking a few pics. Next we took the tuk tuk to the Meherangarh Fort. The walls of this fort were massive. The inside had spectacular architecture of the buildings themselves. We ended up walking up about 4 stories around the fort. The view of the city was also interesting. Jodphur is also known as the blue city as many of the houses are painted an indigo blue color to help keep out the bugs and keep the house cool. Many of the rooms had interesting stained glass and mirror work. We walked around for about 2 hours. Both of my camera batteries were on empty, but I don’t think I missed any great pics. Next we went to the palace which was built in the 1920’s to help job growth. We were only to go into part of the palace as the other part is an expensive hotel. After the palace we returned to town to walk around. I broke off with Giovanna and we went all over the place. The roads were very narrow and the town was very dirty. All seemed to be going well until all of a sudden all these children surrounded us. Then I saw a little 4 year old girl try to grab the camera that Giovanna was carrying. Luckily she had it on her well enough that it could not be taken. After that we had enough and attempted to get back. Unfortunately it was an old town full of maze like roads and we were somewhat lost. It took another 45 minutes of walking around before I recognized any buildings. We returned safely before the sunset.


Day 5 We had about a 5 hour car ride to Jaisalmer. The roads were pretty good, but the scenery was barren. About an hour from Jaisalmer we started to run into camels on the road that were eating the roadside trees. We also caught a deer that was about 100 feet off the road. As we drove into the town the fort seemed to blend into he sand as it is the exact same color, a golden brown color. Later we found out that the town did not have running water or electricity until 1965. Also it did not have any tourists until after that time. During the summer the temps are around 45-50 C which is about 130-140 F. It is about 80 km from the Pakistan and right next to the Thar Desert. We decided to go into town to see the havalis, old mansion like houses with intriquite carved stones for the building façade. Also the carvings allowed wind to go throughout the house to keep it cooler during the summer. Every house also had a ganesh painted on it. This was to represent good luck for a newly married couple. We also ran into a man that had a 4.5 foot mustache. His father has the world record of 7.5 foot mustache. After that it was back to the hotel for diner and an early night of sleep. We tried a local specialty which was some kind of desert bean. We also had a desert that is the specialty of Agra that is made out of white pumpkin. It tasted like pure sugar.



Day 6. We started off the day with a guided tour of the fort. The fort is in jeopardy due to the sewage and water infrastructure. It is slowly sinking and could implode in 5-20 years. The fort was not designed to handle any water as all water is precious and should be utilized. The city can go up to 7 years without seeing a drop of rain. The roads were very narrow, this was to maximize the amount of shade in the city. To me the most interesting part was the Jain Temples. There are 8 temples in the fort and the carvings of the building and interior are amazing. The fort is also the only fort with people living in it in India. The city has 80,000
Of which 3,000 live inside the fort. It is quite large. We stopped for lunch at a Tibetan restaurant. It tried something called spaghetti balls. I thought it would be a bowl of noodles, but was a soup. It was so hot that I burnt my tongue off the first spoonful. My burnt tongue last for 3 days afterwards. The ladies told me afterwards they saw the soup steaming from the bowl from where they were sitting and it was about 100 degrees out. It killed all the bacteria anyways. After that it was back to the hotel for a shower and getting ready for the overnight camel safari on the Thar. We drove out to a city called Sam to find our camels waiting for us on the side of the road. I was the biggest person of the group, so they pointed out a camel for me to ride. The camel ride was about 1.5 hours as we crossed from barren sands to sand dunes. The last 100 meters before we arrived at the camp site was a full out run. I felt like I was bouncing up 6 inches on every step of the camel. I had no issues afterwards, but some of the ladies had bruising. We get to the campsite and notice our beds, a small cot, laying between two dunes. We were sleeping under the stars. The second thing I notices were the dung beetles. They were all over the place. We even had a dung beetle race to help waste a half an hour. As the sun set with a pink sun, we went back for dinner, a camp fire, and the gypsy music and dancers. Somehow I found myself dancing with the gypsies out on the desert under the full moon and camp fire. I am sure it was entertaining for the rest to watch. Most of the people headed off to bed around 9. A couple of us decided to stay up a little later and go for a moonlit stroll across the desert. The scary part was not being able to find our way back. We walked to another campsite and found our way back. It was only 10:15 at this point. We decided to head off to bed. The moon was nearly full and was bright enough to keep me awake. I was the second bed to the end and helped block the wind for the rest. All in all in was good sleeping conditions.

Day 7 I enjoyed my first night without seeing the New Zealand full moon, but I still slept lousy. I was up to see the sunrise over the dunes. The sun was once again pink. I also had a long sleeve shirt on, first time all trip. After a quick breakfast we were off on a 1 hour jeep ride back to the hotel. We went into town again to look at some of the havalis. The town was the cleanest by far that I have seen in India. It was a scorching hot day though. We walked around until about 2 before heading back to the hotel. We were then off to the train station. I ended up with a sleeper top bunk on the very last bed on the train. The travel guide was able to trade seats with another person so that I could sit with them. I ended up sitting next to a couple from Germany and London. 10 minutes later we were playing some kind of Indian card game. That is when I notice a black streak of light go by. There were mice on the train. Later we killed a few cockroaches. Half of the night was watching the mice run by. I did not sleep at all on the train. It was a bouncy night with people walking back and forth.

Day 8 The train left at 5 pm and we arrived around 11 am on Saturday. Getting off the train I noticed the smog of Delhi. I could barely see 100 feet in front of me. Plus I was immediately congested. The paper the next day said 5 people had died on the train tracks from not seeing the train because of the weather and the smog was as bad as 10 years ago before Delhi switched many of the cars to CNG – compressed natural gas, for a cleaner fuel.

All in all it was an exciting trip with many new sites and experiences.