From Jaipur we made our way into the desert. Jaisalmer has an interesting vibe. Andy said it was Benidorm meets the Middle East, which I fear in a few years time might not be that far from the truth... There is a huge amount of construction going on. It fel like a place on the verge of becoming something else. Quite a small town but the amount of hotels was really surprising. I guess it is wanting to be the tourist capital of the North West. Every so often you can hear the call to prayer over a tanoy system that can be heard over the entire town. I felt like I could be anywhere in the middle east and not India. So hot as well and there were lightning storms pretty much every night. Sophie and Pete are still on the same trail as us and let us bore them with our company. We were really excited about this stop because this is where we had the desert safari booked.
Desert safari.
We had to drive for about an hour out of Jaisalmer in the back of a really fast moving jeep to a desert resort in a small town. We arrived and waited for more people to arrive and in the end there were probably about 10 of us heading out. Andy, Sophie, Pistol Pete and me headed out first on our camels into the desert. My camel was quite big really and it's quite scary being that high up on an animal you can't control. We each had a guide with us though which illeviates some of that initial anxiety. We trotted off into the heat with scraves around our heads feeling very Arabian nights. My camel was a bit annoying though because it kept stopping to eat everything. It literally didn't stop eating and pooing the whole way. Then if it wasn't him it was my guide squatting and peeing all the time. I didn't really know where to look because each time would take me by surprise. At one point my guide let go and my camel made beeline for a desert thorn tree and dragged me in there with it. What can you do - jump off... Anyway we got to the desert in time for sunset which was really nice. A bit hazy but still good.
We headed back for food at the house/resort and Andy got to trott off without a guide. I wasn't so brave. However his camel was panting and out of breath most of the time. I'm thinking it thought, the quicker I get home the sooner this man gets off my back. The only bad thing was getting off the camels and having the guides ask for money. It's tough because you've already paid for an experience and then you feel like you have to pay again. We didn't cough up which makes you feel really guily and horrid because we imagine they get paid, but what if they dont. But then I'm not rolling in it and it all adds up, so that wasn't a nice feeling. Dinner and music was nice though. I even got to try the desert thorns my camel so dearly loved. We`opted to sleep out in the desert and it was really fun. All we had was a bed frame and a couple of blankets. They had billed it to us as a tented desert stay with lanterns etc, but that wasn't what we got. We didn't take a torch so it was scarily dark and there was no shelter from the winds so to breathe you had to cover your face. It's that feeling when you're in the back of a fast moving vehicle with the windows open and you can't breathe. Imagine trying to sleep through that. The stars were so clear though and we even saw 2 shooting stars. They just felt so close. We missed the first bit of the sunrise but it was still amazing to wake up in the desert apart from the massive desert spider nestled in our bed... Although it wasn't totally as billed it was still an awesome experience.
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