Jaissalmer, India

A quick note on the weather: We've recieved several emails wondering if we were floating down the Ganges River in India. Indeed we have seen some rain, mostly in Bombay, but fortunately we have been blessed with some pretty awesome rain-free days. We're out in the desert now so all we are experiencing is the hottest weather we've ever known. And of course, this is the first time we decided not to get AC. Good work.

Last we left off we were chilling in the town of Udaipur. Good decision on our part. It's a bit out of the way since it's not on a continuous train line, but it was worth the hassle because we needed some moments of quiet. Also, we got HBO for the first time so we could for once watch something other than Cricket. If Udaipur weren't so out of the way, India wasn't so far to get to and there was less ox crap in the road, I think I would come back more often. Because the city looks over a lake with a palace in it, every hotel and eatery has a rooftop deck facing the water. With fantastic weather and a water breeze, we spent a lot of time eating and relaxing over meals. We had finally reached the moment on our trip where we stopped and thought "we're in India". The one time we didn't eat on a rooftop, we had coffee in a little sidewalk bakery. As I sat sipping my chai I watched a man climb an elephant's trunk to get on his back and then walk 3 feet within our table. Wow, elephants are big especially when you're not expecting them to stumble by at 10 am. Like I said, we're in India.

As promised, we did catch a viewing of Octopussy one night. Surprisingly, more than 1/2 of the movie takes place in Udaipur so if you're interested you should rent it. It does a good job of showing almost all the palaces we went to. Also on tap was a very awesome cooking class. Believe it or not, Geoff has not had red meat in almost 2 weeks (does lamb count?) Dare I say he is almost a vegetarian. I'm not too worried, but this is a whole new side of him. The non-red meat eating, dealing with germs-Geoff. We ate at a place yesterday where the cook only wore a pair of shorts. No shoes, no shirt, lots of sweating. Geoff barely winced. He's a whole new person.

We left Udaipur with several books read, our nerves rejuvinated and a gut. (I was not expecting to put on weight at this point in trip). We then headed off to Jaissalmer with our only overnight bus ride between us and Aladin's fort. How bad could it be?

It could be bad. Imagine sitting in a Brookstone vibrating chair for 7 hours straight, with the vornado fan blowing in your face. A bumpy road, a horn that sounded like a circus clown horn blaring every 5 minutes, very loud indian music, the smell of a petting zoo, and throw in a squawking chicken for good measure. I was sure that time had stood still when i could not sleep a wink all night. But there was more. We switched buses at 5 am in a dodgy part of Jodphur. We had some very disagreeable Aussie travellers who wanted to call the police because they had paid for a sleeper but were being forced into seat. And another 4 hours through the desert to Jaissalmer. To my surprise, the second half went quite smoothly. And for all that i've heard about transportation being erratic and unreliable, sure enought we got into Jaissalmer early.

So here we are. In the coolest little town I've seen yet. A special thanks to our friend WarT who told us about Jaissalmer. It's a fort built up on a hill that has all kinds of winding alleys and very small streets. People live in side the fort as well as lots of guest houses, restaraunts and shops. It really does feel a bit like Aladdin. Our room is $14 a night with a view of a hindu temple not 10 feet away. And last night we watched the most amazing lightning storm from our roof. The sky was so lit up for hours, I swear we could see Pakistan. It was truly awesome.

We leave tomorrow on a camel safari in the desert. Geoff's afraid of horses, so we'll see how the camel is for him. But I definitely promise some awesome pictures of him trying to get on it. Video if I can.