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RAJASTHAN ROAD TRIP! (part one)
And so, after the delights of the Golden Triangle and visiting Jaipur - the Capital of Rajasthan - we venture further afield and take in the bizarre bazaar that is PUSHKAR CAMEL FAIR. We stop on the way to let monkeys crawl all over the car and stick their hands through the windows to get to the tonne of bananas that Ashok has bought us so that we can feed them (some of the monkeys are huge and really quite scary according to Sarah). Anyway scary monkies aside we arrive at the Camel Fair a little hot and bothered but otherwise pretty much unscathed. Pushkar is a fairly small, quite touristy and pretty place (by Indian standards), we like it immediately as it is great to be out of the cities which are so huge and dirty by comparison. It is also a major religious sight and the Camel fair is held at the same time as many pilgrims are visiting the Holy Lake, so it is quite busy when we arrive. As a footnote, we also manage to p*ss off many of the pilgrims by agreeing to take a holiday snap of some couple at the Holy Lake, seemingly a huge no-no as we literally have to run away being chased by a crowd of blokes shouting 'no photos, no photos!'- last time we agree to take anyone's photograph for them! We find a great rooftop cafe and chill out watching the lake pilgrims from afar before braving the camel fair itself. It is one of the strangest things we have seen, as it is literally the same as a fair at home in that there are 3 huge ferris wheels, really loud dance music blaring out from everywhere, smelly food & loads of dodgy looking people around trying to con/sell you stuff you don't want but then there is the small and subtle difference of around 10,000 camels looking on as their owners buy and sell them. Pretty weird but obviously quite unforgettable and great fun. We drive on to Jophur that evening but arrive there after dark and leave early the next morning, in order to reach Jaiselmar which is out in the West of Rajasthan, we re-visit Jophur later on the return leg.
JAISELMAR
After a long hot uncomfortable day in the car, with much of the roads being washed away in the monsoon, we finally see the fort at Jaiselmar looming ahead of us and it is truly a sight to behold - Jaiselmar is a walled city with the old fortress still in tact and habited - it is said to look like a huge sandcastle rising out of the desert and that is pretty much what we make of it. We have driven for miles passing nothing but tiny huts, so it is quite odd to see this huge castle-thing on the horizon. We arrive at our 'hotel' in Jaiselmar which is a complete and utter dump. After cleaning ourselves up, we are keen to get to the fort - however Ashok has other ideas and takes us off to see some Cenotaphs... we go along somewhat reluctantly and are very pleasantly surprised when we arrive just before sunset at some exquisite temple-like structures which stand on a hilltop surrounded by windmills. As we are so late in the day the place is practically free of touts as well, so we get the added bonus of being able to roam around pretty much undisturbed which is almost unheard of in India. We take lots of photos and watch the sun go down and then move on the important business of finding somewhere to go and eat. We pick a restaurant from the guide book, which is just inside the fort walls, when we get up to the rooftop terrace we are the only people there and can see for miles - utterly amazing. Even better, they sell beer, even though it is not on the menu (you get used to this in Rajasthan, you just have to ask and they will usually get you a sly bottle of kingfisher).
The following day we explore the fort and buy some ethnic tourist-tat before setting off for Kuri to go on Camel Safari. This is a farily surreal experience as anyone who has ever been on camel will tell you; it is not that bad (worse for the boys though) but not the most comfortable sensation and we are pretty glad that we are only doing the few hours camel ride, as some of them are for a few days! The camel ride takes us up into the sand dunes - unbelievably there are even loads of touts up the sand dunes selling cold drinks and performing dances etc - but we manage to find a quiet spot where we watch yet another beautiful sunset, disturbed only by the biggest beetle known to man!
Unfortunately the photos from this and from the rest of the return leg of Rajasthan are locked on a memory card which is refusing to part with them but hopefully we will be able to get them back at some point in the future... we haven't journalled the 'return leg' yet either (Jodphur and Udaipur) but hopefully we'll get chance to do this soon... sorry to be a bit crap but the internet is slow so it takes ages to update stuff.
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