After a long 12 hour train journey, where we slept surprisingly well, we finally arrived in Jodphur. We were shocked by how desert-like the land was, so barren and dry. When we got to the station the porters carried all our luggage on their heads! Absolutely amazing considering how heavy everyone's bags were and they took at least 2 on their heads and more on their arms! We got straight on the coach, a cute little 17 seater with 2 lovely men who lived in a box at the front, and always sold us water and kept the coach smelling overwhelmingly of sickly sweet incense! The ride to our first heritage hotel was bumpy and made us realise how organised the crazy traffic in Delhi actually is! When we arrived at our hotel we were amazed, it was an old Indian Rajputs house and the owner was the Rajput himself. It was in a gorgeous little village, still untouched by tourist so we were treated like celebrites. When we arrived in the beautiful courtyard we were greeted with garlands of flowers and fresh guava juice, and just sat watching the green parrots fly over the bright blue sky and lush grounds full of flowers. All the staff were friendly and dressed in traditional outfit with matching turbans, our room was exquisitely decorated with hand-woven orange bedcovers with gold thread and matching cushions and curtains. All old wooden furniture lined the room which itself was an old stone stable. Surprisingly we had lovely hot water. We took a brief walk through the village where everyone came out to greet us and the little children loved having their pictures taken and seeing the results on our digital cameras. We watched women wearing bright gorgeous saris carrying water pots, sticks and dung on their heads, and went into the creche where we saw such cute babies. At the back of the village was a beautiful oasis of water, their only source of water at the moment, and was right next to their school, a surprise to see them all in matching uniforms! We climbed on the roof of our hotel to get a good view of the village and desert beyond, before being treated to a lovely traditional cooked lunch (various curries and a yummy sweet of carrot with buttermilk and pepper!). We then set off on a jeep safari, where we searched for herds of antelopes and visited other local villages where we were invited into houses to see them weaving and making shoes. All the children mobbed us and were so excited, the villages were filled with goats, chickens and cows. We stopped to take photos of antelopes, and a nearby house saw us and invited everyone in for a cup of chai! They were so glad to entertain us, it was their job to look after the antelope and protect them for poachers, It was lovely to sit barefoot and cross-legged outside on their mats looking out over the desert in the warm sun. We also saw pottery being made by hand which was fascinating, making every pot absolutely identical, we spent a long time here playing with the children and showing them our photos, everyone would stop by and wave. Some children we passed on the way were so excited to see us that they sprinted two miles ahead of us to see us again in the next village! They then wouldn't let go of our hands as we went to leave so it always took ages to set off again to the sound of them shouting 'ta ta'! The jeep ride home was similarly bumpy over the tracks, so were thrown up and down all over the place but it was really fun, and we passed fields of peacocks roaming around, the national bird of India. We watched the sun go down and arrived back at Chandelaogarh after dark, freezing, to a lovely campfire. However in the summer temperatures can reach 50 degrees c! Another nice meal followed and was nicely accompanied by a Kingfisher beer, and the Rajput showed us how to tie a turban! We finally went to bed with lovely hot water bottles! A lovely quiet night away from the hustle and bustle of Delhi!