Agent K, reporting from Jaisalmer...

We are having a fabulous time in Rajasthan!!!! We were in Pushkar for the annual Holi festival on March 4. We participated a little bit, but mostly chickened out (for good reason - let's just say the local men can't keep their hands to themselves where women are concerned), as the town turned all inhabitants and their clothing, locals and visitors alike, bright pink with a bit of blue, red, yellow, green and purple powder thrown in for good measure. Even the cows and dogs ended up getting a bit of color :)

Pushkar was a great stop - we had a great hotel, great scenery, great food...ah, it was just great :) We did the "spiritual walk" around the town, passing loads of the local temples (they have over 800!) and we visited the Brahma temple, which is a bit unique being one of the few in existence. A even upset one of the Sadhus at the temple when he thought she was taking his photo...or maybe he was just a grumpy old guy and wasn't happy with us laughing (at me and my pink dyed bits :). We left quietly...

We headed out the next day for Jodhpur with directions from the night manager at the hotel - a shortcut on back roads, just what I like :) It was a great ride, and fast! We thought we would have to stay 2 nights in Jodhpur, to get there and then have time to see the fort, but we arrived at about 1pm. We found the hotel (also recommended by the hotel manager) and we had plenty of time to tour the fort.

The fort is really unique in that it's managed by the Maharaja's special trust and it is very westernized - the gift shop was not unlike the gift shop in the British Museum! There was an audio tour as part of the admission and it was really helpful - we were wishing some of the other places had something like it (we didn't mention the guide we had at Fatehpur - some of his comments contradicted the plaques next to some of the sights in the palace! We were left questioning most of what he said, it was not money well spent and we resolved not to have a guide again). Back to the Maharaja. He was born after India's independence, so he really has no power as a Maharaja. He was 4 when his father died and he became the Maharaja. He was educated at Oxford and he is very much into preserving his cultural heritage as a Marwar (lineage all the way back to the Sun :). In 1972 the fort was a ruin - locked up and unused and uninhabited except for pigeons and bats. They have done amazing restoration work and the museum is very well done.

The town is notably clean, we ate decent food (a thali for me and a masala dosa for A), found some yummy milk sweets, including a special Jodhpurian one (delicious!), bought some wool shawls for the cool desert nights, it was fun. The people were really friendly and the rickshaw guys were easy to ignore :) We stayed in an old haveli - the property has been in the owner's family for 100 years. The woman owner lives there alone, or maybe with a son, so we had to ring the bell when we wanted to come in :). All the rooms were really nice - some with swings, others with big beds and tapestries. Ours was one of the smaller rooms, but it, like all the other rooms, had traditional Rajasthani paintings on the walls. On top of all that, I awoke to one of the most beautiful calls to prayer that we have heard - the guy had a beautiful singing voice. We really liked Jodhpur and we would have liked to spend a bit more time there, but we really wanted to move on to the camel safari.
We hope to go back to Jodhpur.

We had an early departure for Jaisalmer, miraculously I found the right road and we were on our way. The road on my map is not the road we took...it is all very strange. We took the turn that we found at the town on the map where we were supposed to take such a turn, but it was not the right road - it just circled the little town. So we headed farther on and came to an intersection with an arrow pointing left with the name of the town we needed to go through, so we followed it. On my map the road we took is fairly close to one of the white roads - those that are so small they don't have numbers - but this was a state highway and it was well marked and it good condition. Our good fortune continued and we made it to the main highway to Jaisalmer in one piece (though A was threatening to explode into a thousand pieces as her excitement about being in the desert, combined with 3 cups of coffee, were nearly bubbling over :). She looked a bit like this: or maybe more like this :). We stopped at one of the nicest looking, but the most unpleasant, restaurants where we have taken a road break. The prices were outrageous and it was totally set up for foreign tourists - they must have some agreement with the drivers and bus tours! A even got pressured by the manager to buy more food (we just had a couple of coffees and some french fries) and he led her to believe that Jaisalmer was about 50 kms further away than it really was...so she really should eat as it's so far away....

We bombed it the last 140 kms into Jaisalmer (this is the first half of the road to Bikaner in a few days, so we know it will be easy at least half way) and went right to Ganesh Travels in the fort. Paul and Jenny said they did a good camel safari, so we are booked with them. I phoned them from Jodhpur and they said swing by when we arrived and we can finalize the camel trip and they said they could arrange a hotel, too. We motored up the steep ramps, through all four gates, into the fort and there was someone waiting for us! He knew my name and led us right to the place, helped us get the bikes parked out of the way, etc. (this is a big deal - the streets in the fort are just about wide enough for one cow and one person to pass :). Many people watched us motor in - we have met them walking around and they know who we are (it's very strange :). We wanted a day in town, to see the fort, and then the safari. We head out at 8 in the morning to meet our camels - woohoo!!!! We get 2 nights sleeping out in the open (which makes we think of my brother), 5 1/2 hours a day on the camels (each on our own camel) with stops at an oasis and some desert villages. A is going to wake up in the desert on her birthday..how cool is that??? :)

The fort in Jaisalmer is also unique - people live in it! Most of the forts we have been to have wide open spaces and lots of ruins. This place is chocka-block with sandstone buildings, some with very ornate carving, and a warren of little streets. Very much alive and buzzing. It's pretty amazing. We walked around the outside of the fort (looking for an ATM) before dinner yesterday and this morning we did the inside, the small streets and out on the bastions and even sitting on one of the remaining canon :)

Not that I want to jinx anything, but we have had very good experiences in Rajasthan - from the first leg of the trip down, when we stopped in Jaipur and Bundi, and on the way north through Udaipur, Chittor, Pushkar/Ajmer, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. We head to Bikaner after the camels and then it's into Punjab.

More news after the safari! Sorry...it's dial-up only, so you are going to have to wait for photos :) Later!!!!!