Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer, a town that i pronounced wrongly for weeks (its "jasal-meer") was the last city in my Rajasthan tour, and one I was excited about, due to its location in the Thar desert, and therefore camels!

The desert wasn't quite the Sahara like dunes and endless land i had imagined (more like a eastern Colorado or California scrub), but still.. desert!

But i am getting ahead of myself. It was a lovely quiet (and cool) walk towards the fort at 6am after yet another night train, and this time helping a Japanese pair to find the bus station. One of them spoke no English at all, and while its great he was

travelling, you do have to wonder, quiet how he expected to cope (they had only teamed up the previous day).

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Despite the comments in the guide book (the fort is falling down, dont stay in it)... i did. With over 500 Indians living in it, I didn't see how a few tourists could make much of a difference, or why we had to suffer, if the residents weren't also be made to leave. And my guesthouse was nice, with a great view over the city and countryside around.

The main attaction of the city seems to be in its shopping, and even i bought some stuff, although there was a reason, not simply to aid the local tradesmen! I would be staying in rather posher company in Delhi than I had packed clothes for, so thought that getting a few shirts might be a good idea. Picked up 3 locally made ones for 600rs (9quid or so), and a scarf/shawl as well, and felt better equipped to rejoin polite society! (speaking of which, sorry about any spelling mistakes...the computer is French, including the spell-check, so i dont have my usual competer-aided spelling assistant to help me out!)

I also found a 'german' bakery, which means lovely cakes! The apple crumble was amazing, and the lemon cake not bad either :) Mum...i need relearn how to make crumble please

Everything in the town - including the fort - is a golden sandstone colour, and even newer buildings are usually keeping to the colour scheme (even if it means painting concrete). Not sure if its a city order, or just local taste, but it reminds me of Bath and its colour planning. It is also rather unique for India, where the modern concrete buildings often sit next to (and probably ontop of) the far nicer older houses. If they could just learn to bury the power/telephone cables, this town would be very beautiful.

Final note- Cows in India scavange for scraps of food just like the dogs and goats, and neither of them will touch chillies. Makes you wonder why humans choose to eat them!