On the road again!

February 24th

We checked out of the airport hotel around midnight (this morning) - hotel service was pretty bad but the rooms were good so we didn't fuss too much. We had a hard time finding our checkin counter as it was on the opposite side of the airport and there are no signs, just letters from A-O and we were at M for checkin and at A when we got out of the hotel.  When we got to the counter after waiting in line for about 30 minutes, the counter person told us that there were no seats together for this flight as we didn't have confirmed seats...DAMN KAVITA! Kavita was the travel agent who booked our flights, hotels and tour and everyone had great challenges with her. We asked her to ensure we had seats together on all flights and she said not to worry and that the seats she could confirm early were done and the others wouldn't be a problem since we booked together.  Well that was not the case!

We waited in security line ups which felt like forever, we had to clear Indian customs again and of through security checks, but in India, you walk through the metal detector thingy next to the baggage scanner and then the men are patted down and wanded, but the women have to go into this little booth with curtains where they pat us down and wand us. The line we were In didn't have a woman in the booth, so they put a number in our bin with some of our items and sent us to the next line to go through the metal detector and booth....which took FOREVER and we didn't take our passports with us and all of our stuff was out of site while people kept moving through and grabbing their items.  We were freaking out, as well as the many other women in the same boat as us as it was feeling like the beginning of a bad ending to our journey.  We finally made it through and they had our bags set aside - phew!

Funnily enough this is where Eva discovered she didn't lose the souvenirs as they found metal in her bag LOL, so after she dumped her bag all over the counter, we were able to move on.

We got on the plane and Eva was 4 rows ahead of me in the first row of a section, so she had lots of leg room.  We had lovely middle seats (insert sarcasm and eye roll here). When the last person beside me arrived he sat down and was very tall, his legs were touching the back of the seat and the guy in front of him wouldn't have been able to recline his seat.  So I offered for him to switch with Eva and he was excited to move and get the additional leg room, SCORE for us!  So I sat in the window and Eva sat in the middle (she is smaller and there was a larger guy on the aisle seat). Flight went well and we slept pretty well the entire time except during meals :)

We arrived in Frankfurt around 7:00 am Frankfurt time and had to go through another security check before getting into their airport, so weird...we had already been cleared and only went to the plane and into this airport, but apparently they are super secure LOL.

Now we wait to get on our flight to Calgary, we board at 9:45 am and should arrive in Calgary around 1:00pm - we are travelling back in time as we were in the future! Not sure if we clear Canadian customs in Calgary or Edmonton, so we might be screwed for making our flight to Edmonton on time, but we will cross our fingers and wait and see.

Can't wait to be home! Eva and I are both sick now so we are super pleasant and cheerful LOL.

See you all soon!
Miranda

Last day in India!

Feb 23 - Dehli to HOME

We slept in this morning until 8:30 - well I couldn't sleep after about 6 since we have been getting up so early, my body thought it was time to get up.  Once we did finally get up, we went for breakfast in the hotel since it was included and the breakfast was awesome! They actually had pastries that tasted right LOL.

After breakfast we decided to go with Renata and Gustavo on a shopping adventure, so we asked the hotel staff where we could find a market (since the mall nearby wasn't very good according to the group who went last night), so they told us the fastest way to get to the market would be by metro.  So off we went, grabbed a tuk tuk and went to the metro station.  The metro station was very confusing for us as there were signs everywhere pointing in many directions but we had no idea which direction we needed to travel other than what's top they told us to get off at, so we had to ask for assistance.  Once we got to the platform we found the women's only section that the hotel staff told us about (in case we were feeling nervous they said this would be a good choice, but Gustavo would have to ride alone).  When we seen how crowded the cars were, we decided to go this way and thank goodness we did.  Us ladies were squished into the women's car and Gustavo was crammed in the next car by himself.  We had to travel approximately 9 stops which took about 25 minutes. Overall it was a good experience as they had some strange signs up like "no spitting", seating for "differently abled" or "physically challenged and old"LOL.

We arrived at the market place called Connaught Place (CP) and there was a protest going on (not sure for what) so we steered away from that area and found the shops. It was a large outdoor shopping centre in a large circle. They had some trinket shops outside as well and lots of people, so we were happy to explore.  We found all our items that we were hunting for  and then some guys told us about a bazaar behind these shops that was free of taxes and has lots of souvenirs, etcetera.  We didn't go at first but we heard several times from other people saying the same thing, so we decided we would check it out.  We were walking behind the shops and not seeing anything like they described and then a young guy approached us and we told him what we were looking for and he pointed us in the right direction and then said he would take us there since he lived nearby and was on his way home anyway.  He kept saying no charge as he could see we were hesitant, as nobody does anything for free in India as far as we have seen. So we crossed the road and were making our way farther and farther from the shops and there were some guys ahead of us and then when we crossed the road they somehow ended up behind us shortly thereafter.  We all started feeling like something was a little off since we still could not see what was described to us and now there were 5 young guys surrounding us.  Gustavo decided to shout to the guy who was leading us that it was too far and we didn't have time to keep walking, to which the guy kept insisting it was only a few minutes more, but we decided to stop and turn around.  After walking away for a few minutes, Gustavo looked back and noticed the guys all talking and then walking back in the same direction as us, so the guy who was supposedly going home that way was not really going home after all. We figure that while we were on the busy road we were fine, but they likely would have gotten us to a more quiet road and jumped us for our cameras and purses since we would have been outnumbered. We just figured there should have been more people around if there truly was a bazaar that close to the shops.  So thankfully we returned to the shops, stopped in at the Starbucks to use the clean washrooms and headed back to the metro station.

We once again got lost in the metro as we had to get to the opposite side of the tracks to head back and it was also a multi line staton and we didn't know which direction to take.  Once we figured it out we boarded our train and it was a nice quiet ride back with barely any people!  We got off and went to grab a tuk tuk and when we thought about taking one nearby, some guy came running up waving a stick and yelled at the guy (likely he was trying to steal us from the back of the line instead of waiting his turn), so we headed to the front and got in another tuk tuk, but it was weird as they were all shouting the name of our hotel...

After we got back to the hotel we quickly packed and checked out (we asked for late checkout at 3:00 which worked awesome). We then got onto the tour bus and headed to the temple, the largest Hindu temple in the world! It was a crazy line up and many of the group didn't want to wait in line, but we decided to give it 30 minutes and sees here we were in line.  It only took us 45 minutes to get through the line and security and then we toured quickly.  It is truly amazing, it is only 8 years old, but took 300 million man hours to build.  It is extremely intricate marble carving work, I bought a book since we weren't allowed to take cameras inside the gates.

After this we headed to the airport to check in to our hotel for a few hours.  Thankfully it was a nice room with a shower and clean bathroom, etc so we could hang out and repackage our bags and shower and get ready for the long flight home. Eva discovered that she is missing a bag of souvenirs she bought which super sucks as it had gifts for some coworkers and some keychains for me and for gifts for her family and friends. We have no clue where they went as we did sweeps of every hotel we stayed in before leaving. Super sucks!

We are almost ready to go and checkin for our flights!

See you all soon!

Miranda

Agra to Dehli and a little place called the Taj Mahal!

February 22nd Agra to Dehli

We decided to check out the gift shops at our hotel in Agra and managed to get some good deals, we are expert negotiators now and quite jagged compared to our first few days. It is funny how you know you have gotten a good price when the storekeepers are grumpy when you leave LOL.  Most of us  have had it with the beggars and pedlars crowding our bus when we get on  and off the bus - it seems to have ramped up since we got to Jaipur, again in Agra and Dehli as well - likely since these are the largest cities. Dehli's population is 19 million! The city is so large and has so many tall apartment buildings in new Dehli...the old part of Dehli is apparently the slums area now. I was surprised at how much foliage they have here lining the streets even as filthy and polluted it is here, I was honestly expecting no trees and flowers, but they are everywhere!

This morning we went bright and early to Taj Mahal, and thank god we did as it was insanely busy by the time we left. It was busy enough when we arrived, I couldn't imagine if it had been a nicer day out. It was super foggy from the rain the day before and we weren't sure we would get any decent pictures, so we were pleased with how it turned out.  It is quite astonishing to see in person, it is so symmetrical that you almost can't believe your eyes. We were discussing how amazing the project managers and craftsman must have been to have everything built as precisely as it is and for it to have lasted so long, they really don't build things like they used to!  The guide was telling us that back when it was built it cost $40 million rupees. At that time 10 oz. of gold cost $11 rupees and today the same weight in gold is approx $823,000 rupees to give you some context.

After the Taj Mahal we went to Agra fort where the king that built the Taj Mahal lived.  Our guide told us that the eldest son who was successor for the throne was killed by his younger brother and then the king was held hostage by him in the fort for 8 years until he died. He apparently lost his vision as well in his old age so he couldn't see his Taj Mahal from his rooms so he used a small mirror to see its reflection. The king built the Taj Mahal to house the tomb of his third and favourite wife and it took 22 years to be built (20,000 paid workers - not slaves, and 5,000 elephants and I can't remember the rest but I am sure it can be googled LOL) and then he moved her there.

Also at the fort we were told about another king that ruled there and he had 20 wives (apparently there is a book about her called "the twentieth wife") and he had 300 concubines!  As a wedding gift to his 20th wife, he gave her a large bowl (5 ft high, 8ft wide and 25 ft in circumference) made of granite filled with gold coins and jewels which she later used as a bath. It took two elephants to carry the load to the palace. Crazy to even think about what that would have been like in real life.

After the fort we made our way to Delhi, where we said goodbye to Tia, Greg, Amy and Troy and the rest of us headed to the hotel.  Our hotel is super swanky and lovely! Eva and I decided to get 90 minute massages since we didn't have time to get them anywhere else since we arrived! We also decided to order room service instead of getting ready again to eat in the restaurant.

We are ready to come home, we were joking today with some of our group about what we will enjoy the most when we get home:

-brushing your teeth using tap water instead of bottled water
-sitting on clean toilets even when you go out in public for the most part
-having toilet paper in any washroom you go into
-not having to be hassled for a tip to provide you with toilet paper or napkins to dry your hands with
-not having to lug around bottled water everywhere you go
- not being harassed constantly to buy things
- people being nice to you without expecting money in return
- not feeling everyone is trying to rip you off all the time and having to haggle every price for everything you buy (including snacks  and drinks as well)
- having good food that you can trust and enjoy without having to say a Hail Mary or cross your fingers that you won't get sick!
-BEEF and PORK!!!!

Miranda

Elephants and more - Jaipur to Agra

February 20 & 21st Jaipur and travel to Agra

February 20th -

Amber fort and Observatory

We started our day at the Amber fort. It was a palace with a fort next door and was accessible by elephant ride. We were excited at first, however a little leery as these elephants are "working" and not just enjoying a relaxing life, which bothers me, even though I know the animals here have different lives than what we expect. Camels and donkeys and elephants are like horses at home...not sure why it doesn't bother me to see horses work, but it bothers me with the camels and the elephants. We waited in line for our elephant and crossed our fingers for a good experience.  When it was our turn we quickly noticed our driver was in a hurry and he had hooks on his prodding stick. Eva and I also quickly noticed that no other drivers had hooks on their prodding sticks and that most of the elephants walked slowly where our driver was clearly in a hurry. We asked him several times to slow down and to wait in line as we were passing people and he was trying to push his way up the line. He tried to say it is harder for elephants to walk slowly - yeah right! So we were persistent that he slow down,and after the third time, he finally slowed dome and followed the line.  Eva also asked him about why he uses a hook and he said to control the elephant, when we said why nobody else used a hook he just laughed. By this time we were caught up to the line ahead of us and many drivers were scolding him and yelling at him - animals are very sacred here and treated well, so this was very taboo and also very disturbing for us. After the ride we asked Tia to assist us in reporting the driver for abusing his elephant to the police that were at the fort. Tia wrote down the complaints and we will also be submitting complaints to the Incredible India travel site as well as he Indian government as we were devastated about the way this driver was treating this poor elephant - racing her up and down the mountainside road and she had a big scab where he was using the hook. Also, they had signs when we got off the elephants not to tip the drivers, however some drivers were very aggressive about receiving a tip. So this will go in our complaints log as well.  The police In India are useless, figureheads at most, but not known for enforcing anything.  They had signs saying no hawkers and no purchase of photos taken with the elephants yet we were chased down and harassed by both of these types of people the entire time we were on our tour of the fort palace. It was our worst experience yet as it didn't matter how much you said no or ignored or flat out told them to go away, they would continue to pester you.

The tour was okay, but our guide was not very good and seemed to be in a hurry and not explaining much to us. After the tour most of us walked down and the guide met us at the bottom with the tour bus and oh my god, I have been very tolerant of the paddlers and hawkers up until this point but these people were ruthless, I would have told them to fuck off if I thought they would have understood. It didn't matter how rude we were tot hem they continued to pester us. We finally go on the bus and drove to our next stops which was a small palace on the lake where the royal family would have lunch. Apparently the water quality is poor as sewage started to be dumped there and the royal family abandoned it.  The government is wanting to make it a restaurant, but it will depend on the water quality improving. On our way to the next stop our tour guide allowed a child onto the bus to do some magic tricks for us, which I'm not going to lie, pissed me off. This guide committed us to tilt his child, which no doubt he needs the money and was not begging, but I really didn't like the guide making decisions on our behalf and at our cost.

Can you tell I am getting grumpy LOL, I am getting run down and tired and sick and am losing my patience with many things and people here. I am officially homesick  and ready to go home. I miss my baby girl and my husband and my snugly beagle, and even the clean air and garbage free ground.  I cannot express how appalling it is to see so much waste and garbage thrown on the streets, in the fields, on the roads, in the countryside, EVERYWHERE you look there is garbage. The air quality appears to be getting worse in these bigger cities as well which is making many of us congested and sore throats and feeling sick.

Alright,  back to the tour.  Our next stop was next to the city palace we visited the day before, it was a conservatory where they have built very large sun dials for telling time and predicting weather, etc. the largest sun dial in the world is located here, over 75 meters tall I think. The time one of the smaller ones is accurate to 20 seconds and the large one is within 2 seconds. After this we went on a rickshaw ride to the bazaar. The rickshaw is a bicycle in the front with two seats behind. Eva and I picked a younger guy as there were so,e really old guys and I didn't want to see him struggle with my "strong girl/eats good" physique LMFAO.

While on the rickshaw there were some super creepy guys blowing me kisses and making lewd gestures which was quite as appalling. We always take a male with us when waking in the markets and bazaars and such otherwise the men can be quite aggressive. Troy has been our token male quite a bit and Gustavo and Renata also travel with us quite often. I would never go to India without a male and without a person from India to help with the language barriers and to keep people honest.  After the first few days we have learned quite well how to negotiate and barter and have been doing quite well I think, so at least we aren't all getting hosed like many other tourists are. You really must be educated on the tips and tricks for shopping, getting transportation, and meals here. Thank goodness for Tia and Greg, they have made this trip so much easier and more pleasurable for all of us!

After shopping we went to Elefantastic which is an elephant sanctuary and rescue.  There are apparently many people trying to impersonate this place as it is very well known and there are many cheaters here. The experience at elefantastic is more what we were looking forward to as the animals are very well cared for, happy, and live a good and simple life.  When we arrived we fed the elephants sugarcane so they could get our scents and know that we weren't going to steal their food. Elephants are very sensitive to scents and like good smelling things.  Tia told us a story about the last time she went on an elephant and was wearing perfume and the elephant stuck it's trunk down the front of her shirt LOL, so we were all forewarned not to wear perfume anywhere you wouldn't want an elephant to stick its trunk LOL. They introduced our elephants and told us their stories and their ages, etc. and we selected our elephant.  We fed the elephants and pet them and made eye contact with them (no sunglasses were allowed). Then they put a pad secured with some ropes on her and we climbed on from a raised staircase platform. Riding an elephant even with a cushion (I was on her highest part of her back, her hump) and after a few minutes it felt like I was riding a bicycle with a very slim seat, so the bones in my butt were so sore! It was nice as they took us for a nice slow walk through the compound and when we returned they had the elephants kneel down and let us off.  The. We had some snacks and asked some questions  about the elephants. They make a low vibration sound which is apparently their way of communicating with one another and when they trumpet it is a warning about something they have seen - some don't like motorbikes, or dogs, or fireworks, etc. so they will trumpet. One of ours heard a dog whining and crying and trumpeted and then they all got upset and the owner of elefantastic ran over to see what the matter was and to get it to stop. It is quite unnerving and intimidating as they all appear to get quite riled up and start trumpeting and doing the low vibration sound. I certainly wouldn't want to upset a pack of elephants! After our snacks we got to paint on our elephants with natural colours from crushed rocks and water using bamboo sticks.  After the painting we gave our elephant some water which was cool as they fill both sides of their trunk (both nostrils) and then shoot it into their mouth. We also seen their teeth which are massive  and they only have 4 at any time and get 6 sets in their lifetime which is about 75 years.  There is one handler for each elephant and each elephant lives with their handler and their family. The elephant has it's own stall and the family lives in the building next to the stall with a bedroom, living room, washroom and kitchen. The handlers have been with their elephant since birth and they were boys, and they will pass their elephant on to their sons, since the elephant will outlive the handler usually. The owner's family were the elephant handlers for the royal family in Jaipur and you can see that they genuinely love and care for these animals.  They have 23 females and 1 male on their compound and a few of the ladies are pregnant. The government only allows for one male to remain onsite and all males that are born are taken to a government run sanctuary/preservation  area when they are of a certain age, so that there is no interbreeding. They swap out the males every seven years so that the bloodlines continue to mix, and all elephants are microchipped and tracked by law. We were so happy with this experience and would recommend it to anyone, they have whole day packages where you bath the elephants and spend the entire day caring for an elephant and learning to ride it and give commands, but we only did a 2.5 hour package which was just the right amount of time.

February 21

Today we are on our way to Agra. We stopped along the way at a historical site where people would go to collect their water, but because water was difficult to find in the area, they needed to control how much water people took so they didn't take too much and run out, so they built an extensive water well system which required people climb 14 sets of stairs that zig zag and are 9 steps each seta nod very narrow, so they could only take one pot on their head at one times and would have to take multiple trips if they needed more water.

We stopped at Fatehpur Sikri and it RAINED! It is pouring rain here which is not common and a complete fluke...of course it rains, it wouldn't be my vacation if there wasn't freak weather changes, it was super hot yesterday! Many of us have our rain coats and umbrellas safely stowed in our luggage under the bus where it can stay nice and dry! LOL

We decided to skip the fort today since it is pouring rain and we could all use some rest.  We have a very early day tomorrow again as we need to be at the Taj Mahal first thing in the morning to hopefully avoid the rain and possibly catch a sunrise.  Following that we will got to the Agra fort and then make our way to Dehli for our final night and tour the following day. We are all pretty exhausted so we won't all do the Dehli tour completely so that we can rest a bit before catching our flights home.

It is our final night together as four people are leaving tomorrow to catch flights, so we are having our last meal together at the hotel - Jaypee palace. This is another beautiful grande  hotel, just too bad it is pouring rain so we can't take great pictures, but their website has some great photos! This is another pay for use of wifi hotel which surprises me since all the super high end places charge for internet and the smaller places do not...you would think that you are paying more, that it would be included. Oh well, we can pay in two hour chunks for 300 rupees which is about $6 CAD

Miranda

Bikaner to Jaipur! The pink city!

Feb 19th Bikaner to Jaipur

Bikaner was interesting to say the least. It is an Islamic area primarily so women are covered from head to toe other than their faces, although many also cover their faces. So, drop a bus load of super pale tourists off in a street market full of men that don't see much of women, never mind pale women wearing t-shirts and capris and a few wearing skirts. We attracted so much attention that the men we were with all kept us surrounded and placed themselves between us and men that were getting a little too close. It is so funny here as people stare and don't think it's rude.  We walked up and down the street and weren't finding anything for us since it is not a large tourist place, so everything is catered to the locals. Our tour guide took us to another government supported co-op for patchwork and scarves and the prices were half what they were at the last co-op we went to in Jodhpur so we all dropped a bunch of cash (well actually plastic money LOL). It was so nice, they had us all sit around the shop and they showed us bedding and scarves. They explained how to tell if fabric is synthetic or real wool, silk, etc. so it was very nice. They also made us masala chai drinks which were very good and then after shopping they gave us free scarves, etc. depending on how much we spent. Before we left they broke out a bottle of rum and coke for us which was fun. We figured they would party since we spent close to 150,000 rupees between all of us.

After shopping we headed to the hotel for dinner. It was a good meal but very costly (for India). Our hotel was a heritage hotel so it was original walls, doors, ceilings, etc. with a few modern conveniences. It wasn't fabulous, but it was quaint and very original and met our needs with clean washrooms and beds so we were happy.

This morning we are heading to Jaipur where they have a crafts bazaar and then to the hotel to drop some laundry.  A few of us need to buy duffle bags to bring stuff home in as we are running out of room in our luggage. Tomorrow we see a fort and palace and we go for our elephant rides at elephantastic (a elephant sanctuary where they are treated very well and protected). Elephants are very hard to manage as they eat alot and if they aren't being fed they cause trouble or get killed, so a family started this sanctuary to preserve and enjoy the elephants.

We had a long bus ride again today to Jaipur. We stopped at a roadside shop/restaurant and payed high prices for lunch and clean washrooms. Food wasn't so good, but whatever, at this point food is nourishment.  When we arrived in Jaipur we were told it has 3 million people and is the third largest city in India and that between Agra, Jaipur and Dehli these cities make up the golden triangle as they also the main stops for most tourists.  Jaipur is very commercialized and have hospitals and universities and many professionals. The markets are vast and well organized on larger streets with all the same size stalls.  It is also cleaner than other cities.  We went to city palace where there is still a royal family living there, but they don't rule anymore, they are just super wealthy. They have converted many properties into hotels and museums to create income. After the palace we went to the place where they do block printing on fabrics and also make carpets.  This was very interesting to learn about, however the sales pitches that follow are also part of the package.  I find he prices fluctuate greatly from one place to another depending on how touristy they are, so this being a larger city, the prices were high for me.

We checked into our hotel around 8:00 pm and Eva and I laughed as we had no toilet paper in our room! We also waited for our bags to arrive and when we decided to go looking for them we found them on a cart by the elevators LOL so I guess they weren't delivering them to our room as they have been in the past. Oh well!

We have a busy day tomorrow starting at 8 am and in the evening we will be enjoying the elephants! Super excited about it, but I'm sure there will be stories to tell!

Miranda 

Forts, palaces and camels, oh my!

We have been very busy! The ride from Udaipur to Jodhpur was very long! We left Udaipur around 4:00pm and arrived at 1:30am to Vivanta in Jodhpur, another amazing hotel, just too bad we didn't have much time to explore. I uploaded a few more photos, it takes so much time to upload that we need to be in our room for a few hours to be able to get time, but hopefully we will have more time today since we don't have as much planned...just crossing my fingers we get free wifi again.  As I mentioned, the roads were so bad and we weren't sure our drivers knew where they were going, but we made it! It's quite funny, we come to a screeching halt quite often to avoid cars, people, motorbikes, cows, deer, etc., so it is difficult to sleep on the bus and honestly the ride is still exciting as we pass villages and temples all lit up with blinking LED lights (think Vegas lights on a temple) and crazy things along the way. Eva and I also play wheel of fortune which passes the time quickly :)

Jodhpur February 16th

Our first stop was Umaid Bahwan Palace, this is a fairly new palace that has been converted mostly into a posh hotel, small museum and still houses the Maharaja (king) when he visits. We seen a freaking locust outside by the vintage car museum. Eww! For those of you that know me, you would be proud, I didn't take off running in the opposite direction! Now if it had jumped or flew or whatever those things do I would have hightailed it out of there!  After that we headed to Merherangarh Fort which is one of the largest forts in India. There were some amazing museum items in this fort and it overlooked the city which is called blue city.  We seen many silk carpets and wall hangings and all sorts of elephant seats and baby cribs from the queens over the years as each queen had different ideas of what was good luck, etc so they all wanted different cribs for their princes and princesses to be in when they were born. There was beautifully decorated rooms and carvings all over. There is a picture of a metal spiral staircase, they used to take it out into the fields for hunting as they could take the bolts out and collapse it and then the women could sit up in a tree while the men hunted.

After the fort we headed out on our journey to Jaisalmer.  The guide we had for the day assured us that there was tourist restaurants on our way, maybe 30 minutes from the fort, but alas, not unlike the many other fumbles along the way, there was nothing suitable.  We didn't end up stopping until about 5pm when we reached a haveli garden restaurant and shop.  We were all so famished and thankfully we had good and prompt service, so it was our silver lining.  We have all learned to take advantage of our complementary breakfasts at the hotels and most provide doggy bags as apparently the Indians always take food anyway. My mom would be proud, we took some snacks and fruit for the road, LOL.  The breakfasts are not like our crappy continental breakfasts at our hotels in Canada and USA, continental here means they have western food and Indian food and it is a buffet with stations for omelettes and a few other hot Indian foods made to order as well as fruit and yogurt and fresh juice, toast, etc.  it's funny though as some places have better chefs than others, I got a croissant at one hotel but it was as heavy as a brick....not quite right LOL!

It is so funny, in towns they advertise for things they think tourists will like but they aren't quite right, such as English wine shops (English aren't really known for wine) and German bakeries (when the Germans aren't known for their baked goods).  They also have some funny signs like the no smoking signs and some of the other shops.

We arrived at Jaisalmer around 9:30 pm and checked into our next fancy accommodations.  The Suryagarh hotel is a small fort and absolutely beautiful! Jaisalmer is in the desert and it was very hot during the day (in summer it gets in the high 40-50's) but it was only the 30s for us, thank god it is winter! Apparently in the summer months it gets extremely windy, so they have wind farms all over, it seems so strange as they are fairly still now, but it gets very windy and the power companies installed them a few years ago.  The hotel has beautiful golden retrievers  and a puppy named Simba who is soooo adorable We visited Gadisar lake which is a man made lake that supported the area with clean drinking water and is also considered healing water. There is a gate that was constructed by one of the kings prostitutes as she wanted to be remembered. The queen was outraged and ordered it to be demolished as it was viewed as passing through her legs to walk through the gate, but the prostitute placed a Krishna on top and knowing that anything with the Krishna on it would never be destroyed, it still stands today.  The lake also has catfish in it which people feed bread to for good karma. The catfish are HUGE and not ever eaten  as they are considered somewhat sacred due to the history of the water. The lake is no longer clean enough to be used for consumable water so it is just a historical site now.

After the lake we went to Jaisalmer fort which is one of the older forts. It was a very dirty place as there are still 4000 people living within the fort and most of the fort has been converted to hotels and there is an active marketplace inside. Because it is one of the only tourist spots in jaisalmer the prices are very inflated and the shopkeepers take advantage of this - when asking the prices they ask how much you have and try to get you to come into their shops by saying let me help you spend your money, etc. we also seen a marijuana shop outside as it is legal here since many do not drink alcohol and opium is now illegal and used to be the drug of choice in the past. There were also to Jain temples (sorry not sure on spelling) of seven that are open to the public. The Jain people are extremists as they do not believe in taking the life of any living thing (bugs, animals,etc). So they don't farm, and only eat things grown above ground - no root vegetables, no meat, etc. they wear all white and even wear scarves to cover their mouths so they don't accidentally swallow a mosquito or fly. These are the women we seen walking in the countryside at one of the first temples we went to, they walk bare foot and sweep the path in front of them as they walk, they also camp along the road and carry enough food and water to get them to their next stop.

After the fort some of us went to the local market, but this market catered mainly to tourists, there were not many locals shopping which was strange for us. There were lots of yucky smells too, I imagine due to the lack of water available to rinse the streets from the animal waste.  We went to a prime ministers house that has also become a shop for camel-bone items (since ivory is no longer a legal and marketable product and they have many camels in the desert). We then went to a patchwork shop which is a co-operative for the women that used to sell their products around India, when Pakistan separated from India it made it difficult for these women to sell their items and now this co-op was created for them.  The prices were super high and they refused to barter so many of us didn't buy anything. We all think our tour guide was wheeling and dealing with these shops and receives a cut from what we purchase, as that is the way things work here (everyone is in someone else's pocket).  After the market we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and then headed out for our evening of camel riding and entertainment.  Eva and I shared a camel and OMG it was terrifying! Camels are not graceful and when they stand up they lift their front legs partially, then back legs go all the way up and then front goes all the way up, so you lean all the way back and forward to try not to fall off! Our camel driver was not great  and didn't warn us that the camel was getting up so we were still holding our cameras and not knowing where to hold on. He then rode in the cart we had a few people riding in and when we got off he didn't warn us again and I gripped the saddle weird and bent one of my fingernails back so far it was bleeding and really hurt. It was so funny though as we were getting off he camel and he was helping me, he told me I was "very strong", had "thick legs" and said "you eat good" LMFAO - then from the look on my face he laughed and said "no no, it's good, it's good!" LOL Tia tells me it was a compliment, but I think she is just being kind, oh well LOL.

After the camel rides we sat up on a sand dune and watched the sunset which was beautiful. Eva and I decided not to get back on our camels and to walk to the desert camp instead LOL - there were a few of us that didn't want to get back on, and a few that went for a fast ride where the camels run,  I must say seeing so many camels made me think of the movie Starwars LOL.  At the desert camp they have luxury tents for people to stay in and a stage with chairs all the way around for the performance.  They played music and had some dancers  and then got everyone up and dancing and teaching us some moves.  We then had a buffet dinner that we ate outside while they continued to play for us. It was a lovely time! Food wasn't very good and since many are vegetarian the chicken always seems undercooked - and yes you people that know I like my chicken very well done (some people say chicken dust) even Eva and others who like dark and juicy meat felt it was undercooked. We have found at many restaurants this is the case, some is cooked but not all...yuck!

We all had to be on the bus for 8am this morning so we headed up to our room when we got back around 9:30.  Many of the group were up until 2am chatting and drinking but we have been tired and wanting some down time, so we went up to bed.  We are now on our way to Bikaner for the afternoon and then off the day after to Jaipur (the pink city). Bikaner is known for their trade market and they provide the majority of the camels in India. 

Longest day ever!

We left the fort and had lunch and jumped on the bus to Jodhpur, our driver didn't appear confident he was going the right way when we hit a fork in the road and ended up asking some locals for directions - nobody uses maps here.  We road along the highway avoiding the usual cows, people, carts, motorbikes, dump trucks and other large trucks and busses and brought tiny villages with small roads. We came across a patch of road that was so bad, it was like concrete blocks and chunks were randomly places and we needed to drive through, we went maybe 5-10 Kms/hr for about 25 minutes, seen signs saying the number of kilometres to the next town but they were randomly placed as it would be maybe 1 km later and it would say we were 5 km closer...

We stopped at a restaurant along the highway and had terrible service and food and arrived at our hotel in Jodhpur at 1:30 am so it has been a very long day.

We have a couple stops tomorrow before we move on to Bikaner I think.  Will post more tomorrow, we are going to bed!

Miranda