I love camels! Aside from the immense pain that they inflict on the sit-upon, they are just lovely. With their long fluttery eyelashes and complaisant, slightly bemused grins, pondering no doubt on some complex philosophy.
I am composing this in Jaisalmer (composing because the internet refuses to access my blog). I arrived yesterday after the long long journey from Delhi.
Before boarding the train in Delhi I took tea, as you do, with the wife of the danish ambassador. What a contrast that cool, marble villa was to the rest of the noise and chaos just outside its guarded and alarmed gate! Servants scuttling to and fro, tea brought with home made cakes and served with spotless silver. Wow. Zareen, was
very nice and insisted that I ate as many as I could. "The chef is not so good at sweets but you must eat."The train pulled into Jaisalmer and I stumbled, blinking, off the bus into the dusty desert heat. I was harranged on all sides by a feeding frenzy of hoteliers and auto drivers, pushing and pulling me this way and that. "Hey lady, you come with me, I know very good hotel, good price..." Mieke, my new travel companion had already found a hostel and organised for me to be met at the station so I my relief I suddenly heard:
"Katie? Are you Katie?" and a young guy called Little Jonny bounded up and whisked me away from the chaos on the back of his motorbike with me balanced precariously sidesaddle desperately trying to counteract the weight of my rucksack. He took me high up into the fort, where I committed the tourist blunder of aquiring a large burn on my calf muscle from the exhaust. Yes I know, all the warning in the world and I still did it.
Jaisalmer is the closest you can get to a living and breathing sandcastle. In the middle of nowhere, and with no access to water, it seems an unlikely place to choose to build a forte. But it's elevated position and links to Pakistan make it an important asset politically (both historically and recently). It is the only living and breathing fort surviving and is still very much a functioning town, although tourism seems to be the biggest industry for them now. The fort sadly crumbling due to an outdated irrigation system and the introduction of a modern water system but a great deal of it remains including the exquisite havelis built by rich trading merchants and magnificent the royal palace. The entire city is built in yellow sandstone which is carved into delicate lace-like patterns - Mum, Humayun's tomb eat your heart out! The pictures I've taken will hopefully illustrate better than I can
describe...
Jaisalmer has had a bloody history and has been under siege many times. Only 3 times, however, was the siege successful. When defeat became inevitable the people of Jaisalmer chose death over dishonor and committed 'Johur': Mass suicide with the women, dressed in their finery committing themselves to the flames and then men, adorned in saffron turbans, swords gleaming would ride out for final battle and certain death. Such was their pride.

Our hostel, in the old forte, was basic but full of character. The friendly staff persuaded me to grab a camel and try and catch up with my friends, who had left on the camel safari that morning. Well why not? So I sprang (athletically) onto a camel and trotted my way across the dunes (ouch - I'm still waddling) at quite a rate. My guide was as amused at the idea of me surprising them with my arrival as I was so we made sure that I arrived before sunset. They were indeed surprised and we celebrated by drinking the sun down with Kingfisher beer. A lovely night around the campfire and not such a good sleep due to cold and sand but the sunrise and early morning camel trek back to base was worth it. Really, my camel was so charming and flirtatious with her big brown eyes that I could never have resisted her charms, although she seemed a tad aloof and bore my presence with an air of indifference.
We spent the rest of the day shopping and pottering around the forte, admiring the havelis. The boys then bid Miekel and me farewell and trudged to the station to catch the 19 hour train back to Delhi for work, leaving Miekel and I to explore the rest of
Rajasthan a deux. We leave for Jodhpur early tomorrow morning so
I'll try and update you all properly from there.