If you want to feel like a princess or prince then a stay at the Hotel Mandir Palace is a must. It is truly beautiful and the staff are very friendly. We had a beautiful room overlooking the pool. If you are very lucky you may get invited to have tea with the Maharaja as he lives in one of the buildings. Unfortunately he wasn't home when we were there.
Jaisalmer is build around the foot of the fort which sits high up on top of the hill in the centre of town. It is called 'The Golden City' due to the golden colour of the stones used for building. They are in the process of renewing some of the buildings using original methods & design to ensure a flawless merge of both old & new. The fort is a working fort with shops and cafes scattered inside it.
Market square.
Whilst in Jaisalmer we took a tour into the desert which took us past some deserted villages which feel a it like ghost villages. We headed right out into the desert and went camel riding. It was rather bumpy buy the views were spectacular. After about an hour riding we stopped in amongst the sand dunes where our guides prepared a meal of Dhal, rice and roti over an open fire. It was delicious. We watched the sun go down as we ate our dinner and then admired the amazing star filled sky. We were then driven back to our hotel leaving our guides to spend the evening sleeping in the desert with their camels. Camels have very poor vision in the dark so can't walk home until morning. You can spend the night under the stars with them but the thought of all those bugs & scorpions didn't go down well with any of us!
These ladies travel for miles from their village to get fresh water from the well & carry it home on their heads.
Our friendly camels ready & waiting for us.
Some locals making use of their own camel.
These little girls were overjoyed at our gifts of pencils!
Our guides now become our chefs for the evening.
All aboard for our 12 hour train journey to Delhi!!!!
Indias ever growing population is a huge problem with so many living in poverty. It really is a very sad sight.
It is illegal to walk on the train tracks in India but no one seems to bother. There are many deaths every week due to this lack of respect for rules.
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