Camel Toes & Sore Bums!

So, to backtrack a bit and fill you in on yesterday....

Bug bite count:

Jackie: 2
Dara: 200 (only a tad dramatic, and no mom, no malaria... i think)

The thing to do in Jaisalmar... if you are a white tourist, is to do the camel safari. People try to sell you these from the moment you step off the train, everyone claims to own camels that will be waiting for you in the desert... all with the same itinerary in mind (first we drive you 50 kilometers to the middle of nowhere, along the most non-touristic route- then you ride camel- then camel man cook for you- then you sleep on dunes)... and so thats exactly what we did.

We opted for the 1 1/2 day "Safari" due to time constraints which proved to be more than enough...(dont confuse this with the actual safaris, there is nothing to see except cross-eyed goats, some stray dogs and a Sh*t load of camel poop, that literally falls from them AS they walk, impressive. Apparently people go on these safaris for days, to really "get in touch with Rajathstan"- the area we are staying in- what they mean by that, is to sweat out so much liquid that you yourself transform into a camel. Luckily, we were able to "get in touch" on our abridged version of the tour.

Our lovely camel men took great care of us, feeding us- you guessed it, HOT indian food- in the HOTTER dessert, complete with chai, as always, in 43 degrees celsius, for you Americans thats 110 degrees, yowww! For anyone thats rode a camel for more than however long you do on birthright, say 10 mins... its actually not comfortable in the least bit. It hurts, badly, however those camels are so cute that you can almost look past that, and even better, I actually was not allergic to them for once! yay!

We visited some small villages where we got a peek inside suppper rural India- where adorable little kids harassed the hell out of us for pens, jewelery, attention and money, due to overly generous tourists that come through every day. The highlight of the adventure, with our new aussie mates in tow, was arriving to the dunes- although a bit corrupted with wind turbines, the dunes were great for some picture posing (all, be proud) as well as a remarkable sunset, ahhhh. Some great chill out time was enjoyed as we stargazed over millions of stars- and slept in the wide open dunes. A peaceful night, although awakened by ravenous dogs in the distance going to town on a dead cow... anyway... The sunrise was just as pretty and we headed back out, in MUCH pain to trot our camels back to the pick up point. OW- our whole bodies hurt right now and there seems to be no reprieve.

Tomorrow we enjoy a mini day in Jodpur (the Blue city- yes, they actually are really into calling things colors here Jay)and then we fly to Mumbai mid afternoon. We are already enjoying our rooftop restaurant at our "palace" tonight, with some rooftop brews, and now ready for a solid nights sleep - you will be pleased to hear, although not as pleased as me, that there is a lovely shower in our room too! so YAY for being clean, which seems to be a luxury here.... more from mumbai to come!