DRIVE (Day 5)

Chilled to the bone from a cold night's sleep and still a bit saddle sore from yesterday's ride, we once again mounted our camels in order to see the sunrise from the large dune. As we set out at 6 am, the moon was bright and there were not too many stars in the dark blue sky.

This time, we were alone with just the sounds of the birds.. no tourists now! It was a chilly wait and the camel drivers made a small fire on the sand. Once the sun rose above the horizon, however, things warmed up quickly. On the way back, we enjoyed watching the long shadow casts by the legs of our camels.

Back at camp, we had a long leisurely breakfast of bananas, oranges, porridge and chai, while we waited 2 hours for our jeep to be repaired. Eventually it was fixed, or at least good enough to go, and we bounced our way back to Jaisalmer, listening to music blasting from a stereo hidden in the glovebox. When we entered town, they tried to drop us off at a friend's shop. After numerous refusals from us, they eventually they gave up and returned us to the office

Once again with Mukesh, we started the several hour drive to Jodhpur, the Blue City. During the course of the trip we skidded several times to avoid hitting a crossing cow (apparently only the females are holy but one could still get bad karma for hitting any animal). And these were drastic skids too - screeching noise and things flying off the seat (including us). The cows are absolutely everywhere too, wandering alone or in groups, or sometimes there's a person nearby herding them. There is almost never a center line painted on the road. Sometimes in the cities, there is a cement island or traffic circle, but no stoplights or signs.

We arrived in the late afternoon and decided we had time to visit Mandore (former capital of the region before Rao Jodha shifted it to Jodhpur, believing it to be more secure). It was a type of park filled with many old temples and cenotaphs of various maharajas. Most of the temples were ruins so that you could walk on them without having to take off your shoes. Everywhere were black-faced grey monkeys and cows. One cow even climbed up onto a temple to steal some monkey food that the keepers were feeding them from boxes. It was chased off though.

In spite of how tranquil the park looked, it wasn't. Begging musicians playing "Frere Jacques" followed us relentlessly, and kids (who normally limited their hitting or throwing of stones to dogs or other animals) decided to extend it to us as well.

The hotel was... acceptable. There were extra charges to use the small tv, phone or air-conditioning, but plenty of things were free, such as the very old carpet, a bathroom ceiling that dripped in several places, a great view of a brick wall, a ceiling fan that blew all your papers away, and lots of traffic noise and mosquitoes. At least the sheets seemed clean.

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