The Desert

I write this from the scant shade of a thorny tree, atop a sand dune. The only sounds are the wind-blown sand, the chat of the camel drivers and the relentless crunching and tearing of Alice's camel eating the scenery. It has been doing so since we arrived here about 20 minutes ago. It's a machine. Alice has named it "Crunchy" for obvious reasons. I have named mine "Roy" because I'm not so good at naming things.

Roy has been laying on the ground since we stopped to rest. As we crested the dune, he was breathing so hard I thought he was going to pass out. He now looks at me with an air of disdain, chin on the sand. He is the smallest camel in the group and I am the largest person.

Jaisalmer

Driving into Jaisalmer, you could be mistaken for thinking you'd entered into a desert state somewhere in the Middle-East: from the geography to the architecture. The sun blazes. Sewerage/drainage channels run down the sides of, and occasionally criss-cross the streets. A family of pigs wallows in one, blinking smugly at me through the heat. I haven't had a bacon sandwich for weeks.

Our hotel - The Royal Jaisalmer- is great. There is a series of small rooms around a pool, dazzlingly colourful in the midday sun.

We rest here for the day after another sleepless night train.

An enormous fort dominates the city. It is a lot less touristy here. Judging by the number of hotels being built, I get the sense that it will not be this way for long. Still, the further we get from the start of our trip, the more relaxed it gets: perhaps I am just getting used to it; perhaps it's a little of both.

We eat in the rooftop restaurant above the hotel. Sheets hanging from the ceiling, it looks like a bedouin tent. We wait to be collected for our desert safari.

Jaipur

Jaipur is, so far, a highlight.

We get off the train and by the time arrive at our hotel, it's about 11:30. The hotel - the Ajjan Nivas - is beautiful. Our room is clean and comfortable and they even cook some chips for us after the kitchen has closed. I've barely eaten anything for days and my stomach is officially in love.

The next day, we are collected by "Ritchie", the little auto driver with the metro hair that drove us to the hotel the night before. He gave us such a heartfelt speech and was so pleasant to us that we decided to take him up on his offer of showing us around the next day.

Agra

It's on our second night in Varanasi that I get sick. The wait at the train station on the baking platform and the shivering night train to Agra are a bit of a blur. We only have one night in Agra and I spend the first day in bed, trying to get better.

On the second day, we go out to see the Taj Mahal but I'm still a bit wobbly and it's very hot. The Taj Mahal is beautiful from the outside. The inside is dark and very crowded and I later can't remember much about it of note. We do the circuit and rest in the gardens for a while.

Alice has written more about it here.

Next up: Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan.

Varanasi

We arrive in Varanasi train station at 7.30 in the morning. I imagined that the motion of the train would rock me to sleep, leaving me refreshed and ready to go on arrival. Unfortunately, Indian railway sleeper berths are not built for someone my height. This, coupled with the motion of the train, is a little like being gently but firmly in the head all night.

I emerge bleary-eyed into Varanasi station. It is teaming with people, including a horde or taxi and auto drivers who descend upon us. We are rescued by the guy we booked to pick us up. For the first time, I am grateful for being collared in Delhi.

Delhi-Baby Steps

Alice wrote about our little circus of a city tour here so I won't bore you guys with that. Real sleep deprivation and strange surroundings are making minor things surprisingly difficult to deal with. The hardest thing right now is feeling like a big, white, money-sweating, target. It's so hard not to be suspicious of everyone and it saddens me. This is because I don't want this trip to be a long series of no. I know that this country is full of wonderful, friendly people. How will we ever meet these people if we are instantly defensive and negative?

A Brief Interlude

It's been a while without any posts, partially because of scarcity of Internet access and partially because I've been ill. When I say ill, I mean the kind of tooth-chattering, night-shivering fever I've not had since I was a kid. You can couple that with the sort of near dysentery that Iceland-plugging d-list slebs dream about before bikini season.

Delhi - Day One

We've arrived!

I'm typing this in the, frankly, quite upmarket Smyle Inn.

We landed in Delhi yesterday morning after an overnight flight. With all the excitement, I slept not a wink. Catching a cab from the Indira Gandhi airport, we made our way to the hostel.