Elephant safari in Chitwan

It was early afternoon when we arrived at Sauraha, gateway to Chitwan National Park, so after a shower we strolled about the small village to check things out. It was nice and quite really, being low season, so the whole place had a nice peaceful feel to it. We checked out the various options for doing safaris in the park and strolled along the river (across from which lies the national park itself), but basically we just spent the day relaxing.

Next morning Sarah got up really very early and strolled down to the official park entrance to try and book a Government elephant safari (our hotel owner and some agency guy had told us that it was very difficult to get a Government safari), but it turned out she was lucky and we got ourselves a booking for later that morning (apparently the advice we'd gotten was legitimate as recently the Government elephants have been on patrol and have not been taking tourists into the park).

So later that morning we strolled down to the park entrance, which was all very quite, and within minutes we were walking up the large platform that allows you to simply step onto the riding platform on the back of your elephant (called a howdah). Given that most other tourists had listened to the advice given to them by the locals, we were the only people on our elephant (they can squeeze 4 or even 5 people into a howdah), and so we were quite comfortable. It also meant we met very few other tourist-laden elephants during our 1.5 hour safari, and those we did meet, which all had Indian or Nepalese tourists, we only encountered very briefly.

So basically it was a really peaceful amble through the beautiful dense forest (our mahout basically didn't say a word the whole time). We got to see 2 gharials (which certainly rank amongst the weirdest looking critters I've ever seen), by the river, and a few fearless deer scattered around. It was beautifully dense forest at times, with our powerful elephant barging his way along effortlessly, and causing us and our mahout to brush tree limbs aside (at times I was quiet worried that my falling-apart sandals would be ripped off).

At one point I stupidly dropped my water bottle, and I think the elephant stood on it, or burst it when he tried to pick it up. Either way the mahout got really mad with it and really smashed the poor guy on the head a couple of times with his rigid stick. I felt like an idiot for dropping the bottle in the first place (which just got left behind as litter), but I felt a lot worse after seeing our poor elephant getting clattered for my fumble!

Later that afternoon we took a jeep safari back through the park, this time travelling much further into the park itself. We were with a Swiss family with 2 young kids and a young Dutch guy. We got really lucky and saw a rare sloth bear quite close, and then crocodiles on the lake, a rhino mother and cub from a watchtower, and then a group of 5 rhino running past in the distance. Throughout we saw kingfishers and lots of other birds, and at the gharial breeding centre a tiger in a cage (it's mother was killed as she'd become a man-eater, and apparently this poor cub will now be incarcerated for the rest of it's life, as it too tasted human blood).

It had been a great day exploring the park, and after 1.5 hours on the elephant, and 5.5 hours in the jeep I felt we'd gotten a great feel for the park, so I decided against doing another private elephant safari (which is what nearly all the other tourists did). The private elephant safaris seemed to involve groups of elephants (whereas we were just 1 elephant), each with many passengers and all roaming around the buffer zone of the park, not within the park itself - although we heard they still got to see plenty of rhino.

So the next day we rented bicycles and rode the few kilometers to the 20 Thousand Lakes area. This was an easy, flat ride and the scenery once we passed through the entrance was fantastic. We had the bluest skies I've seen in ages, and the trail we rode on passed along a nice canal. The lakes themselves we nice too, although not that extensive, and there were quite a few local Nepali college kids knocking about who'd just finished exams, and so were quite boisterous (one guy throwing an empty whiskey bottle into the lake, to which Sarah sternly reprimanded him and his mates, after which they ambled off sheepishly!).

So after 3 days in Sauraha, and eating most times in the same cool little local place in the centre, it was time to leave. We could have booked a bus ticket to Pokara from the agents all over town, but of course they'd just take their cut so we decided to do it ourselves. This involved getting up early, having breakfast, failing to get transport to the main road (6km away), and just walking to the bus stand at which we'd arrived 3 days earlier. Once there we had to wait a while for the Pokara bus, but once on our way we fairly motored it all the way to Pokara.

Getting to Chitwan

It was a bit of an ordeal getting to Chitwan in Nepal, but it all worked out in the end. Our train to Gorakhpur arrived an hour late, but that still gave us plenty of time to catch an onward bus to the border. When we asked about buses Sarah was told it would leave in 40 minutes, so I used the internet (trying to sort out yet more apartment headache stuff at home), and we grabbed a thali lunch. When we got back to the bus they said, no, it was leaving in another hour! So Sarah waited on the bus while I used the internet for another hour (my apartment troubles are fairly major!).

Back on the bus, we were waiting a further 45 minutes, with no explanation or any visible reason for the delay. Anyway, eventually we left and got left at the border at a typical dusty, ugly border town.

At the border, where the Nepali visa had gone up by $10 each (to $40, but luckily I had withdrawn enough extra Indian rupees (as I plan on going back to India for a flight back to South East Asia), to cover the difference). We stayed the night in a nice comfy hotel right on the border as it was quite late in the day, and early the next morning we were woken by the hotel owner telling us we'd better get up (at 5:45am), and get a bus quick, as there were due to be strikes later that day that could seriously affect public transport (strikes being quite common in Nepal).


As it happened we had no trouble getting a bus to the town of Narayanghat, a major junction town, although I had to pay for the bus with a fair bit of my Indian rupee reserve, as there was no ATM in sight when we arrived. After strolling about for a bit to find an ATM to get Nepali money, we grabbed a very tasty lunch (at the Open House restaurant overlooking the main street), and then got a local bus for ther 15km ride to the town of Tadi Bazaar. As it happened this bus broke down after about 5km, with everyone just getting off and standing by the side of the road trying to flag down another passing bus. We only had to wait a couple of minutes until another bus came along, although of course it was full, and so we had to clamber up onto the roof.


Luckily it was only a short journey, and so it was actually quite good fun (the only other time I've ridden on the roof of a bus was in Nepal too, 10 years ago with Hanno). So getting dropped off at Tadi bazaar we had then to get the last 6km to the town of Sauhara. Given the strieks that day, there was only one guy with a horse carriage, and he was looking for a hefty fee. Not having any of that nonsense of course we resigned ourselves to a good hour-long hike, but after walking for about 1 minute down the road a big bus stops right n front of us, with a gang of Western backpackers sitting on the roof. We clamber on top and off we go to Sauhara.

We weren't long along the way when boh myslef and Sarah get well clattered on the head by overhanging cables (power, TV or whatever). I was OK, but Sarah seemed to get hit a gogod bit harder, and her hat was knocked off her head (and lost to the road). We got chatting to an English girl beside who told us their bus had broken down enroute frmo Katmandu, and they'd had to pick up this bus, which had been full, which was why they were on the roof. We were lucky to only have to ride this bus for 6km, and within about 15 minutes we arrived at the bus stand, which was just a patch of ground in the middle of nowhere really (although nobody asked us for any fare).

But there were a hoard of touts awaiting us, and as soon as we stepped off the bus they started hounding us. The problem with the touts is that you simply can't trust them - they say they bring you for free to their place to just have a look, and then you can look elsewhere. But they can apply a lot of pressure, charge a huge taxi fare if you choose not to stay in their place, and importantly you have no idea where their place is - it could be in the middle of nowhere.

So ignoring the tuots, and because we were going to walk the whole 6km anyway, we just strolled to the village ourselves. It turned out to be just a 10 minute walk, and I very quickly found a great comfortable place near the village centre, Park View Lodge.

Exploring Agra and Amarvilas

So the next morning after breakfast at our hotel I strolled down to rent a bicycle for the day to explore more of Agra's attractions. Sarah didn't fancy the exertion in the heat so I headed off on my own.

My first stop was a place known as the Baby Taj, which is a far smaller mausoleum than the Taj Mahal, but is also built of white marble and with similar beautiful inlay designs, and set in a similar muslim garden. From here I rode on along the river to another, more decrepit mausoleum after a quick detour to a nicely maintained garden (Ram Bagh).

Next stop was to ride around to a viewing point directly across the river from the Taj Mahal. There is a garden here too, but the views are better by just riding down the side of the gardens and walking out onto the beach. It was fantastic here (and completely free), as not only was I the only tourist, apart from 2 local kids messing about in the river, I was only person on the entire side of the river (there was a goat and a few cows too). So I hung around here for a bit, just soaking up the views,watching the tourists milling all over the Taj and just relaxing.

Back on the bike I rode back to Sarah for lunch, but she'd just ordered something at the hotel, so I stopped off at a much nicer place on the way back to the bike rental place and had a lovely thali there (Dasaprakesh Restaurant).

While I was cycling around the town (having the bike was fantastic, as even when the traffic is mental, it only crawls along, so you never feel in any danger, and I felt great freedom in being able to explore the smallish town at my leisure), Sarah had made a reservation for that evening at the Amarvilas Hotel, so at 6pm that evening we hopped in a rickshaw to Taj Ganj.

First we dropped into a few of the backpacker hostels in the area hoping to exchange some books for Nepal guidebooks, but to no avail (we did get 'The White Tiger' though, which seems to be the book everyone is reading here in India at the moment). At the gate of Amarvilas, the security guy didn't have our names on his list, but after a quick phone call we were let in.

The hotel sure is pretty impressive alright, but not amazingly. It's all marble and polished stone, with extravagant fountains in front, and an impressive pool area (that doesn't have any views though, and isonly 100 meters or so from the main road with all the beeping tuk-tuks and tinny Indian music blaring!). The small bar did have a great view of the Taj through it's large windows, so we had a couple of drinks here before heading down to the restaurant for dinner.

The menu was surprisingly inexpensive, although of course it was by far the most expensive meal we've had in India (about 4500 rupees including drinks). The restaurant itself didn't have any views, and anyway it was dark outside and the Taj isn't illuminated at night. The meal of shish kebab starter, Kerala Prawn curry and some lamb thing was very good although certainly not mind-blowing - we've certainly had tastier meals for a tiny fraction of the cost, but this place is all about location (and the kebabs were amazing I suppose).

So a cycle rickshaw back to our hotel after getting very stuffed and straight to bed. The next day we just hung around our hotel before getting a great lunch at the Park restaurant again. I wanted to get US dollars to pay for our Nepali visa, but this turned out to be a mayor headache. I tried 4 banks, but none of them could give me dollars (even the main branch of the State Bank of India's computer system was down, so they couldn't do anything - and this country has nuclear weapons!). A forex place told me to try again laterand he might have dollars, so I had to traipse all the way back there later, where thankfully he finally produced the dollars.

Other than that adventure, we were hanging aorund, using the internet and reading, basically waiting for our train toward the Nepal border that departed Agra at 10pm. We actually ended up walking all the way to the train station, as at 9:30pm the auto-rickshaws were thin on the ground, but it wasn't that far, and it was a cool evening.

Our train was only 20 minutes late (which is impressive, as it had come a very long way), and after waking up and kicking off the Indians that were on our berths I settled down to sleep straight away and had a good nights sleep (earplugs and eye-mask essential in this regard of course). 16 hours later we arrived at Gorakpur (only 1 hour late, which is again impressive), and after using the Internet for a bit and getting a quick lunch thali, we hopped on the bus to the Nepalese border.

I find it very hard to believe I've been in India now for weeks now, and hard to believe I'm leaving it. But it certainly is a major consolation to know I'm headed to Nepal, to-date my favorite place in all the world, so I just hope it isn't a case of 'never go back to relive your past'...

The Taj Mahal

We did manage to get up early to head out to the Taj Mahal before the hoards of tourists, but not quite early enough for sunrise when the Taj is apparently at it's best. When we got to the gate there was no queue to speak of (although, of course, our rickshaw driver ripped us off by dropping us a good bit away from where we asked, and paid, to be dropped, but at least the walk was through nice gardens and it was a very pleasant morning).

Security at the entrance gate was very tight though (everywhere in India seems mad paranoid now after the terrorist attacks, as many of the hotels and even internet cafes ask for our passports so they can photocopy them, and many places have metal detectors (that never seem to be switched on!)). The guards meticulously checked through our small daypacks, and I was told I couldn't bring in my MP3 player, as no electronic devices where allowed. I was telling the guard to just throw the MP3 player away, as I thought it was broken anyway (turned out it wasn't broken at all, just the display is broken). But just then Sarah told me she was told she couldn't bring in her MP3 player either, or her book (the 'books not allowed' thing is weird - you are allowed to bring in guidebooks, but not other reading material. I can only assume it's because they don't want tourists lounging around the grounds all day reading - which was what we had planned). So Sarah had to go back out and deposit all our 'dangerous' materials in a locker.

So while Sarah did that I strolled on into the main complex. At first you approach a massive arched gateway, and as you pass through it the Taj Mahal itself materialises right smack-bang in the middle of the central arch. I know it's all mad cliche and everything, but the building simply is stunning. It immediately reminded me of the book 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance', which investigates the nature of 'quality' - this building struck me immediately as the very embodiment of architectural beauty. It really is the most beautiful building I've ever seen, and in that regard it's akin to Iguazu Falls being the most spectacular natural wonder I've ever seen (as those who know me well know, 'best evers' are one of my favorite things!).

But after 10 minutes there was still no sign of Sarah. I went back to the gate, thinking she must have gotten held up again for some other reason, but there was no sign of her. I thought maybe she'd passed me as I was reading an information panel, so I went back to gaze at the Taj. Still no sign of her, so after a bit longer I went back to the gate again for the last time. If I didn't see her here I was just going to have to go ahead and explore the complex on my own.

But then she re-appeared and it turned out that the lockers were miles away, and that they had tried to charge Sarah a small fee. Our book expressly states that the lockers are free, and after paying so much to get into the Taj itself Sarah was, on principle, refusing to pay a rupee more.

I was quite frustrated at this point, after not knowing what Sarah had been up to for so long, and so I told her to just pay the fee and let's go, but she was adamant about sticking to her guns. Fair play to her I suppose (normally I'd agree with her 100%, but in this case I just wanted to get in to see the Taj properly - there's a time and place for sticking to your principles I reckon, but at least Sarah was expressing a principle, something I nag her about not doing the odd time!).

Anyway, Sarah's perseverance actually paid-off, much to my amazement. The head security guy actually came around to Sarah's point-of-view and allowed us give him our MP3 players in a plastic bag. He also allowed us take in our reading books with us, and told us that he would be going off duty at 2pm, so we'd better be back to collect our stuff before then.

So off we skipped into the Taj Mahal having shook up the system a little bit, although it took Sarah a wee bit longer to calm down completely. So we spent the entire morning just pottering about the grounds and just soaking up the majesty of the gardens, the small museum and of course the Taj Mahal itself.

One other thing really stuck me about the whole place though, and it wasn't a pleasant thought at all. Basically the overwhelming opulence of the whole complex, and the massive marble structure of the Taj itself, made me feel a tad uncomfortable. It was the same feeling I get when visiting huge christian cathedrals, and has to do with the moral conundrum I have justifying the very existence of these awe-inspiring edifices. In the case of the churches, I find it hard to reconcile the ideas of piety and being humble with a massive, imposing structure like a cathedral - the upkeep of which would surely feed a small army of poverty-stricken local urchins.

In the case of the Taj, the much-repeated story of it being built for love has recently come under great suspicion though. According to the Rough Guide it's now thought that the Taj Mahal is more a monument to the the builder's self-regarded Greatness as it is to his love of his dead wife. One strong theory suggests one of the reasons the builder (Emperor Shah Jahan), was ousted and imprisoned by his own son was because he was bankrupting the entire state with his megolamanical building projects. And it was this thought that occurred to me as I strolled about, that the building of this beautiful structure must have led to untold suffering in it's day, and is really just a monument to a megalomanic - although naturally all such thoughts were dampened by the shear damn beauty of the thing!

Anyway, as we finally left the Taj we collected our stuff, with the friendly guards having a bit of a laugh about it all, and we strolled into the adjacent Taj Ganj area to have lunch. First stop was a hotel that the books say has great views of the Taj, but I wasn't that impressed really, and they didn't serve beer, so I just had a honey lemon tea and we left.

My plan was to try and get into the Amarvilas hotel for lunch, as this is apparently one of the best hotels in India. But it was the usual gated hotel experience, where you can't get in without a prior reservation. So we gave up on that and strolled back to the lovely garden of the nearby Sheela Hotel.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel, and later had a lovely dinner in the Park Restaurant that was just a 15 minute stroll away, and where we finally found a bike rental place nearby, which decided my plan for the next day.

Agra and the Red Fort

Our guidebooks warned us about rickshaw drivers taking tourists to 'similar sounding' hotels, and so I was pretty wary when we arrived at the Tourist Rest House in Agra. It turned out to be the right place though, and we got a nice room, although very small, for a great price (200 rupees a night).

I'd chosen this hotel as one of the guidebooks (the Rough Guide), indicated bicycle rental nearby, but yet again, the book was wrong (or in fairness, maybe just out-of-date, as places close down or move all the time of course). So after another futile search for bikes we had to get a rickshaw to the train station to book onward train tickets. Sarah had gotten talking to a German girl, Anna, who had booked a train ticket with an agent the day before, but hadn't received any ticket or confirmation, but of course she had paid in full. She was now a bit worried about it, as she couldn't remember where the agency place was, and she was due to return that day to pick up her ticket. I was sensing that this girl was a bit clueless, to say the least, but Sarah took pity on her and so we decided we'd try and help her sort out her ticket.

So the 3 of us shared the rickshaw to the train station. Firstly I got tickets for myself and Sarah towards the Nepalise border, and then I tried to see if Anna had a reservation. Of course she had no ticket number or anything, thinking her name might be enough to check the reservation system, which of course it wasn't (although you have to give your name when booking train tickets, the operators rarely input that information, instead just noting your age and sex - which is used by the ticket inspectors onboard the trains to ensure you are the right person). Obviously there was nothing the operators could do for Anna, and so her only option was to try and find the agency where she'd made her booking (the agency had been recommended by the girl's rickshaw driver, I mean they're TAXI DRIVERS for god's sake - you can probably see why I thought she was just a bit 'clueless' now!).

All Anna could remember about the agency was that it was 'near' the Red Fort, which is also where the train station is, so all 3 of us start walking around the perimeter of the huge fort hoping this girl can remember where the booking agency is. We circumnavigate the entire huge fort, but of course she never finds it. With nothing left to do she goes back to the train station to try and book a ticket directly (with Sarah helping her), while I have to traipse around the nearby bazaar looking for an ATM (and needing to cross a bridge over the train tracks that was inhabited by a huge troop of monkeys!).

My original plan had been to visit the fort after we got our train tickets, so I headed there while Sarah tried to help Anna (after all the walking we'd done around the fort perimeter Sarah didn't fancy more hours walking around inside the fort).

When I met Sarah later that evening it turned out that Anna couldn't book a ticket at the station as the train was now full, and so she had returned to the hotel with Sarah to try and get them to help. I don't know what happened to her in the end as we didn't see at the hotel again, so hopefully she got everything sorted out, and hopefully she learnt her lesson too. What was surprising was that she'd been in India 2.5 weeks already, but had ever gotten a train before.

Anyway, the fort was fairly impressive and certainly made for a very pleasant few hours strolling about. There were great views of the Taj Mahal in the distance too, which just whetted my appetite for getting up close and personal with this Indian icon that we planned to visit early the next morning.

Fatehpur Sikri

We arrived nice and early (having risen so early to literally catch the 'early birds' in Bharatpur), and I checked out a couple of places, staying in the nice Goverdhan. Pretty much straight away we walked up towards the city complex of Fatehpur Sikri, stopping first at the very impressive mosque.

Inside the mosque was a beautiful pure-white marble mausoleum, accessed via a massively impressive front gateway. So we strolled about here for a bit, passing a group of schoolkids all learning the Koran off by heart. I've always felt sorry for muslim kids having to learn the whole thing by heart, as it reminds of messing in school and pretending to make Jim McMahon and Bobby White learn the Bible off by heart and recite it backwards. Anyways, these kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, waving and laughing at us as we passed.

It's only a short stroll to the main city complex, and in this case the entrance fee was well justified. I was very impressed with the whole city, and it's amazing to think the place was deserted for lack of water after only a few years. I was particularly struck by the Diwan-i-khas, which I thought was well-cool (pictures on that Wikipedia site above).

So we spent a few hours strolling around the grounds of the city, and then headed back to the hotel. We could have, and probably should have, just gotten another bus straight to Agra, as it was still only early afternoon, but I'd agreed to stay a night and the place was pleasant enough and the restaurant recommended.

We strolled back through the new town in the late afternoon (it's a very typical Indian town, although regarded by many as somewhat dirtier and smellier than most), and made our way to the Sunset View Hotel, which we had been told had good views for sunset. We had to negogiate our way through a rubbish tip to get there (as the guy who recommended the place had told us), but unfortunately the sun was obsured by cloud, so we didn't get much of a sunset. The views over the extensive plains was nice for a beer or two though.

Next morning was a leisurely stroll to the bus stand to get a local bus the 40km to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.

Bharatpur

The only reason for stopping at Bharatpur on the way to Agra was to check out a famous bird santuary there. The guidebooks spoke of renting bicycles to explore the park at your leisure, so obviously I jumped at the chance of that.

The train left Jaisalmer about half-an-hour late, although it was waiting on the platform on time, so we settled down on our upper berths immediately. This was after I'd checked out the Rajasthani Palace on Wheels train, which is a super-expensive train that tours the Rajasthan highlights in a week. It didn't look all that impressive to me really, and the cabin looked even smaller than the tiny cabin we had on our boat in the Galapagos. I got the impression it was all show with little substance really, particularly the 'costumes' the staff had to wear.

Anyway, we arrived at night in Bharatpur, after being held up for an hour just one stop from our destination. We got a rickshaw to the hotel and after checking a couple of places we settled in and had a nice quick Thali (the posh English dude next to us saying it was the best thali he'd had in months, but I thought it was distinctly average).


So up early the next morning to get a quick breakfast and try to rent bicycles when the owner of our hotel tells us there is a big problem at the moment with bike rentals. It turns out that the Government, or park officials, have stopped people bringing private bicycles into the park. Instead they have to use Government bicycles (I could understand if it was cars or motorbikes, and that pollution standards had to be enforced or something, but why would officials need to regulate bicycles?!?). The Government has tendered for companies to provide these bicycles, but nobody has taken up the tender because they all say the Government is not offering enough money. The upshot of all this nonsense is that there are no bicycles for rent at all, which leaves the only options as hiring a cycle-rickshaw or walking.


Hiring a rickshaw was not an option for me really, as the rickshaws can only travel along the one tarred road in the park, whereas most of the park is accessible from little side tracks off that road (plus of course, you'd have to put up with the driver, and try to haggle a fair price, etc., etc.). I was seriously considering the walking option, but the park seems to be quite large and spread out, and walking all day just didn't have the appeal of having the freedom to cycle around.


So reluctantly, and rather frustrated, we headed back to our hotel, checked out and caught a local bus 18km to the town of Fatehpur Sikri. This is another site on the road to Agra, famous for it's huge mosque and fort.

Jaisalmer

Exiting the train station at Jaisalmer we were both immediately accosted by hoards of guesthouse touts - by far and away the most touts we've seen anywhere in India, or anywhere else on this trip for that matter. It was quite frustrating to be honest, and Sarah, who was taking charge of finding the accommodation, had to move back into the train station to try and get her bearings before venturing out into the touts again.

As usual we just wanted to get a tuk-tuk to the general accommodation area, in this case Ghandi Chowk. After pushing away a few touts (I literally had to stop, glare and clearly say 'Don't TOUCH me!', to the more aggressive of the touts), we got into a jeep with 2 local lads. They start the usual rigmarole of trying to take us somewhere else (where they would get a commission), but Sarah is adamant that they just take us where we wanted to go. They stop after a bit and tell us we have arrived, but Sarah had been following our progress on the map and knew we weren't anywhere near our destination. So she firmly told them to keep going, which they did for a bit more. Again we knew it wasn't right, but by now we were at a major landmark, and so could make our own way. We hopped out of the jeep, grabbed our bags and told the lads we weren't paying them a cent, which they seemed to just accept (I thought Sarah had originally offered them too much money anyway, but in the end it cost us nothing!).

So we strolled the remaining 5 minutes to a guesthouse recommended in the book. Sarah was a bit flustered after the whole tout experience, and just wanted to take this place straight away, but I ran into a place literally across the road. It turned out to be 60% cheaper, so ignoring Sarah's protests we went there. It (the Peacock Hotel), turned out to be a fine place - Sarah was just worried that they would hassle us to do a camel safari with them, but they didn't.

So settled in and showered, we had a great lunch at the fancy Saffron restaurant just down the road, and then checked out a few places for camel safaris. They're all pretty much the same of course, so we went with the people Sarah had originally wanted to stay with, thereby spreading our custom around a bit.

Next day we hired bikes in the morning, and the first stop was breakfast at a nice Tibetan restaurant within the grounds of the town's famous fort. The views from here were fantastic, and after our momo snack it was back on the bikes and using the Internet to check out onward train options. With the train information (www.cleartrip.com is a really great site!), Sarah rode out to the station to book the tickets (there are no direct trains from Jaisalmer to Bharatpur so we had to change at Jaipur). After the internet, I rode out to meet Sarah at the station, where she had the tickets all sorted and was chatting to a strange English traveller.

Then it was a leisurely ride out to a couple of local dusty museums and a very picturesque lake, before heading back to the fort and checking it out properly. We didn't bother with the steep entrance price for the museum itself, as we've seen loads of them now, so instead we parked the bikes and just strolled around the fort and explored the little alleyways, laneways and viewpoints along the ramparts. We stopped off for a lovely refreshing beer at one of the rooftop restaurants overlooking some Jain temples before heading back to the bikes. Sarah was tired at this stage and just headed back, while I rode out to a viewpoint up a hill.

The viewpoint was completely deserted when I arrive, and was lovely and peaceful. But as sunset approached small groups of tourists arrived (having been ferried up in air-conditioned vans of course), for their alloted viewing opportunity before being herded off again. Meanwhile I chatted with a group of local kids who had been playing cricket nearby. They never asked for a rupee or a school pen, and it was great just messing about with them before they all headed off for their dinners.

After leaving back the bike, we had dinner that night in the fancy Trio restaurant, again just down the road from our hotel, before an early night.

Next morning was an early start for our desert camel safari. We walked up the road to leave our rucksacks in storage, met the other 2 couples (1 French, 1 English), loaded ourselves into the jeep and drove off for about an hour to meet our camels (nobody was interested in stopping off at cenotaphs on the way).

The camels just happened to be waiting for us on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and about 5 minutes after stopping we were all aboard our camels and on our way. You don't need much by way of instruction for camel riding, and I really found it much more comfortable than horse-riding, although that impression is probably helped by the heavily padded saddles they use.

Basically that day and the next were pretty identical. We'd ride for 1.5 hours, then stop for a rest, having lunch after the second stop. Lunch would be followed by a long rest period during the hottest part of the day, and then we'd ride again for another 2 jaunts of 1.5 hours.

Mostly we just ambled along at a walking pace, occasionally going into a cantor, which again was much more comfortable and stable-feeling that horse-riding. I just happened to be on the lead camel, Mr. Buddha (an appropriate name for my camel I thought), most of the time, with Sarah leading twice. This gave me the great advantage of having unobstructed vistas in front of me the whole time, and I really enjoyed the peace and tranquilty of the desert landscapes (apart from the guide's occasional 'singing', which was actually quite cool). We only encountered pure sand dunes a few times, and had lots of changing conditions from scrub, to rocks and stones, to gravel and sparse trees, but most importantly we very rarely saw any humans, or signs of humans, and never saw any other tourist groups at all.

The first evening we camped literally on the side of some sand dunes not long before dark, sipping a couple of beers from a guy who just appeared out of nowhere on his camel. That night started with clear skies, and the stars were out in abundance, although we had a quarter moon which was quite bright. By the time the moon set, the sky had clouded over, so we never got a really dazzling display of stars. We all got to see a number of satellites though, and a few shooting stars (the last of which was the brightest and longest-living shooting star I've ever seen!).

The next day everyone was pretty saddle-sore (the English guy, Rhys, had to walk for large stretches), but I didn't find it too bad - it reminded me of the aches and pains I always associate with skiing. Overall I really enjoyed the 2-days, and although 2 days was enough, it wouldn't have taken much to push into another few days.

So right on time at 6pm our pickup jeep arrived and dropped us back to our hotel. We had a lovely dinner chatting with the English couple at Saffron again (they plan on starting their own business when they get back to England, so the chat was getting all 'meaning of lifey', which I love). Then it was back to the hotel for a free transfer to the train station for our overnight trip back to Jaipur and onward to Bharatpur.