Matthias in India: Jaisalmer, Pushkar (Part. II)

I ended up in Jaisalmer, a city in the desert, with another big fort and my travel mates and I decided to stay in a guest house that has a swimming pool, which seemed quite nice in the first place, except that the pool was not up to Western standards in terms of cleanliness. Jaisalmer resulted nevertheless in being a good place and we ended up going to a two days came safari in the desert, including a night of sleep in the dunes. One of the organisers was such a good salesman that he managed to convince us to sign up for what would an “off the beaten tracks” experience. The desert resulted in being nothing like we imagined it (it seems like it’s a recurring theme in India…) as it was not a sandy desert like the Sahara, but more of a huge empty area, covered by hundreds of wind farms and with a lot trees and bushes. The two days still ended up being great as we were a good group of 10 people and the camel riders showed a very good time. Camel riding is a very painful activity though, as the way they move results in a constant imbalance of the rider…

The night in the Desert was just amazing. We stopped at one of the only sandy areas with few dunes, camped by a fire, and slept under the stars, with the clearest sky I have seen in my life. You could see the Milky Way and lots of shooting stars. I did not sleep much but this was a cool night.

Due to this exhausting experience, Dara, Polly and I needed some rest and decided to go to Pushkar (that chilled out town with a lake I had visited a couple of weeks ago). We rented some bikes and scooter to go and see the country side and I have to say that it is a different experience of India to be able to go around by yourself. I am now heading towards Varanasi, where I should meet again with an English guy named Mark that we’ve met in Jaisalmer.

To be continued…