Friday 22 October Jaisalmer The Golden City

The train was one and a half hours late arriving at Jaipur so it was 1.30am when we set off. Our bunks had nice clean sheets and blankets wrapped and waiting in brown paper, John on the top bunk, me in the middle with my head facing the corridor, had to be a bit of a contortionist to do this, I wrapped myself in a wool pashmina with a fleece round my head. The other four bunks contained seven young men who were in and out and swapping around while constantly on their noisy mobile phones, the fan was going full blast, the light was on, kids screaming, nevertheless I managed to sleep as did John. Got up at about eight and went off to find a toilet used the Indian one which was clean, surprisingly. The rest of the journey was tolerable with half a dozen blokes continually trying to squeeze onto a seat for three, so I made myself as big and as comfortable as possible. The scenery was mainly scrubby and arid with occasional villages, large herds of goats and near to Jaisalmer herds of camels.

Glad to say the hotel had sent a rickshaw so we were quickly on our way. It was incredibly hot with a strong very hot wind blowing. The wide roads seemed very quiet after the chaos of Jaipur. Our first glimpse of the fort was with amazement, it looked like a giant sandcastle as it towered above us.We were given a warm welcome at Hotel Rose Villa by the charming owner and his wife, they told us they had only been opened for three months and that we were their first guests to book via the internet.

Once again we were so fortunate in our choice, this hotel was just what we wanted a clean comfortable room - which was very pretty with a big window containing cushions and hung with vibrant coloured curtains, there was a clean tiled bathroom but no hot water as the boiler had not been connected, we really didn't mind, hot water is a bonus. After settling in we had lunch on the roof which of course gave a wonderful view to the fort, we could then realise that we were in the Thar Desert as the horizon went on and on, the low rise buildings around were all in the same golden colour.

We were very pleased to find that the wind had disappeared that evening when we went for a meal at Trio which was a short walk away, the top roof restaurant was taken up by tour parties so we ate on a smaller roof at a lower level where we had a delicious dinner, there were musicians playing above under a tented roof and the view of the lit up fort was magnificient. We got chatting with a couple of young women from London and Birmingham who shared some photograps and adventures with us. We then strolled back to bed looking forward to a good nights sleep.