Jaiselmer- Even hotter

Depsite being warned not to take the bus in the middle of the day, Shauna and I were determinded to prove we were robust travellers. (We also might have slept in because we were drinking the night before.) This proved to be our biggest adventure yet.

It is school holiday time in India and whole families are taking the bus to vacation but not buying seats. So when 3 women with new born babies got on the bus and attmepted to stand for the ride, our 2 seater quickly turned into a 5 seater with a mom and baby, and a 2 year old on my lap. The rest of the children just leaned forward on our seat a foot from out face staring at us. Although we will only be in India for a short time the amount of pictures that have been taken of us will assure our presence here for years to come.

After our long sweaty bus ride we headed straight to the budget hotel which stated it had a pool. But when our AC konked out, we had no sheets or towels and the pool was green, we headed out to find a "mid-range" option. ( or maybe a mid-aged option) We were stopped by the manager to look at their new hotel. For $5 more per person we are staying at a newly built luxury hotel. It is gorgeous and we do not want to leave... ever. We were so happy with them that we decided to book out camel safari with them. Even though there was a 47 degree forcast our tour guide said it was "no problem." And then gave the Indian head wobble...

Needing a break from Indian food we headed to an Italian restuarant. Although this may seem obvious, when in India eat Indian food.

The next day we headed out on our 2 day camel safari. And I will now copy directly from Shauna's group email
" WE spent 2 days veiwing cactus type bushes, dry rocky terrain, local villagers comingto get water from their wells, wandering goats and a few scattered gazelles. We spent the night sleeping open on the dunes under the starry skies while our guide along with his 10 year helper ( that he told us was 17 or 18 to soothe, I'm sure, our disdain of child labour), made us dinner, packed and unpacked the farting camels, sang aloud, and intimated to us that he didn't get paid much by the camel safaria people -- but if we are happy he is double happy-- we are his guests. The french couple we were with could hardly eat, and had been obviously been promised quite a different safari (they were expecting a camp and a buffet dinner, not blankets of the sand and rice, daal and chapatis cooked on the open fire) and did not do so well. The next day they went home early by a jeep that came and met us while we took the afternoon to rest under a tree. Yodi and I were a little smug, commenting to ourselves once again that our robust appetites and sturdy bodies seems to cope remarkably well with the heat and all these so called "stomach viruses" everyone else seemed to be troubled by. We later heard that yesterday while we were trekking inthe desert, the temperatures reached a record breaking 49 degrees celcius and had to really question whether we are making really good travel choices--and wondering when our smugness will come to bite us in out disease riddled behinds.

But today we are back at 'er. Eating ice-cream, shopping out little hearts out, and getting told that almost every shop and restuarant is closed--" Now is not the busy time. It's very very hot." Yes. We know. "

So we will head back to our hotel for a little AC and somemore amazing Indian food before heading east tomorrow.