Desert Ho!

This afternoon we are off to the desert on our camels. WE arrived in Jaisalmer yesterday and on the way passed sand dunes, but I'm hoping that the ones we camp on are more distant from highways and cities. Geordie was supposed to write this post - his title would have been "Hot to Trot" probably, but since he is suffering some "trotting" of his own, it is not to be. We hope he can at least climb on and ride the camel for the first half of the journey.

We have been enjoying the Palaces part of our tour a great deal. We have stayed in a couple of hotels with Palace in their name, but they have been hotels. The palaces we have enjoyed are called Rawlas (rowl ahs), and they are wonderful. Both of them have been in the centre of villages with a local market just outside the walls, but inside are those oases of calm one expects in a palace.

As well, when we have stayed it's taken time to see all the rooms because we tour each one. Every room has been unique. In our last hotel in Benswara, the walls were green but stamped with peacock eye feathers all over and with one of those old rugs from my childhood, with two peococks resplendent on it - you may know those gaudy rugs that people might have hung on their walls too. Maybe you even had one. But it's much more appropriate here.

One of the other rooms was kitted out as a harem or bordello we're sure. It had red velvet bedspreads, yellow and red floor mats and cushions in silk and they looked so inviting. It was funny to see us all running around from room to room checking out the features. Some of them even had the ceiling fans painted like the walls, although ours didn't.

At Benswara I also took part in a night safari - in hopes of seeing a leopard. We didn't start until after 8:30 pm and the moon was not yet up. We got to watch it rise about four times as we moved from place to place where the local hills got in the way. The first rising was most spectacular though with the blood red moon glowing over the desert landscape.

We did have sightings, although not of leopard, even though they had been sighted within the last two days. We saw a blue bull - which, despite the name, is a deer, a black buck with delicate spiral horns which was my favorite - a lovely little creature browsing the thorny bushes. There were a few rabbits, and we hounded a fox for a minute or two cruelly chasing it in the jeep until it found a hiding place, and at one point we sat below a craggy hillside and watched a troop of monkeys who looked very alarmed when the driver imitated the sound of the leopard.

The other helper on the tour was an expert at making the sound of a baby goat in trouble - hoping to draw the leopard out. We had no luck there, but the sound was so creepy it gave me shivers. However, the leopard was somewhere nearby because at one point as we backtracked in the jeep we found its pawprints in the jeep tracks we had recently made. So close yet so far.

At Benswara we also had an evening of dressup. Several of the women dressed in saris and looked so beautiful. One of the women also dressed as a rajah, or local headman perhaps, with a dhoti (wrap around skirt pulled between the legs and tucked in at the waist band), and a turban which was wound from six meters of cloth - watching the man make it was most interesting since he kept wrapping and adjusting somewhat like winding a ball of yarn on a ball winder.

Anothe highlight a few days ago was from our other Rawla. We took an hour and a half train ride on an old train which still delivers people up and down the line. I was thrilled to see a deer standind watching us at one point and at another saw a large hairy looking animal scuttering through the bracken. I attemtped to describe it to the guide (I was the only one who saw the creatures), and he thought it might have been either a monitor lizard or a mongoose. Neither sounds right since the lizard is hardly hairy and the mongoose is not large - maybe it was a yeti! - oh, wrong country.

The best part of the train trip perhaps was the friendliness of the people. The young kids hanging around the stations all wanted to say hello or goodbye, and the people on the train lay on the uncomfortable benches or hung out the window (which is what this mighty game hunter did too), and people were just lovely. I got a great picture of three of the young women. Mayb the picture will load here although it's a slow connection. (JUst discovered that there are no usb ports where they are supposed to be - so no pictures again. Sorry!)

Must go now and ready myself for my camel. We are only taking an overnight bag, but I bought another wrap for Geordie yesterday so we will both have them to keep us warm in the desert. I will make sure to get photos of us wearing them. I may wear the one I got yesterday - it's more flamboyant in it's pinks and oranges and maybe Geordie would look better in sophisticated red and black.