From desert to Delhi...

Feeling marginally better, we braced ANOTHER long, gruelling bus journey to Jaisalmer (quite literally the middle of the desert!). Coincidently, we managed to scam a scammer. We convinced him to show us to our booked hotel...for some reason he thought we would be willing to change our minds and instead visit and stay at his 'luxury' hotel. We got out and stayed at ours...bad luck, thanks for the free ride though!
We got whisked in to our hostel by the delightful owner and... ALIIIIIIIIIII! Ali was basically a desert boy come skivvy, but he was the sweetest, most helpful, edible littlething that we had come across. Oh Ali we miss you! They organised our camel safari for us... that sounds like a scam but honestly it was the best price- 2 days,1 night...and our OWN camel minus stirrups. That was painful. We woke up on time but managed to arrive half an hour late, in keeping with tradition, it could have been a lot longer had Ali not been painfully hovering around us ("hmm...hmm... excuse me"). We hopped on our camels, our very big camels and rode off into the midday heat. The camel riding was just painful, really, really painful-and there was 8 hours of it, but when combined with the 'magic of the desert' it was all pretty incredible. Simon and Mr India were very ugly but served as perfect modes of transport!
When we arrived at the sand dunes, we were unloaded and our sore bums were given a well deserved rest. We had been out in the wild for only 8 hours and were already craving our 'creature comforts'(...dariy milk!)- we are pathetic. The Tribesmen, our camel drivers (aided by the group- we are all now professional chapatti shapers!) got to work and whipped us up a feast of local culinary delights. We gathered around the campfire and were sung local, Indian folk songs...pretty sure they made them up on the spot; rythmn... general tune... debatable. We were then coerced into bringing a little taste of our nationality to the fire! The Spanish sang a lament of some discription, the Slovaks refused- 'too cool for school' and we, the Irish, sang the Hokey Kokey... they loved it, we had the whole camp up and dancing around the fire. It was quite an experience. After a while everyone petered off to bed- bed, we slept under the stars, it was the most painful nights sleep of my life. Sand is really hard. But although we couldnt sleep the sky kept us ammused, it was incredible.
On arrival back to civilisation, Ali greated us with a big smile, "hello miss India" only to tell us that he thought we were 40 years of age... and he couldnt understand why we got so offended! Looking very 'sun kissed' we headed to the Fort, (yes another fort)... and yes another scam. That darned tour guide. "I take you tour of fort, 100 rupees" to which India replied "100 rupees in total for the whole fort?", "yes, yes, for you special price"- so we thought pretty good why not... we had the worst tour of our trip, which promptly ended at the entrance to the Palace (within the fort-the part that everyone goes to see) on a very sour note when he charged us double, on the premise that he had said " 100 each". So all in all we saw some back streets of the living Fort... and that was about it! Wahay! The Palace was actually quite interesting, with a fantastic audio guide, so sucks to you mr bad guide! That pretty much sums up our time in Jaisalmer; the next day we got up late and had a 3 hour lunch then headed for the train.
The 18 hour train... what larks! But actually it wasnt too bad (in comparison to our earlier experiences)- we had beds, and blankets, and pillows,and a really,really repetitively chatty carriage companion... luxury! We arrived in Old Delhi Station to be told, that to get to Agra, we needed to be in New Delhi Station- and so without the aid of signposts we managed to find the tube and arrived in New Delhi only to be told, that in fact,the tourist desk had conveniently been moved to the centre of Delhi...great! So bags in tow, we flagged down yet another tuk-tuk who assured us he knew the way to the Government Tourist Centre, in we hopped. 20 minutes later we arrived at a tiny and fairly grotty building... our suspicions were aroused. In went India. Out came India. She had bee asked our date of departure from Delhi and Oh suprise- "sorry mam, all trains completely booked till the 27th, but I can get you a car for 6000 rupees,no problem no problem", yeah right you can! Very, very, very angry we pulled out our bags out of the tuk-tuk and told the pig to bog off! Tracked down the number of our friends in Delhi who scooped us off the streets and out of the clutches of all the wicked people out there!
Staying with Clive and Sheila was just pure luxury. We had clean sheets, proper beds, a real shower, home cooked meals and great company... a glimpse of civilization. Sheila whisked usoff to the British High Commission and sorted our train down to Agra and then took us on a tour around Delhi. We did Delhi in style! We advise anyone reading this, who hasn't already, to go and see Slumdog Millionaire- just fantastic. Having experienced so much of what is in the film, it made our time in India so much more realistic.
The next morning, bright and early,we got the 6 am train down to Agra. Its unbelievable how something as incredible as the Taj Mahal can be surrounded by so much squalor-the litter was everywhere. Agra is a pretty miserable place, but the Taj is just breathtaking! We whiled the afternoon in the Red Fort avoiding camera flashes from all directions- we resorted to covering our faces with our scarves, they loved that. We had the most delicious meal (and the most expensive) in the Peshwari. We then headed back up to Delhi. The next day we had a tour of Old Delhi and the Spice Markets...we sneezed alot! Foolishly(?) Sheila took us to a jewellery shop where we spent a a ridiculous amount of money.
Saturday brought the end of our time in India, whejn we hopped on our flight to Singapore. We are now in Bangkok and start our tour tomorrow.

Speak soon, love xxx