For forts sake

Having made it to Jaisalmer, the next challenge was to refrain from spontaneously self-combusting anytime we left the hotel, as temperatures were regularly over 45c. Obviously the fact I'm writing this is a slight spoiler that I at least survived. Sorry to ruin that for you. Stay tuned to see if Bec made it though...

Jaisalmer is a small frontier town based around a hilltop fort situated in the middle of nowhere. Many tourists come for the camel trekking in the nearby desert, but for some reason riding a camel in extreme heat never really appealed. Actually nothing really appealed in the heat other than air conditioning and cold drinks, but we thought we should probably go and see a couple of things:

The view from the hotel

Above the entrance to the fort

Inside the fort - 3,000 people live within the walls

One of the 7 Jain temples within the fort

Token arty shot

Bec pointing at the wrong place on a map

The view from a nearby Haveli (old merchant's house) roof top

And the inside of the haveli...

And again (I think Bec has some ideas for her own dressing room now...)

I've rarely been so angry posing for a photo. There was no breeze and my skeleton was sweating

Apart from the trips to the fort and haveli, we spent most of our time moving from air-conditioning unit to air-conditioning unit. If you need any advice on any number of a/c brands I'm your man, having spent most of my time having staring contests with them. We also visited a special lassie shop, and currently have some delicious looking cookies with us which were strangely expensive for ordinary looking biscuits...

Meanwhile Bec continued to develop her affection for Indian red wines, primarily due to the absence of any acceptable cocktail bars. Having read that she was more likely to find one in Jodhpur, we hopped on the train and made our way there:

Mehrangarh fort (taken from a roof-top wine bar...)

The view out from the fort over the "blue city" #1

#2

#3

Inside the fort

Bec copying the standard pose adopted by seemingly all Indian tourists while visiting museums

A typically understated room

I assume this is the disco hall or something

I got bored of fort photos so have a pic of this guy

You could argue this mausoleum is a touch ott

I feel sorry for Bec's instagram followers as I often found her taking photos in front of any doors she came across. Strange girl.

Some temple in a park. We didn't stay long as Bec kept on getting harangued by small children and looked like she was having too much fun

The massive palace outside the city where the royal family still live (in 1/3, with 1/3 being a museum and the rest being a ridiculous looking hotel)

Somehow Bec also engineered a visit to a textile manufacturer on the outskirts of the city who apparently supplies Hermes, Liberty and some other people I'm sure Bec was impressed with but which I seem to have forgotten. Anyway, long story short the owner has probably retired and bought one of everything he can get his hands on. Still, Bec doesn't seem to be suffering from buyers remorse yet. Interesting revelation, she has no idea about haggling. It's taken repeated promptings for her to actually start offering a lower price. I'm thinking we should have done some trial runs before the real thing...

From Jodhpour we got a taxi to Udaipur which should have taken 4 hours or so. Despite saying we were in a hurry we stopped 6 times for either tea, some snack, or this sugar cane juice. Naturally being british I accepted everything I was offered. Even more naturally I made sure I had some immodium for pudding.

Mmm, hygenic

We took the time to visit a temple based around the deified motorbike you can see below (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Banna). Almost everyone passing seemed to stop here so our taxi driver obviously thought he should do the same. Suddenly makes my worship of Wes Hoolahan look pretty normal.

This is not Wes Hoolahan

Bec posing for the umpteenth time with some Indian women who seem to love her. I think it's because she's the same size...

We also stopped at Ranakpur, a stunning Jain temple where the moment you walk in the head of the temple offers you a minute long prayer before handing out a begging bowl (donation bowl?). Bec and I had to go in 1 by 1 so after exiting the temple I warned her about her impending prayer. Cue her running into the temple and fast-walking around so the man couldn't catch up with her without running. Unfortunately there's only one exit, so despite her ingenious Benny Hill escape, she couldn't escape her destiny...

Yay, more temples

Isn't it lovely

Highly intricate carving. Very bad photo.

Arty

Having reached Udaipur we boarded a Willy Wonka boat to head to the Lake Palace hotel (which you might have seen in the James Bond film Octopussy) for a slightly un-backpackery nights accommodation. Notice please that isn't the plural of night, as I very much was only paying for just one of the expensive so and so's. The next two nights were spent in a lovely and much much cheaper place:

Pretty sure a beret wasn't in the actual uniform

The Lake Palace from the shore

Bec enjoy the understated welcome

The hotel astrologer

Another view of the palace

The Monsoon Palace (which got its name thanks to the Bond film)

Our private dining spot at the palace (disclaimer, there's no way I was paying for this and I might be lying)

The Palace garden

Textbook posing

Traditional Rajasthani dancing

I think the tambourine player had a sudden moment of questioning his life choices during the show

This bottle of wine had far too many numbers next to it

Because you always need fruit bats

The next day we went to the city museum, the star of which was this horse disguised as an elephant. Apparently the mask fooled elephants in battle so they wouldn't attack. Genius if ridiculous. I would have loved to see how much crap the first guy who tried it got before other people saw it working. (Well the actual star was a room full of crystal furniture but photos weren't allowed for some reason).

Inside the palace

I assume whoever made this was executed

A typically understated bedroom

And doorway...

Finally we ended our fantastic three days in Udaipur with a 4 hour cooking class, spent in the company of a woman who basically invites you into her house and orders you to do things while the rest of the family mills about and takes photos with you. Needless to say I was much better, and there's no proof of that statement being anything other than true as far as your concerned...

It was a strange night

We have since moved on to Ranthambore (the Tiger Park), via Jaipur, but that will all follow in the next update as I think the former will have an offensive amount of photos, along with our visit to the Taj Mahal which is scheduled for tomorrow.

So until next time..

Rob&Bec (she did make it!)