Popagandhi

Jaisalmer, and the desert
Well, as of today, I can say with some authority: a cameltoe does not look like how it’s purported to look like.

Another thing I can say with some authority: riding on a camel gives you kar chng tia (literally translated from the Hokkien as “butt pain”). Compound that ache on your bottom, by taking a bus to Jodhpur the next morning at 6.30am.

I had a fantastic time in Jaisalmer, and in the desert. Jaisalmer is splendid - so splendid at times I felt like I was in a theme park. If one ever goes to Jaisalmer, you have to stay inside the fort. It was… spectacular? Amazing? Fantastic? Wonderful, wonderful place. We rode out into the desert on camels yesterday, and the wonderful camel boys (very cute, very loveable, and the most polite kids I’d met in India) posed for me in an impromptu photo shoot in the sand dunes.

I watched sand breaking under my foot as I walked across the dunes, nearly lost my slipper inside the sand while I climbed up one, and as the sun set before me the moon hovered behind me. We had chai and a great dinner of pulao, papad, dal fry and chapati (I had three servings of each), in the desert under the moonlight. Lalu and Pratap (our camel boys - age 9 and 11) sang us Rajasthani folk songs, with a petroleum can as a drum, and I thought: this is what I’m here for.

Jodhpur
I’ve been in Jodhpur for a couple of hours now, after a bumpy early morning ride (the only way to travel by bus in Rajasthan in the summer is in the early morning or late at night: there is no A/C and it’s steaming here), and liking it.

A great way to spend an evening in Jodhpur is to head for the Sardar Market and Clock Tower. As the auto deposits you at the entrance, head left for the best samosas in town at Shahi Samosas (in business for 45 years, everybody knows them). Freshly fried and always hot, the batter is nicely crisp (but not too much) and the fillings are tasty. They cost just 4 rupees each (S$0.14). Then head through the gate of Sardar Market, on the right you find the best lassis in Jodhpur (I daresay the best I’ve ever had - and I’ve had a fair amount), at Mishrilal’s. 13 rupees (S$0.45); order a good serving of Indian sweets like rabri, to go with it. Go shopping in the market for lac bangles, household items, handicrafts, ice cream, chai. Heading out of the market, Paraswanath Khulfi on High Court Road serves up a mean khulfi (kind of like, an ice cream) for just 20 rupees (S$0.69).

No guidebook will tell you this - talking to people who know the city, will. In Jodhpur, there is no better person to talk to than Govind, who is a fantastic host (beautifully furnished rooms; great toilet; A/C, for S$14), as well as a great cook and cooking instructor (watch out for my mean chicken briyani, mother).

Tomorrow, we go to see the Original Treehuggers/environmentalists, the Bishnoi - who literally hugged trees, years ago, to protect them from being chopped off by the Maharaja. They had their heads chopped off, too. Then Udaipur, supposedly one of the most beautiful places in India (and where my fave childhood movie, Octopussy, was filmed). Then just Ahmedabad for a stopover, Mumbai for a quick big city fix, then a week in Goa, south to Bangalore, then home.

Home. Wherever that will be.