India Day 11: Jodhpur-Jaisalmer

As India is a huge country, part of the decision making we had to do when we went through all our planning in Jaipur was to figure out what parts of India we wanted to cover. Based on which trip would hit the highest number of pictures in the guidebook, we decided to go west from Delhi into Rajasthan province, and then south to Mumbai and Goa. Well, just getting to Rajasthan covered plenty of ground, so we just spent the night in Jodhpur. We headed out in the morning to the bus station to grab our bus to Jaisalmer.

Upon arriving at the bus station we realized it wouldn't be quite that easy. Their was a lot of hustle and bustle going on around the bus we were supposed to take. After insisting we carry our bags on with us, we found our way to our seats. The bus loading process was taking an incredibly long time, as people were doing their best to cram into the second level sleeper bunks. Many of the older, bigger Indian women couldn't even climb up, so there was plenty of heaving, pushing, and cramming. Danthemanstan and I were sitting in the back, next to a sleeper that had four or five people on it. Soon enough, a man was placed sitting on my leg. I was kind of finicky, and he moved away. Fail not, a few minutes later a man sat down on the sleeper bed next to me, in such a position that his knee was digging into my thigh. It would remain this way for two hours, there was nowhere else for him-or me-to go.

The bus soon took off, after being packed tighter than any bus I have ever ridden on-and I've been on some pretty packed buses during my time in China. The bus stayed packed beyond any reasonable person's belief the entire six hour journey. I had people stepping on my feet all the time (oh flip-flops), a boy tried to use my shoulder as a pillow, and a man older than dirt tried to use my lap as an armrest. After the man with the knee jabbing into my thigh moved, I still had someone else's feet or knee resting on my left leg the entire ride. I just glued my eyes to my book and let my mind get taken someplace else. At one point the thin sleeper next to me (meant for one) had eight people on it. Four adults, three children, and an infant were all cramped on it. Through some conversation with an Indian-American women next to Danthemanstan, we were able to learn that the 8:00 bus was cancelled for some reason, so the solution was to put the entire 8:00 bus on the 9:00 bus. So not only were many of the people on the bus cramped into outrageously uncomfortable positions, they had spent an hour waiting at the bus station. Luckily, Danthemanstan and I had tickets for specific seats (most buses have plenty of people standing in the aisle) and more importantly were foreign and pretty defiant when they tried to scrunch some extra people in our row. Miracle as it was, we arrived in Jaisalmer just fine.

Being in the middle of the desert, Jaisalmer had a much different feel than the other cities we had visited thus far. It was a gorgeous city to walk around; it had a very sandy, golden atmoshpere. The desert also kept its population low, so walking around the streets was much more sane than in the rest of India. We enjoyed a late lunch (early dinner) at an Italian restaurant with stunning views of the fort (the reason everyone comes to Jaisalmer). Jaisalmer is very much a tourist town, with the fort as a big draw as well as being the outpost for camel safaris into the nearby desert. So, we were able to have better than passable Italian while staring at Indian kids play cricket in the plaza outside a Rajputi fort.