To Jaisalmer

My hotel pickup.

Gypsy home.

View of the fort from the jeep.

My $17 room that comes with breakfast.

The view from my room.

Street scenes.

The temples from the roof of my guesthouse.

Sunset through my room.

Saturday, March 24^th.

I was up early, as usual, and after updating the blog, I went down to the lobby to say goodbye to Prerna and the group. It was a great group and as always it is sad to say goodbye. Then I told the hotel that although I had booked for four more nights, I would not be around for the next three as I had decided that I didn’t want to stay in Delhi that long. I had booked a return flight to Jaisalmer for three nights. I left my big bag in the room and will retrieve it on the 27^th before flying to Chennai. So, I said goodbye to Prerna and had the hotel call me a cab for the airport. The ride was about forty minutes and I got there an hour early. I wandered around and decided to have lunch. I had the most tender chicken tikka I’ve ever had and then I had a Starbuck’s chai latte. I bought another book, called ‘Gut’, that dovetails nicely into my I Contain Multitudes book.

The flight was easy, only an hour and a half and then I was picked up by a young man from the Deepak Guesthouse that Prerna had booked for me. He was driving a jeep that looked ancient but he told me it was only eight years old. This is a guesthouse that Intrepid uses and is right inside the walls of the fort. I met Deepak and he gave me some options for things to do here and then I went for a short wander. This is a walled town inside a fort on a hill, that used to be on the silk route. There is a labyrinth of narrow streets with lots of small stores and touristy artisan shops. I was told about it by a member of the south India tour and since I no longer needed the time in Delhi to fix my computer, I decided to take a short trip by myself.

Then I returned to the beautiful room with windows on three sides that open out for views of the city. From there I watched the sunset and went up to the guesthouse rooftop restaurant for dinner. There was an eight-member Intrepid group eating there so I asked if I could join them and they graciously said yes. They are only two days into a 22-day Rajasthan tour. They had taken a 19 hour train ride from Delhi (I am glad I came by plane). I had a nice meal of Kashmir rice with fruit and nuts in it and a hot fruit custard, with a beer. After that I did some e-mails and went to my room to read and sleep.