March 1

Today we were up at 0445 -just woke up for whatever reason. So we got around. Since we're doing a 24 hour fast – we won't have to scramble around for breakfast. This made it a leisurely time of final assembling of our stuff. Left our homestay/hostel by 0545. Caught a tuk-tuk to train station. Our train is late, of course. We were supposed to board at 0610. The train arrived 0640; we boarded; and train left at 0655. We are off to Jaisalmer.

Within an hour or so, we saw nilgai, which are large antelope, on the side of the tracks!!! Then I saw a peacock and free-range camels!! Praise be to God, for His mercies and blessings. Also noticed the landscape is definitely drier, because we are getting more in the desert. We had a conversation with guy from Florida. He said he quit his job after working for two years and saving, and is traveling around now – just starting out in Europe, then here. He is young, born the same year as my niece, 1999. A young lady from France has joined up with him here in India, after a teaching venture fell through for her. She has another one lined up in Nepal. It was nice to talk with young people.

Anyway, we arrived at Jaisalmer about one hour late, around one pm. Jeff was of course approached by a tuk-tuk driver. We loaded up and he stopped at the opening to the fort, saying he can't go in. Well, we unloaded and hoofed it up to our Zostel Hostel. We got checked in, lead up to the fourth floor (no elevator), and to our room. Whew! It doesn't help that we are fasting! I am amazingly winded, and ready for supper. After we got situated in the room, we decided to meander about the fort area. So this fort is totally different from all the other forts, in that it is an inhabited fort. I mean people are living in here and we are staying in it. We noticed though on our walking about that it is continuously being restored, rearranged, and refurbished. So it is not a preserved, ticket entry fort.

We now went to Restaurant Free Tibet. Deciding on a plate of mushroom and cheese momo's, which are steamed dumplings; and a 'jacked potato butter garlic,' which was a baked potato cubed with garlic and butter. I had a Sprite and Jeff had a plain lime soda. It was a good hearty meal to break our fast. Finished, we went back to our hostel and decided we were still hungry. So we had a “second” supper at The Hostel Cafe. We ordered a Capsicum Corn Pizza. Jeff had a beer and me a Limca. Okay, that was a great pizza!! The dough was thicker, like a hand tossed one, and the sauce was more like a BBQ sauce – not tomatoey at all.

Finished, we back to our room, due to no sunset action. I blogged and Jeff read. Tomorrow we will really explore inside this fort of Jaisalmer.