Desert: Jaisalmer

Yesterday morning I arrived in Jaisalmer, the "carcassonne" of India. It has a very nice Fort with an entirely preserved city wall and it is ion the middle of the Thar-desert.
The trip in the "sleeper class" by train was not so pleasant actually. There was a very bad smell of pee and it was extremely dirty, but with the sleeping bag it was fine: I covered my nose with it and then it was bearable. At dinner I had met a French family, who also wanted to take this train and we socialised a bit. Their daughter is studying for a year here in India and the parents came for a visit together with the daughter's best friend. We actually met again at the train station and discovered that we had places in the same compartment (each compartment is for 6 people and we had 5 of the places..) that was quite a coincidence. As the train was one hour late, we spent the waiting time together, which was really nice.. The parents were quite shocked when we entered the train: the dirt, the smell, the cold. They were not happy at all, but did not say anything.. I have to say (and, hello Mom!, thuis is nothing against you..) I cannot imagine what my mother would have said in such a situation... ;-) I slept at least a bit, eve if it was very noisy.. but at leat my sleaping bag kept me worm.. the French family did not sleep at all as they were not properly equipped...
When I arrived at my nice hotel, (which is a nice Haveli, built for a young boy before he became Maharaja), I took breakfast on the roof terrace with a beautiful view on the fort. When I finished, my room was ready and I could take a nice hot shower... that feels good !!
Today, I went on a camel tour (or "camel safari" as they call it here..) my camel driver, Suban, and his camel, Rocket (a racing camel I was told...), showed me around.. Fortunately I was not in a group, so it was nice and quiet as it should be in the desert.. just the melancholic songs of Suban sometimes broke the silence.. He was only 15. I learned that a camel lives around 25 years if it is well kept and only 15 if not. A camel costs 30.000 Rupees (a little bit less than 500 Euros - which is- if it is true - really a lot for local standards..)

Another thing which impressed me quite a bit is the presence of military here close to the border to Pakistan. The city actually lives from tourism and the military. Once or twice twicea day and in the evening, fighter jets make control flights. But with the current tensions between the two countries,this seems normal. Still, it left a strange impression on me. I talked to several people about the relations between India and Pakistan and I was quite surprised that almost everybody thinks that all terrorists come from Pakistan and that the Pakistani government finances them.. There was no way I could convince them that generalising was perhaps not appropriate.
Now I will go for dinner and then I will go to the train station , where I will get a night train to Jodhpur. Fortunately this time in 3rd class (which is better than the sleeper class I have already experienced.., at least that is what people say.. let's see... ) The dinner was with this beautiful view on the fort:

On the health front, for those of you worried, my stomach is doing fine (after some initial adaptation problems, if you understand what I mean...), I cought however a cold (at least I have a soar throat and I start sneezing now.) I got some strepsils here.. which have a local Indian taste with ginger, lemon, honey etc...