Jodhpur to Jaisalmer, India

From Pushkar, I took a government bus (read ramshackle) about 5.5 hours to Jodhpur and was only there for a day. The government buses are way more fun than the private, touristy buses. First of all, the local buses are frequent, so all I have to do is show up at the bus station when I want and I can usually get a bus within an hour or even 30 minutes. They are CHEAP and always interesting. I am usually the only foreigner on these buses, but there is no hassle and no one really stares for too long- although, it has worked out perfectly that I have been in the very front seat on the last 2 rides, so if there is a lot of staring it would just be at the back of my head, and I would never really know about it. The only problem is that the bus makes only a couple of stops that last longer than 5 minutes, so going to the bathroom is kind of out of the question. I thought I was going to die of bladder explosion yesterday on the bus, but finally it stopped for what I was told would be at least 10 minutes and I was able to run to a toilet inside a little restaurant shack. I REALLY disliked Jodhpur. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I had just come from a quiet, serene 5 days in Pushkar, and Jodhpur was quite the opposite. It was so intense with the narrow alleys clogged with rickshaws and scooters that go way too fast, the streets were filthy and there was just so much NOISE. I had a headache the whole time I was there. I swear, I have never heard so many vehicles honking in all of my life and the horns here are as loud as a semi horn from back home. The people were kind of intense as well. Every single person says "hello", which sounds more like "AH-lo", which is fine, but when there are a million people in just a short distance, it is hard to respond to everyone and then if I don't, they just keep yelling "Ahlo, which country?" over and over and over again. One little kid ran up to me and spanked me with his wiffle bat (cricket style, not baseball) for no apparent reason and another girl pulled my hair. One funny thing that I noticed on a walk though, was that the goats around town are wearing shirts. I have no idea why. Some of the dogs had shirts on too. Jodhpur is known as the blue city because many of the buildings are painted the same sky-blue color, which is believed to repel insects and keep the city cool in the summer. I took a tour of Mehrangarh Fort, which is in the image I posted from the web. The fort was mostly built during a period in the mid-1600s and the audio tour of the whole fort and palace inside was really informative. I liked the huge iron gates located in several places leading up to the fort- they were covered in spikes which kept military elephants from charging and tearing down the doors. The Jodhpur fort is just for tourists to visit, unlike the fort in Jaisalmer (where I am now) which is smaller, but still inhabited by villagers. It is super compact with narrow alleys, but there are a few temples inside and a bunch of shops and guesthouses. From the outside, it looks exactly like a sand castle on a hill. The rest of Jaislamer is walled as well and there are gates surrounding the town which is where you enter and exit. Jodhpur and Udaipur are walled towns too with iron gates left open to traffic coming and going. This is desert country- I am now in the Thar Desert, the world's 7th largest, so there are camels running around, being used for labor and for tourist safaris. The bus ride yesterday was mostly through the desert with lots of shrubs and rocks and some trees. The safaris (heading out on a trip tomorrow) visit some more picturesque parts of the desert where there are just pretty dunes for miles, no trees or bushes. Jaisalmer is nice and quiet like Pushkar, and the hotels are CHEAP. 150 rupees ($3), and I am wondering if this is because the guesthouse owners usually make their money on the safaris, which are kind of pricey. I think I will just do one night in the desert- I'm thinking 2 days on the back of a camel might be enough. Will report when I return...