January 22 – 10:45AM – Jaisalmer.

Alright, been busy so I didn’t get a journal entry in yesterday, but I’ll pick up where I left off. We cut out early in the morning from Jodhpur by car yesterday to head northwest to Jaisalmer, a desert town about two hours from the Pakistani border. The town of Jaisalmer is cool. It is built around a very old fort made from honey colored sandstone. The fort is the only historical fort in India that still has people living within its actual walls. This is a cool thing to see, but because the fort was not originally built with a drainage system and because now modern pipelines pump water to people’s sinks and taps in their homes and businesses, waste water is eroding the clay foundation that the fort is built upon. During ancient times families in the fort would live off of a pot of water a day. Now tourists take long showers in the guesthouses inside the fort and this adds to the erosion. There are several relief organizations trying to save the fort by getting people to move out but this obviously poses a problem to those who make their living inside or who own guesthouses on the prime real-estate and whose businesses would disappear.

When we arrived at our guesthouse, the Shahi Palace outside the fort, we went for a walk to explore town. We came upon a business that rented motorcycles and, good idea, bad idea, whatever, we did it and drove around out in the desert as the sunset turned the yellow sand deep gold. It was definitely scary with the crazy Indian drivers and the whole wrong side of the road thing but it was an epic time.

After cruising around for a few hours we got into another crazy but cool experience when we returned the motorcycles. The owner of the motorcycle shop, Hemant, also sold textiles and offered to show us some of his goods. We said no at first but then Hemant said okay fine, just sit with me for a while and we can just chat about life and the world and everything. We said no thank you again but Indians are very hard to say no to. We ended up sitting on the floor, as is Indian custom, in the back room of the shop drinking chai. The chai drinking soon turned to whiskey drinking courtesy of our host Hemant. The whiskey was an Indian brand and was actually pretty good.

After a few drinks with the boss Hemant, and his second in command, Al Pacino (why do they always give themselves these names, we met Tony Montana in Brazil?) I actually ended up with a few blankets which I needed anyways for my bed. I don’t know if the whiskey thing was an actual selling tactic but it worked and I do believe that Hemant did just truly want to chat. If he sold some stuff while he was at it that was a bonus for him. We had some great conversation about world views and everything else that comes up because of whiskey so it was all worth it. Hemant even invited us back the next day to drink whiskey again with him. Maybe we’ll stop by.

Just a follow up on Kevin’s health. He is back to 100%. I however have my traditional traveling runny nose that leaks like a faucet but I am powering through. Today we might just kick back, walk around, drink a beer or two and enjoy life.