After arriving via overnight train to Jaisalmer, we were taken to drop our luggage at a guesthouse inside of Jaisalmer Fort. This fort is the oldest living fort in India, built in the 11th century and about 2,000 people call this Fort 'home.'
The fort is in the distance, on top of the mountain in the center of the photo.
After packing a small overnight bag, our group piled into jeeps and were driven outside of town to meet our new furry friends:
We rode camels for about 2 hours to reach some sand dunes in the Thar Desert. We stayed here overnight and slept outside under the stars. In the morning we mounted our camels again and headed back to town.
We had the next 2 days to explore Jaisalmer and the fort. We took tour of the city with a local guide:
A really neat tradition families have is that when someone in the family gets married, they hire an artist to paint a mural outside of their home to announce the marriage. The mural stays there until the next person in the family gets married.
Let’s get to the important stuff. THE FOOD! Jeff and I have been mentally preparing ourselves to eat vegetarian this month. Many Indians are vegetarian, for religious reasons, and because meat isn’t readily available here. We knew that even if we were able to order meat at a restaurant, we might not be able to trust the refrigeration process. This has been proved by the stomach aches we get when we tried meat here during the first few days in Delhi.
What’s even harder for us carnivores (Jeff and I have been known to make half bacon/half beef burgers, then top it with pulled pork and homemade bacon), is that the definition of ‘vegetarian.’ Here it is almost what we would call ‘vegan,’ minus the milk products (read above, cow is holy; milk and cheese are good). Eggs do not make the cut in the ‘vegetarian’ diet. This means we have to find a Non-Veg. restaurant if we want eggs. Luckily, we have been able to have eggs with about half of our meals.
We’ve been eating a lot of rice with ton of different curries, vegetables in gravy, potatoes, more curry, and lots of chapati/naan bread. We’ve really enjoyed the food so far (even if we would like some meat) and we are excited to see what different foods we can try as we keep exploring different cities.
Fun fact: It took 5 days for Jeff to start sweating curry. He literally smells like it. Good thing I love curry!
Before coming to here, I don't think Jeff had ever tried Indian food. This picture is of our breakfast in Delhi. We wandered into a vegetarian resturant and ordered vada (sort of a savory donut), and dosa (the large crepe) stuffed with cooked onion. The food came with lentils (the yellow bowl), and 2 other sauces (no idea what they were).
-Cara