Octopussy, Octopussy, Octopussy

Hello All.

Still in Rajasthan feeling like a richie rich with my car and driver. The number of bloated dead animals has dropped off quite a bit since we left Mandawa. (whew)

After Bikaner, we headed for Jaisalmer where we saw. . . another fort! No, it's true. This particular fort was larger than the forts of the past few days and had a village inside. I really don't know what to say about all these forts. I'm at a loss.

After we investigated the fort situation fully we took a jeep out into the desert where there were several camels and a matching number of little boys waiting to lead us out farther into said desert. So we rode some camels into the desert, slid around on some sand dunes (my first time in sand dunes! very exciting!) and camped out in huts to avoid the roving nocturnal desert cows.

I love camels. They stink, but they're really really calm and nice. They have eyelashes that they bat flirtaciously, and adorable squishy feet for the sand. Camels have quickly become my beast of burden of choice.

More cities in Rajasthan, more forts, a few amazing temples. Today we're in Udaipur, which people keep telling me is the most romantic city in Rajasthan. No romance here, but it's still a lovely city with some forts which I've been avoiding, and a palace on a lake. The movie Octopussy was filmed here, so everyone that lives here is really excited about that. They show it nightly at all of the cafes and cinemas. It's really strange having a lot of broken english conversations where the word octopussy gets thrown around. Unexpected. I ate the best food I've had since I've been here last night at a rooftop restaurant. Tomorrow: Pushkar, then we head to Jaipur, then Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

Oh, and check out that picture of me at the Rat Temple.. read about it in Beth's blog. It's a temple with a bunch of rats.. that about sums that up.