I need some hot stuff...

As the final conclusion, the skin of the Rajastan desert people may look like dried beef-jerky, but if you take the time to look deeper under the coarse skin there is a soft and ever so open heart.

Ram-Ram :-)

What gives rajastani food that lethal kick?!

The streets of Jaisalmer are full of life at the evenings.

The vehicles parking in front of the house. And a black goat that must be feeling a bit inferior.

The local tourist industry tries real hard to capture the heart (wallet) of the foreign visitors:-

Until the beginning of the last century Jaisalmer was home to several big families that possessed immense amounts of wealth mainly due to the bloom of international opium trade. This photo shows the facade of a family palace of one of these clans. The intricate stonework is done on send-stone which is used mainly throughout the whole city. Sand-stone gives out a golden glow when gets wet after the rain. This is where Jaisalmer got it's nickname; "the golden city".

A proud grandfather.

The only tree in eyesight.

It looks lonely, but when you get close, it harbors all forms of life. And the camels give the leaves a neat trim on the bottom.

Most of the times I find it real difficult to observe local life as it is, because as soon as we appear, this is what happens.

But if you do work up the guts to go out into the desert, you find treasures in the small villages.

These are three gems here.

Dashing trough the west-Rajastan desert on a small moped around noon time (42-45 C) is a very safe thing to do, 'cause the roads are practically deserted. The locals know it better. They thought we are insane.

We've found this nice old Baba up the hill. He is the first Baba I met that does not smoke. But he did make a splendid chai for us.

I just have learneth that the camel keeps his water supplies in and around his knees. Than it makes me wonder what is in the hump?! Maybe his knee-caps?

A high-tech moment of an old couple.

Two gypsy girls in Jaisalmer. They did everything they could to sell us this little doll that can be flipped upside-down so it changes from Prince into princess.

This is a holy lake (whatever is left of it since it hasn't rained here over 3 years) in Jaisalmer, this hot-hot desert city just off the Pakistan border.

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This is the mighty-big fort of Jodhpur. It has immense proportions and amazing send stone buildings.

Jodhpur is called the Blue City since back in the days the old city was highly populated by Brahmin families and theirs is the only cast that can paint their houses blue.

In the tiny streets of the old city there are thousands of these small little shops, selling just about everything. At the hot afternoons they have a real meditative vibe.

 After Pushkar we headed west towards the Pakistan border. Our first stop was Jodpur, this large and happening desert city with an eighteenth century charm. This is a young tailor. His age at the workplace doesn't raise too many eyebrows. This is India.

Operation desert stoned

A snake-charmer at work. This is a black cobra that is common in Rajastan.










Come to the gypsy part of town.... :-)







This is Parathi and her brother hangin' in our room. She wouldn't give us much brake, but we didn't mind. At least she did all her homework.






Thanx to Gabri' we obtained a pair of wheels again and so we hit the road and collected a good amount of sand between our teeth...( Bullet 350; zumm-zumm )






The temperature during the day goes up to 42 c.
So a tree like this can be much of a help.









We went to a big family-pooja. The food was superb and the band rocked. So people took to some vicious dancing.








A bunch of gypsy kids with some edge..."you ain't run things here boy!!" :-)








This photo was made in the inner yard of a big Brahmin house. They where preparing some food. Must have been lots of food by the size of the flames.








The three musketeers collecting flowers.




Pushkar is famous of it's desert rose production (pushpa-flower in hindi). They make rose oil, rose water, or just export the dried petals to the middle-east for decoration.
In either case they smell magical and if you can sneak up to the roof-top of one of the houses, you can roll around in it.




There are tons of these shops around here that make rich sweets out of milk and sugar to keep people going. They look good, but besides being fried, they also are uber-sweet so they put your blood sugar level on the top shelf in no time.



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We met this local artist painting beautiful pictures of desert life. This one is gonna be a Rajastani woman.









This is the neighbour's naughty little gal.
When you pass her by, she would just randomly pinch your leg or do some other unexpected move. But can u get mad?! I mean look at her...




Colours-colours....










A lonesome doorway...









Watermelon is essential for our daily survival as a weapon against dehydration.
And the little green guys in the big basket are the first alphonso-mangoes that appeared on the scene. They are not quite there yet, but in a month or so they gonna be sweet as honey.... can't wait.


These are the heavy clay water jugs that the life of the desert kind of revolves around. Their tick walls keep the precious liquid cold as ice.
But the cool thing is; if you beat on the mouth part and the sides when empty, they sound awesome :-)



This is an interior of a small courtyard. These shaded places are the centers of daily activity which during the heat of the day consists mainly of laying around on the floor. After few days I got real good at this one.


The city is loaded with elegant palaces painted in blue, the colour of the Brahmin (high cast) households. The architecture is indo-islamic which given it's elegant proportions and decorated surfaces makes you feel like being in some old Sufi tale.


The magical lake that makes Pushkar a holy place. At present it is out of water due to the cleaning of the bed. But life doesn't stop, so they still do pujas by these little water tanks we can see on the bottom edge of the photo.




This is a big pile of cow doo-doo. They use it for tonnes of different things. Many applications, same sh.t.





The feeling of being in the desert hits you real quick, thank to the temperature and humidity that is real hard to bare during the day.
Early afternoon on the square... not a single soul out.


After the craze of the Mela and the realization of the chilly temperature up in the Himalayas, we took a train to Pushkar this holy city in the middle of the Rajastan desert. Here the men wear colorful turbans, and posses beautiful mighty-big mustaches of which I envied and got real jealous of :-)