Jiasalmer

After breakfast we checked out of our room and killed an hour or two before rickshawing it over to the bus station to get the 6 hour bus to Jiasamer.
Really stuffed bus with the locals bringing anything they could carry on no matter the size or substance. As we went west the desert became more apparent and you really started to see how remote this place is, especially back in the old days when this town was one of the most famous town on the spice routes/trading routes.
If you picture the bit in Gladiator when Russell Crowe first becomes a Gladiator after being bought by Ollie Reid in that shit hole town in the middle of the desert then that pretty much is exactly what this place looks like at street level. from a distance its a fairy tale fort on a hill that you can see for miles away in the flat desert. Certainly fulfils all your desert exoticness needs!
One the way there the bus crew hit us for baggage charge which is bullshit as the locals don’t pay this, its just another feckkin way of ripping of the tourists. I kicked up a fuss and they kicked up a bigger fuss. Eventually Dee paid and I was raging as I am a bit fed up of this kind of shenanigans!!
An hour later another guy gets on the bus demanding 'Tourist Tax' This is a new one and complete bullshit as far as we knew. We stood our ground and then it got a bit ugly with this guy demanding the money or he would kick us if the bus ion the middle of the desert. Dee paid again just to finish the row. She was right as it turns out as this is a real tax that the government has just started putting on tourists in Rajasthan but they, helpfully, have not told any one.
You have to go around India and treat anyone who asks you for money for a 'tax' or 'charge' as a bullshitter and 99% of the time they piss off. Lucky Dee paid this time or we would have been walking the rest of the way to town!
We pulled in and zipped to our hotel inside the actual fort itself. Its the only place in the world where you can stay in a real world heritage designated f ort. Its magical sitting on the roof or the battlements looking over the town and desert as the sun goes down. Really living history. It all looks like Hollywood decided they needed a big set for a swords and sandals movie, very, very special place. Unfortunately the locals are building spalp dash everywhere on top of the old fort buildings and the whole thing is going to roll down the hill its on in the next few decades unless they stop feckkin laying bricks everywhere. The tourists come here for this place and the locals and building to much infrastructure for them wily nilly and destroying the place. Very sad.

We ate dinner that evening at the hotel, wandered around the fort in the dark. Very nice as there are no vehicles allowed her (very rare in India) and crashed out.