Yes, you, too, when completely exhausted, can sleep anywhere...and I mean ANYWHERE! More about this later, but first let's pick up where we left off last.
We took the flight from Paris to Delhi on an old 747, which was an hour late due to a doctor being on board who had to clear a drunk person to fly. There were no individual movies, so I was able to get a few hours of sleep. Upon arrival in Delhi, we went through immigration in the new area of Indira Gandhi airport. It has a bunch of hand sculptures on the top of the wall with sign language and was very nicely done. Once we passed through, we collected our bags, exchanged money and headed for the domestic terminal, which is directly above the international. The only problem with this was that there was no re-entry to the international terminal and they don't let people in to domestic until 3 hours before flight...a very big problem since it was about 12:30am and our flight was not until 10:35am. We had to sit in a holding area with very few chairs, no bathrooms, etc. and wait to get in to domestic. A sign on the door when going upstairs that there was no re-entry would have been totally helpful!
Anyway, we finally got in at about 4:15am. We checked our bags for our flight, brushed our teeth and headed to the food court upstairs where we found the only thing open was old faithful...McDonald's! Staci and I had a spicy paneer sandwich (which had special sauce that had quite a kick!) and the world's best fries. Then, they had these fantastic u-shaped lounges, so we each took half and slept for an hour or so. Awesome sleep! Woke feeling refreshed and ready for the next leg of the trip.
Took the flight from Delhi to Jodhpur in just over an hour. Once we got our luggage, we grabbed a cab to the bus station. That adventure took about 15 minutes of weaving through traffic and roundabouts (a bit scary!). The driver dropped us off and said, "Walk through there and you'll get to the bus." It was not a pleasant smelling or looking place and looked like a set-up for a con. We went to the ticket booth and bought our tickets to Jaisalmer. Fortunately, we were put on the newest and most spacious of the buses. There were 2 seats on one side and 1 on the other with sleepers above. There were no spaces underneath for the luggage, so we had to put them under our seats and where our feet would normally go. And yes, it was a 5-hour ride.
Just before we were about to leave, a beggar girl came on the bus and was trolling down the aisle asking for money. At first, she passed us by, but on the way back, she stopped and would not leave us alone. She was poking Staci hard in the arm, pulling her hair and digging her fingernail into Staci's hand. She wouldn't take "no" for an answer. We held out for several minutes and she was eventually shooed off by the driver since we were ready for departure. Interesting experience, for sure! Once rolling to Jaisalmer, Staci and I both managed to sleep a couple of hours on the trip, thus proving yet again that we can sleep anywhere.
So, we arrived in Jaisalmer at 6pm and after being attacked by the touts fighting over who would drive us in their rickshaw, the owner of our hotel showed up with our names on a sign and we were off to our hotel, Desert Moon. We dropped our bags in the room and before we headed upstairs to the rooftop restaurant, we laid on the bed, only to find out that it was a very thin mattress on top of very hard wood. I definitely like a firm mattress, but this one's a bit hard, even for me. Nonetheless, it is a bed! For dinner, we had paneer butter masala, veg curry, buttered naan, roti and chai masala. It was great (and dirt cheap!), so we went to our room and got ready for the next day. Our traveling was finally complete and we arrived at our destination, after having left the US on Thursday at 4:20pm and getting to Jaisalmer on Saturday at 6pm...that's one really, really long day!
We took the flight from Paris to Delhi on an old 747, which was an hour late due to a doctor being on board who had to clear a drunk person to fly. There were no individual movies, so I was able to get a few hours of sleep. Upon arrival in Delhi, we went through immigration in the new area of Indira Gandhi airport. It has a bunch of hand sculptures on the top of the wall with sign language and was very nicely done. Once we passed through, we collected our bags, exchanged money and headed for the domestic terminal, which is directly above the international. The only problem with this was that there was no re-entry to the international terminal and they don't let people in to domestic until 3 hours before flight...a very big problem since it was about 12:30am and our flight was not until 10:35am. We had to sit in a holding area with very few chairs, no bathrooms, etc. and wait to get in to domestic. A sign on the door when going upstairs that there was no re-entry would have been totally helpful!
Anyway, we finally got in at about 4:15am. We checked our bags for our flight, brushed our teeth and headed to the food court upstairs where we found the only thing open was old faithful...McDonald's! Staci and I had a spicy paneer sandwich (which had special sauce that had quite a kick!) and the world's best fries. Then, they had these fantastic u-shaped lounges, so we each took half and slept for an hour or so. Awesome sleep! Woke feeling refreshed and ready for the next leg of the trip.
Took the flight from Delhi to Jodhpur in just over an hour. Once we got our luggage, we grabbed a cab to the bus station. That adventure took about 15 minutes of weaving through traffic and roundabouts (a bit scary!). The driver dropped us off and said, "Walk through there and you'll get to the bus." It was not a pleasant smelling or looking place and looked like a set-up for a con. We went to the ticket booth and bought our tickets to Jaisalmer. Fortunately, we were put on the newest and most spacious of the buses. There were 2 seats on one side and 1 on the other with sleepers above. There were no spaces underneath for the luggage, so we had to put them under our seats and where our feet would normally go. And yes, it was a 5-hour ride.
Just before we were about to leave, a beggar girl came on the bus and was trolling down the aisle asking for money. At first, she passed us by, but on the way back, she stopped and would not leave us alone. She was poking Staci hard in the arm, pulling her hair and digging her fingernail into Staci's hand. She wouldn't take "no" for an answer. We held out for several minutes and she was eventually shooed off by the driver since we were ready for departure. Interesting experience, for sure! Once rolling to Jaisalmer, Staci and I both managed to sleep a couple of hours on the trip, thus proving yet again that we can sleep anywhere.
So, we arrived in Jaisalmer at 6pm and after being attacked by the touts fighting over who would drive us in their rickshaw, the owner of our hotel showed up with our names on a sign and we were off to our hotel, Desert Moon. We dropped our bags in the room and before we headed upstairs to the rooftop restaurant, we laid on the bed, only to find out that it was a very thin mattress on top of very hard wood. I definitely like a firm mattress, but this one's a bit hard, even for me. Nonetheless, it is a bed! For dinner, we had paneer butter masala, veg curry, buttered naan, roti and chai masala. It was great (and dirt cheap!), so we went to our room and got ready for the next day. Our traveling was finally complete and we arrived at our destination, after having left the US on Thursday at 4:20pm and getting to Jaisalmer on Saturday at 6pm...that's one really, really long day!
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