We spent a good part of our waking daylight hours on the rooftop again but finally ventured out around 3 pm. The view is just so neat and pair it with chai ... heaven! We managed to get in one last round of shopping- some more shoes, another scarf for Ale, an unneeded but beautiful pillowcase for Lauren. We walked as far around the fort as we could -and ended up inside a pretty legit Indian restaurant for cold packaged apple juice (yes I might have reverted to a 5 year old.) The restaurant was full of Indians eating Thalis. Unfortunately we were full from breakfast but we drank our apple juice anyways. The waiters were fascinated with us (white girl and Indian looking non-Indian) and even some of the patrons of the restaurant. We managed to meet the only American Indian in the restaurant who I then had a conversation with. He happened to go to UF for an MBA in the 80s and gave me his card if I'm ever in NYC.
So after our apple juice break, we decided to go back in the fort and walk around. We got to see the Jain temples and shop more. Then we saw a group of middle aged Indian men sitting in a circle on the ground inside the fort having a little meeting (Ale and I don't understand Indian dialects so we aren't sure what the meeting was about) and I asked them for a good restaurant with a good view. They pointed to this restaurant right next to their pow-wow. As we were walking up, Ale and I exchanged thoughts "I bet one of them owns this." The restaurant did have an awesome view, and I asked the waiter if the Indian food was good. "Of course, my mom cooks it." Obviously people give whitey the answer she wants to hear. The food ended up being decent (probably better than the touristy place from the night before) and during our meal, we met a really cool couple from San Francisco. These two will have been traveling for 2 years come April. They were probably in their mid to late 30s and had jobs in the Silicon Valley and had never traveled before they started their trip. When they started their trip, they were thinking they'd be gone a year, 2 years later they aren't sure if they will ever be done. They have a blog - intrepidmotion.com. Really neat people. We exchanged tips since they had been to the places we are going and are going to places we are going. Also they speak at a workshop on travel hacking in Portland, Oregon each year about traveling on the cheap so they gave us some good ideas. Omg I want to travel like them someday!
After dinner it was time to say goodbye to Hotel Victoria. Of course, they gave us chai as we hung out on their rooftop one last time (have we mentioned they have awesome service!?) We've realized that the best way to stay at hotels is to stay in the cheapest room at a place where you can't afford their standard room and definitely not their honeymoon suite for 9000 rupees/night. They still need the same tripadvisor reviews so they give you the same service and perks (Banana pancakes, chai, bottled water.) A rickshaw picked us up and we were delivered to the train station at 1030 pm for our 1130 train. Since this train starts in Jaisalmer, we could board it early. This was our first experience in sleeper (non-AC, the Indian experience.) Our new friends Marvin and Jo from dinner had prepped us on sleeper class- expect it to be cold (the windows are all open) and to smell like the toilet (there are no doors closing off the car) and no blankets/sheets/pillows provided like AC. Knowing this was helpful because that meant Ale and I put on long sleeves before leaving hotel victoria (luckily I could finally use the only thing I'd packed for India.) Unfortunately my only warm thing was my NorthFace which was in my dirty pile from the desert. Fortunately, I've learned it's worse to be freezing than dirty, so out of my laundry it came. This was also fortunate because then I didn't feel the need to shower before the train ride. Win-win.
Since Ale and I had beds that weren't right next to each other, and we haven't not shared a bed in 6 weeks, we decided we needed to squeeze into one bed. In the picture below, you can see Ale sleeping. We were both in that bed for an hour. I found it quite cozy, but when the train guy was checking our tickets, he said one of us could sleep in the empty top bed next to us (the sweet old ladies below had rearranged for us.) I was actually quite content snuggled up with Ale. Apparently Ale was not, because she pointed to the free bed and kicked me out of hers.
So here I lay, snug on a really dirty bed with a really dirty NorthFace on. I must say, overall, I'm getting used to being uncomfortably dirty. Immersion therapy. We arrive in Jhodpur tomorrow around 515 am (this is just a 5 hour ride.)
Pics: on the sleeper train and one from Hotel Victorias rooftop (I spy with my little eye someone who is in love with wifi)
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