Showered and packed. Ken went up on the roof to see the city; seems like you can always go up on the roof. Then breakfast and hit the road at 8:45.

The road from here to Jaisalmer runs through the Thar Desert the whole way, following along within about 100km of the Pakistan border. First we headed south-west toward Phalodi intersection. Construction most of the way there...about 3 hours worth.
 
Had to line up at the railway tracks and wait for a train. The driver says they close the crossing 15 minutes before the train comes to be safe! While the train had everyone stopped, a blind beggar felt his way down the line of cars asking for money at each car window.
 
Saw the first cat we'd encountered since we arrived in India - dead on the highway. 

After another hour or so we stopped for a break at a roadside restaurant. It was another tourist compound with outrageous prices. We walked across the highway and bought pop and a salty snack (Kuch-Kuch) while we waited for the driver to eat lunch. Then continued on our way west towards Jaisalmer for a couple more hours.

Before we got to the city of Jaisalmer, the driver turned south and followed a windy and bumpy paved road not much wider than a bike path. The road ran for miles and miles and miles through a huge wind farm and we followed it for a good hour before pulling off at a small village at the edge of an area of sand dunes.
 
After greetings and refreshments in the resort compound, we were taken out to where the camels were waiting. 
 
Road the camels about two km out to the dunes and up to the top.
   

Even out on the dunes there were beggars and vendors ready to work the tourists. One man without fore-arms approached Ken wanting money. When Ken said no the then asked if Ken would buy some US dollars that he had. Ken said okay...

We bought a couple cold beer (and bags of spicy Indian potato chips) and drank them as we watched the sun set. 

   

And Ken followed the dung beetles around for a while taking pictures of their comings and goings.
 
After sundown we got back on the camels and road back to the hotel's compound. 
 

Camels are surprisingly comfortable to ride on, much better than a horse, say. And it's a good thing because after 7.5 hours on bumpy roads, Heathers back was killing her.

At the hotel we sat on loungers along with the other guests and listened to a traditional Rajasthani band and sipped some more beer. It was getting chilly enough that we had to put on our down jackets. Then there was a bonfire in the middle of the court yard and pair of dancers put on a show to the accompaniment of the band.
 
When the show was done there was a buffet of traditional Rajasthani foods, all very good.

We had been given the option to sleep in one of the hotel's tent-rooms (tents with beds and bathrooms) or to sleep under the stars in the dunes. We choose the dunes, so after supper we got in the back of a jeep with two other couples and were driven in the dark to the edge of the dune fields. From there it is was a short walk up the first set of dunes to a place where mats and very heavy blankets had been laid out for each couple. There was no explanation given as to what to do next, so we just pulled off our jackets and shoes and crawled under the blankets.

Initially it was cold and very dark and we peeked out from our blankets to gaze at the stars. As the almost-full moon rose, the stars disappeared and the desert around us was illuminated. The blankets trapped the heat of the sand below and we actually felt too warm. On the down side, the mat we were on was thin and the sand hard and bumpy.