I took the 4 pm train to Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan. I think I had just enough of the desert as I could handle. Yesterday I could barely move; it was too hot. I lazed around the guesthouse and spoke with my new friend Sally.

I met Sally the day before at the guesthouse. What an interesting woman. She sets up programs in some of the poorest parts of India helping mostly village people in anyway she can. This could be introducing toilets, growing chickens or teaching personal hygiene to them.

We had dinner the night before at a wonderful restaurant called Trio. The food was good and the ambiance was fitting. On the rooftop restaurant we could see across to the lighted fort. We had a nice evening shooting the breeze. One great thing about traveling is the remarkable people you meet along the way.

After the camel experience, I spent the next day listening to another audio tour inside the palace fort. Although slightly smaller, I think the audio tour was much better. Maybe it was because I was the only person in the palace and I had no distractions.

Still it was bloody hot and I only ventured out to the streets just before dark. I never knew it could be so hot. I think I’ve been dehydrated these last few days because I haven’t been drinking enough water. I made a conscious effort to drink more.

As I was saying I took the train to Jaiphur this morning. My train arrived at 5 am. It wasn’t the last stop on the route so I was worried I would sleep through the stop and wake up in Delhi. Luckily one of the men in my compartment was getting out at Jaiphur too and he said he would wake me.

I traveled in 3 AC which is one step down from 2 AC. There wasn’t much difference except there were three beds facing each other instead of two and no diving curtains. I wasn’t looking forward to the long ride. Even though it’s more comfortable than a bus, the train can be dodgy. You never know who is going to be in your compartment.

Actually our train wasn’t even half full. That was a lucky break. There were tons of young children running around which kept things lively. A French couple (Fabienne and Paul) invited me to play Tarot cards with them. That was really nice. Otherwise I would have read the whole evening.

I did manage to get into Jaiphur in one piece. Except I arrived at 5 am and I didn’t have a guesthouse or hotel. Fabienne and Paul gave me a name of a place to stay but it was 5 am and I didn’t know if I should ring them or not. Also, I didn’t want to deal with the autorickshaw drivers. Lord knows where they would have driven me in darkness.

In some train stations, there are “retiring” rooms where you can rest cheaply until your train arrives. I pleaded with them to let me have one for a few hours because you should have a ticket going out of the train station. They let me have the room for 24 hours but I only used it for six glorious hours of sleep.

Now I am staying at Sunder Palace. Tomorrow I have organized a city tour. It will be my first tour with a group. Usually I prefer to go on my own but I thought it would be nice to have some company.