The first sight of the city at Jaisalmer, the Golden City, is amazing. Perched on top of a sharp escarpment, watching over the old and newer town and the desert stretching beyond, it blends in so well with the yellow sandstone that it rises organically from the slopes of the peak, at first only distinguishable from a distance by the profiled battlements and turrets, darker against the sky and then, as your eyes adjust, you can see the tall, straight, sheer walls rising from the slopes of the scree beneath.

Inside the towering city walls is a complicated maze of narrow walk-ways and bridges, but very small, covering an area of perhaps half a square mile in total, containing a myriad of Jain and Hindu temples. People are very friendly, jut as keen to talk as to sell. I'm constantly being asked where I come from and do I like cricket? Replying and asking where they come from results in friendly puzzlement. It's not that they don't understand the question. It is the concept of coming from somewhere else that is different. A line of school children pass me and an older girl, perhaps 12, stops and looks at me and then says something, partly to me, but mainly to her friends and the whole line screams with laughter. A shopkeeper smiles and says that due to my pink shirt and pink head, she has never seen anyone so pink before! Good shout. It is time to get a hat and another shirt!

My lot are tougher than your lot!

Authentic cuisine, this way!

City from the Kuku cafe. Best masalla tea in Jaisalmer

A terryfing beast energed from the shadows...

Home for the night, tomorrow a kip under the stars, or at least that was the plan!