Swimming Across the Great Thar Desert

On the Road

The next day we hired a car and driver and went to Jaipur. We treated Banty to dinner, and the next day visited his shop. Banty paints miniatures, very well, and he engraved our names on a grain of rice. In his shop we met a New Yorker, Jeanne-Marie Derrick.

But back to our swimming leitmotif: That evening five of us, including Banty's pal, rode two motorscooters for miles out of town to go swimming. When we finally got to the pool, it was empty; it had been drained for maintenance! We sat around and told jokes and drank beer. We found that Jeanne-Marie was a Yoga teacher who had come to Bombay to find her old teacher and friend. She had been unable to find him. After some inquiries, we found that her friend was Mahavir, who we had run into in the middle of nowhere!

Rajasthani saris

The next day we drove further into the deepening desert. It was a long, hot, fascinating ride. As we got closer to the Pakistani border, we saw more military convoys.

We hired a car and driver through a travel agent friend of Banty. The next day, Jeanne-Marie joined us for a trip to Jaisalmer.

The three of us stayed overnight at a B&B in Jodhpur. Barbara got an urge to go swimming, so, armed with instructions from the locals, we tried a local hotel. This place catered to Indians and was strung with bright little colored lights. The night manager allowed us to swim for a small fee, but when we got downstairs to a rather oppressive and mildewed basement pool, we found it to be full of Christian evangelicals performing baptisms! We got our money back and moved on to a tourist hotel that wanted to charge the equivalent of $15 apiece to swim! Our third attempt was worth the effort. A small and nice-looking luxury hotel charged us only about $1 each because it was near the closing time for the pool. And they even set out towels for us! We thankfully floated under the stars.

A typical truck