We leave Jaisalmer today. The hotel owner tells us we should wait till the opening of the Jaisalmer Desert Festival, 
as there will be a big procession passing near the main square short before 10 am. 
So we walk there and follow the procession during a few hundred meters. 
It is very noisy, lots of music and very colourful. 
And lot of camels of course! 
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........It is good that we did not miss that...
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Then we drive to Phalodi, 175 km away, where we arrive at about 2.30 pm. 
The road is very nice on this stretch and there is as usual a lot to see. It is still a desert landscape with many small huts. Still, Jassi drives very carefully, even if the road is in good condition, he never drives more than 70-80 km/h.
Once in Phalodi, we find our hotel very easily. It is called Chetanya Place. It looks beautiful from the outside. 
We are quite disappointed once inside…. It is not as new as it looks like….and the rooms are not done yet. But within a few minutes, they look clean... Anyway, it is not too bad and there is even a balcony in our room. After eating something, we drive to the village of Kheechan, a bit further outside, as many demoiselle cranes come to this village. There should be flocks of them…. We first miss the village as there is no sign really visible, then we ask a very kind man on the road 
and we have to drive back. There we see the signs…. We drive to a lake, 
but no crane in sight. But flocks of kids…. A friendly man comes to us and wants to guide us through the village, which is very nice, 
though quite dusty There are so many nice houses.
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.We are followed by dozens of children, who are a bit excited, but very nice...
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I don’t think they get to see 4 women on tour so often… I think the only tourists who might stop in the village are those who are interested in birds. The cranes tend to come early in the morning, as they get food in an enclosure. So, no cranes for us to see at the moment, except for a few ones flying over our heads…
We drive back to Phalodi and stop at a cinema, 
to have a look at the program. There is one movie this evening, with our favourite actor Ajay Devgan (we saw him in the movie “Sunday” and he is quite good-looking). 
So we decide to go to the movies tonight.
Before that, we ask Jassi to take us to the city centre of Phalodi and from there, we walk back to the hotel. The city is nice, some buildings have a very interesting architecture.
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We are quite an attraction there… 
The cows remain undisturbed though. Christine has to run ahead, as she has stomach problems… She won’t be able to have dinner tonight, so we are just 3 to have dinner in the main street. People look at us in a strange way… There are not that many women alone on the street after 7 pm…. The food is excellent though…. Then, we drive to the cinema and Jassi comes with us. The movie is a bit old and of poor quality, but quite entertaining. We understand more or less what is going on. I ask Jassi about a few words that come often, but he says he understands nothing, as it is not in Hindi!!!! It is almost midnight when we leave the cinema, the movies usually lasts about 2-3 hours… There were only men in the cinema, women or girls usually don’t go out at night. They must think that we are really strange! We can clearly feel the difference with other places we visited, we can see that they are not used to seeing foreigners that much here. 
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