Mr Desert

We were taken into the Desert by 'Mr Desert'. We've met a few people on our travels who like to create some kind of small cult around a name - Dr Whu in Lijiang, the '5 second' lady in Darjeeling - so we weren't particularly looking forward to his story of how he became Mr Desert.

Turned out the Government were running the first ever Mr Desert crown, a Miss World for Rajasthani nomads. And he curled his moustache and preened his beard and won. That was back in 1988. He won the next year as well.

in 1992 he was declared 'Mr Desert forever' and banned from taking part. Modelling and acting work swiftly followed and he's now appeared in international ads for coke and Mastercard, ciggarette commercials and all sorts of other stuff.

A great story teller and one of th enicest people we've met in India.