A guest of the Maharajah of Jaislamer - sort of!

Trip Start Dec 05, 2004

Trip End Jan 17, 2005

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Flag of India Jaislamer, India
Monday, December 13, 2004

At 5am, we emerged into the cold darkness to the chorus of stray dogs harmonising with the temple din. A seven hour journey on the bus lay ahead. Luckily we had reserved seats (and a sleeping bag to huddle under) whilst latecomers who jumped on the bus as it was moving, a few hours down the road, had to stand. At one of the chai stops, I watched a cow and its calf chew some fruit peelings and plastic bag they were in - this is the karma of the cows and it is apparently not up to us humans to interfere or decide their fate!!! Of course people could stop chucking their plastic onto the streets. Another staple favourite of the cows is newspaper - yum!

Our destination was Jaislamer on the edge of the 100 km of desert that separates India from Pakistan. It is a much smaller town, full of backpackers and the military guarding the borders. We were quite shocked by the relative quiet of the place

Fort in Jaislamer

. Our home for 2 nights was no less than the Maharajah's palace (Mandir Palace) home to a hotel, roof top restaurant, 11 small temples, 2 horses, a flock of geese, 3 goats and of course several cows. The Maharajah and his wife live in one part of this beautiful complex. The whole place was so clean and peaceful, with marble floors, and courtyards overlooked by intricate carved jallis balconies and screens. We had an excellent view of the 12th century yellow sandstone Fort dominating the surrounding desert. Once a major trade centre on the caravan trade route to Afghanisan and Central Asia, its rulers grew rich by looting from the caravans. Now, Jaislamer is known as the crumbling city. We explored the area outside the Fort ramparts, and I dropped off my salwar material. We finished the day (after a few hours in the cool of our rooms watching crappy Us films on Star Movies channel) watching the sun set in front of the Fort, changing the colour of the sandstone to an orangey red.

The next day, Michelle and I braved eating some food finally, opting for some "continental" style fayre from one of the hundreds of backbacker places catering to Israeli, English, Chinese, Greek, and every other nationalities' taste! Beans on toast Indian style is certainly interesting. We found inside the Fort that it was a lot quieter and very touristy with scarves, rugs, clothes, carved boxes etc on every corner

Jain temples in Jaislamer

. We visited the exsquisite Jain temples - 7 interconnected temples (12-15th centuries). A Brahamim showed us around pointing ot the intricate carvings on the pillars, walls and ceilings of all the Hindu gods and the 5,000 or so Jain statues (all identical) - can't remember the name of these gods. Jains don't believe in harming any other creature, so they are totally vegan and won't eat any vegetable which grows under the ground in case they harm any insects when they are harvested. Some very devout Jains do not wear clothes and sweep the ground in front of them in case they tread on ants - we didn't see any of them luckily!!!!

Another drink on a rooftop restaurant entertained by spectacular views of the town below (and our Palace) and the hilarious Muslim cook who slept in the corner of the rooftop. He was so happy on life and loved interacting with his customers! I spent the rest of the day shopping and having interesting conversations with shopkeepers. Even the cows down the pedestrian, narrow, winding alleyways seemed harmless without any traffic zipping all around us. All in all it was a very relaxing day, finishing with Michelle and I deciding we felt like eating again and having a delicious (not spicy or oily) Indian meal on a rooftop restaurant called Trio, just outside our hotel, listening to two young boys playing and singing Rajasthani songs. Delightful!