Forts, Camels, Havelis and Jain Temples
Trip Start
Feb 16, 2007
1
10
15
Trip End
Mar 18, 2007
Jaisalmer,
India
Friday, March 9, 2007
main reason I came back was the fort, it really does look like it was
from a different age, perched up high above the houses and the desert.
I got taken to the Hotel Desert, and it was decent enough for the
price, but not too much time to hang around in the hotel room though,
the first thing after a quick mango juice was to explore the area
inside the fort. I actually found out after I booked that authorities
were trying to discourage people from staying within the fort, to
reduce the burden on this old structure
Backpacker hotels in Jaisalmer
.The streets were windy
and thin, it looked like you could shake hands with your neighbour
across the road if you wanted to. There was some superb stone work
and stone screens on some of the building around the city. From the
city wall and the high points you could see a whole bunch of windmills
on the horizon. These were used to power Jaisalmer and the surrounding
cities. From the high ramparts there were also some excellent views
over the city below.
High above you would sometimes see and hear the Indian air force jets as the whizzed above.
After
an hour or so getting my bearings I decided to visit the Maharajas
palace that was within the fort. They had an audio tour that wasn't too
bad but went on a bit with some of the explanations. There were some
great exhibits including the coronation throne, but there were also
fantastic view from the roof that was the highest point in the fort
Camel Showing us his teeth
.They are doing a lot of conservation work within the palace which was
an encouraging sign. Parts of this World Heritage Site have collapsed
recently due in part to the sheer numbers of people and vehicles
traveling in the fort.
Afterwards I visited the 8th
July cafe for a tea and lassi. There were great views from here
overlooking the central square where the cows, tourist, auto rickshaw
drivers and touts all hung out.
I shared a beer back at the
hotel with 2 English chartered accountants who had both packed it all
in to travel the world. I love stories like this.
That evening I
went to an Italian restaurant, Ristorante Italiano La Purezza. There
seems to be an Italian restaurant on every street corner in
town. This place had great food but crap service. I was actually
surprised and managed to get a dish with capers, mushrooms, cheese,
tomatoes and penne pasta
Camel Trek
. I never did get my bowl of custard and driedfruit for desert.
I came back to the hotel with a bit of a buzz
after my 2 big beers and the guy in there must have realised as he
managed to sign me up for a tour and camel ride the next day without
too much difficulty! I was getting the feeling it was a bit dodgy as
even after writing down exactly what was expected and after we both
signed, he mentioned one thing was going to be slightly different. So
much for signing! I went to bed quickly before I parted with any more
of my money!
Next morning I went to some lovely Jain temples
where they had some great marble and sandstone carvings. There was a
big group of Italian tourist who crowded the place out though. The
priest kept telling them to be quiet, but it sounded more like a night
out in a loud bar then anything else when each was trying to talk above
the other. Who let all these tourists into my temple anyhow! There
seems to be a lot of large Italian and French tourist groups around
Jaisalmer
Lady outside Jaisalmer Fort
.Next I wondered out of the fort and down through the
3 gates that guard the fort. I was trying to find a famous haveli just
outside the fort but didn't succeed. I went back in the first gate and
found another nice Italian restaurant for breakfast. This time looking
back up to the palace. Today was a Friday and as I sat there eating my
banana pancake an oft recurring though came to me - This sure beats
working!
I found what seemed like a nice rickshaw driver who for
a slightly inflated price took me to Gadi Sagar, a lake with a nice
hill that gave great views back onto the fort. Next we went to the
train station to see if I could get a ticket for the evening train to
Jodhpur, the rumours were it was going to be a 4 hour wait for tickets,
so I decided to take a sleeper bus instead. No where near as exciting
as the train! The guy at the hotel had said this route had the best
road in the whole of India, something to do with the Pakistanis been so
close and all the army in the area
Legal Drugs
. Let's see if he is right.My
auto rickshaw driver took me back to the haveli that I couldn't find
and left me there. Some of the stone work and screens were fantastic.
The inside, especially the views back to the fort were also good, but
not as good as the outside. This place seemed mobbed with older French
tour groups and people hassling me - bloody tourist, they get
everywhere.
I popped into an internet cafe on the way back to
the hotel for my lunch. Less that $1 per hour, that sure beat the Park
Plaza! Lunch was way too big given the heat, well maybe the 6
chapattis it took to mop it up were too much!. I took Butter Paneer
Masala at the recommendation of the waiter, it was the first
time I ever remember trying this - it was very tasty. I was
also told that there was a couple who would join me in the
afternoon, they were an English couple I'd met at breakfast who seemed
like talkers
Looking over Jaisalmer to the fort
! Oh well.After lunch I checked out the hotels in
Jodhpur. I signed up for the pricey $20 a night option that overlooked
the blue city. The Yogi Guest House had apparently raised its prices as
they had renovated. Having cell phones around now certainly made some
things easier than last time I visited!
The couple turned out to
be real nice, Morris turned out to be 75 and still backpacking. Good
for him. He told me how 20 years ago there were a ton of Brits here and
now they were all soft and preferred to go and lager it up in Tenerife
and Benidorm!
We visited a cenotaph for all the local maharajas,
which seemed to be a popular place for married couple to stop for part
of their wedding ceremony
Peacock Feather Seller
. We visited a nice Jain temple and we visitedwhat to me was a lot of rock piles! It was actually a village that had
been abandoned 2000 years ago when one of the local Brahmin rulers
married a Rajput. All the villagers left in disgust!
I was the
only one doing the camel tour. Morris and Anna were heading off to
spend the night in some desert village! They were intrepid.
For
some reason I never found out, I had 6 other camels attached to mine!
It was like I was taking them all to market. I have to say though those
camels sure are smelly and mine kept baring it's teeth at me or the
other camels, my guide kept saying don't worry, but I really didn't
fancy getting bit by a camel! After an hour on the camel we stopped at
the top of a sand dune to watch the sunset. There were some sand
beetles like those in Namibia that wait at the top of the sand dune for
moisture to accumulate on their underbody, there were some antelopes
around as well as stray dogs all over the place - apparently they got
their food from tourists who did overnight camel tours
Statue in Jain temple
! The sand duneswe were at were not the Sam sand dunes, that are the famous ones in the
area, but very tourist and have litter everywhere by all accounts.
These sand dunes were still good but no tourists. The Hotel Desert had
delivered as promised. The only thing that didn't go right was the
sunset that was a bust. Still great day.
Back to the hotel and I
sat looking at the floodlight fort, eating banana pancake and beer
while listening to the story of a Danish guy who had taken the 3 day
boat ride, third class, over to the Andman Isles only to have all the
toilets block up and have the crap swishing around the cabins! The
moral of the story, sometimes it's ok to upgrade to a more expensive
class!
I was in 'sleeper' class on my bus to Jodhpur, I just
though this would be a good reclining seat if I was lucky. When I asked
the guy where my seat was he pointed up to the ceiling! I had a little
box with a pillow, a window to the world and a sliding glass door back
into the coach with the regular seats below! Very cool indeed. I was
the back one though and the ride was a bit bumpy. I was soon regretting
having that beer with dinner, luckily we stopped 10 minutes down the
road and a managed to escape my box for a few minutes and visit some
roadside bushes!
I slept pretty well for the rest of the night.
