Jaisalmer, Jodhpur & Ajmer
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Ajmer,
Rajasthan,
India
Friday, May 22, 2009
Jaisalmer
There was no need for an alarm clock when the bus turned into Jaisalmer, as touts came on the bus, offering free transport and no commitment, if we looked at their accommodation. Of course, nothing comes for free, so we were all a little apprehensive, but free transfers are always welcome!
Jaisalmer is described as one 'giant sandcastle with a town attached' and it's certainly that! It's a stunning, architectural marvel, with superb bastions (99 in all) overlooking a sprawling town. This Golden City sits by the Great Thar Desert, where dunes and scrub make this monster look a legend on the Tributa Hill. But within the fort lives over 5,000 locals, within a maze of tiny alleyways & narrow streets. These havelis have also been used as guesthouses, all culminating in water usage 12 times the capacity of the fort's plumbing system, with 3 of the bastions having already collapsed.
For this reason, travelers are encouraged to stay outside of the fort, so I’d deliberately asked and been told that it was outside. Of course it looked like we were inside (not easily discernible at all), but they assured us we were not. I was later to find out that we weren’t in Gopa Chowk (as told), shortly before the hard sell began for camel safaris, along with reneged promises and concern that everyone in the area knew what we were doing and saying!
I settled for a cheap, good room and then walked some distance to find the Tourist Reservation Centre to discuss many of our concerns and ask if one particular safari tour was any good. Then I moved on to Godi Sagar – a lake on the outskirts of the city, once the town’s water supply. It’s a pretty area with small shrines, temples and bathing ghat areas, with boats available for trips around the lake. Many water buffalo were certainly enjoying it, bathing and cooling themselves over the far side.
I continued back thro’ town, visiting some of the very distinctive havelis. The first was closed, but looked quite impressive from outside. Salim Singh-ki-Haveli takes its name from its prime minister, who lived here when Jaisalmer was capital. Patwa-ki-Haveli was stunning and a colossal building, with lovely exterior filigree stonework designs running along a combination of 5 havelis, best seen down a side street. The main, end haveli was huge, with restoration work showing life at the time these places were built, with furniture, personal items and very ornate Mughal –influenced art in the rooms.
Access to the roof provided really impressive views of the fort too, but it was the Nathmal-ki-Haveli that I particularly loved. Six generations on from the original prime minister owner, the current gentleman was very happy to show me around. The place was quite beautiful and very ornate, altho’ there was also restoration work going on here, too. Apparently 1.5kg of gold was used on several paintings here! From one lovely room (being used as a shop to sell beautiful traditional Indian, ornamental crafts), a small room at the back has original photos of the young & older Queen Victoria, Alexandra, Franz (forgot his surname) of Austria and some others. A doorway has 19th century postcards all mounted around its edge and Mughal original tiling and artwork flanks the surrounding small rooms. Absolutely beautiful! Two brothers constructed the building together, with each designing his own individually, but you wouldn’t notice unless someone pointed out the differences!
A few of us met to discuss our options and we all felt that 'Mr Desert’ was the best tour to take (reinforced by comments from the TRC), so we arranged our tours and spent the evening together, having food on a rooftop restaurant while watching another Indian wedding group parade thro’ the town with music blaring from a small truck, with a band of people waving huge neon bands of light, while all the family behind sang and cheered. Typically the groom sat on his white horse in his wedding attire, looking apprehensive and bewildered!
I got up early to walk around the fort again, marveling at the tiny alleys and homes and enjoying the Jain temples within: Chandrophrabhi, Rickhabdev and Parasnath Temple. Behind them were a further 4 temples with the Gyan Bhandoor (1500), a tiny library, holding fascination ancient manuscripts. The Laxminath Hindu Temple is nearby.
Decided to miss seeing the Maharajah’s Palace interior, spending the admission fee on a camel leather bottle holder and an embroidered pencil case, before getting to Mr Desert for the start of our safari. The jeep ride out of Jaisalmer into the desert took approx 1 hr in total, but we stopped in Amar Sagar Conservation Centre, followed by a visit to the deserted ruins of Lodhruva. The guide explained that 84 villages of Brahmins (high caste & affluent) had deserted the entire area, overnight! One of the Singh prime ministers wanted the Brahmin village leader’s daughter as one of his wives (he was already married), so villagers stalled him while they made their getaway plans. No-one knows where they went and none were ever seen/identified again!
We walked around one of the deserted (appropriate pun!) villages, with ordered streets of walled homes (ceilings & roofs all gone), homes with courtyards and a big temple. One had tens of bats on its walls, where they were diving into the cellar for additional protection. People with metal detectors have found jewellery buried here in the grounds! Shortly afterwards, we met up with our camels: 4 for us and 2 for the camel guides. All our supplies were shared out and loaded on the backs of each of the camels and then we had a long trek over the scrub for an hour, with me on my intrepid Lalla (all were males).
We stopped for a long 3hr break, for dhal, chappatis, vegetables, curry etc with masala chai and then it was time to take our next 1.5hrs trek in and around the dunes of Sam (the desert national park) in Great Thar. Undulating folds of rippling sand (& no other tourists or wind farms) made this a welcome experience. The temperature here is known to be incredibly high, so it came as no surprise when we learned that it was over 50 degrees, but a wide-brimmed hat and wrap around shawl made this a really enjoyable experience! The camels were content and plodded gracefully over the terrain, altho’ Lalla was never a front runner. She liked to keep swooping down into the scrub, to tear up a sizeable portion of vegetation to eat! Eventually we arrived at the night stop, with further dinner and Indian sweets, famously made in Jaisalmer.
Mr Desert told his story after dinner. He’d been a lowly truck driver when he won Jaisalmer’s 'Mr Desert’ competition. (3 years running '89-’91), after which the town made him a judge but stopped him taking part. Having won, he was approached by Coca Cola, Jaisalmer cigarettes (he doesn’t smoke) and several other companies. He didn’t make much money from it, but he was encouraged to start the safari company, on the back of his success. From then on, he’s been asked to take part in various ads (currently with Coca Cola again), is a judge in every year’s Mr Desert competition and makes sure his guests enjoy their safaris without any gimmicks or false promises. We were told this story by a very modest man, who in his prime had looked a very handsome, typical Indian gent in fine white outfits, incredible turbans and a very elaborate, ends-twirled moustache! It was a lovely experience, as this man’s so likeable and this terrific canopy of bright stars shone all around us- so lovely. There were no brightly illuminated towns in this part of the hemisphere, so the stars were a great bonus!
After enjoying the night sky of stars, I took a third camel ride with Mr Desert, who’d come to take me back to Jaisalmer, for my train that evening. We eventually met up with his deserted jeep and arrived back in Jaisalmer in time to write my comments in Mr Desert’s tour book, take a shower in rooms Mr Desert had obtained for me and taken a shower etc that I was at the station at 10.55pm for a train leaving at 11.15pm! Needless to say, after sorting out my bags on the train, I slept like a baby until my Jodhpur arrival at 5.30am
Jodhpur
A rickshaw took me to Heaven (guesthouse) to see a clean room that was fine, but also had a balcony. I had agreed to have some chai with the lady owner but fell asleep on my bed after a shower, so I was a little angry when I found her getting into my room from the hallway!
I took a rickshaw to Jodhpur’s Clock Tower and walked thro’ the local markets in the Old City. Another fort city, this is a huge Meherangah Fort sprawl of some proportions, with a great history. Overlooking the Blue City (blue painted havelis), the Maharajas of Jodhpur held great power and influence and the existing one is keen to conserve this huge museum of history. I left this visit until tomorrow and went on Umaid Bhawan Palace (or Chittar Palace), so called because of the type of sandstone used.
This was a huge impressive building on a rocky outcrop, with Maharajah Umaid Singh commissioning an English architect to design it. Building work began in 1929 and was completed in 1944 and having taken 15 years and 3,000 workers to accomplish this huge feat, Singh only enjoyed it for 3 years, as he died at 44 of appendicitis!
The palace had a really lavish interior (according to an internal TV and design plans), with the part open to visitors very pleasant. It houses a museum with beautiful crockery, clocks and many other exhibits. The local women were delighted to see the dining room layouts and all the household finery and I shared some time laughing with them at the antics of the hoi polloi! The gardens were very pretty too and part has also been given over as an hotel. Liz Hurley celebrated her wedding here, along with another couple of Indian getaways.
Mandore was the capital of Jodhpur previously and still has beautifully laid out gardens and rock terraces thro’out the Mandore Gardens area. There were many Buddhist and Jain stupas, the latter being used as cenotaphs for the many, past Jodhpur rulers. A huge, central and very ornate one belonged to M’a Dhiraj Ajit Singh and I was really enjoying studying all the carvings here, until I turned the corner and found my first Indian ‘flasher’! I immediately double-backed, but had to alert two women with early adolescent girls to avoid the inner temple, which they couldn’t understand! Only when I asked one of the women to take the girls away and I demonstrated what he was doing, did she understand. I tried to ridicule him as he skunked off, but I’m sure he didn’t care.
Went on to the Garden’s small museum with various carvings, Mughal paintings & Jodhpur past M’as. Women workers on this building site (a common sight in India) were carrying small open ‘woks’ full of rubbish and returning with ready mix concrete, all on their heads. The Hall of Heroes was close by with 15 Hindu deities down one wall. These 8th century carvings are quite bright (garish for the area). Monkeys were a common sight around the gardens, with many troupes all running in different directions around the park.
I spent time walking around the local market the following day, watching locals, taking pics of their fresh fruit and colourful spices, taking chai with one man who’s visited often by a rep from Sainsbury’s! Jodhpur’s spices are very well enjoyed thro’out the world! Then I walked up the Meherangarh – 125m higher than the old town with 7 gates around the fort. Built by M’a Man Singh (1806), there are indentations from cannonball fire by the Fatehpol Gate confirming the scale of threats over time, with several sets of handprints by the Lohapol (Iron Gate) – all Man Singh’s wives who committed sati, throwing themselves on his funeral pyre in 1843!
There were lovely divisional areas of courtyards with ornate buildings surrounding most sides. An audio tour gave an excellent account of the life of the maharajahs, maharanis (wives) and their lifestyles. The museum tour also included sight of collections of palanquins, howdahs (ornate elephant seats), ornate gilded baby cradles, clothing, weapons, turbans, explanations of the caste system, and life of women in the palace and so on. I saw some fantastic, beautiful swords and guns, all inlaid with gold, silver & jewels!
Moti Mahal (Pearl Palace), Phool Mahal (Flower Palace), Sukh Mahal (Pleasure Palace) – all were beautifully decorated within, with coloured mosaics in small ornate recesses and set into windows. They were also designed so that those in could see out, but not vice versa. I took over 3.5hrs to visit, including seeing another brilliant section on Indian miniature paintings and learning to extra tape options on opium use and maharani lives. I walked thro’ recently restored gardens of Chokelao Bagh (planted with all traditional vegetation and trees of the early 19th century), where planting takes formal square and terraced forms, just like Persian water gardens. The old blue city was a real pleasure to walk thro’, after leaving the fort, as these were lovely narrow little streets with tiny, tiny shops and very small fruit and veg displays! Time is certainly standing still here!!
I had my first masala veg omelette in Jodhpur at Mr Omelette's stall (a place of some repute!), which was different!! Altho’ there was nothing wrong with the taste, I prefer my omelettes not to be wedged into loads of slices of bread and the masala sauce just didn’t taste right as a thick sauce slopped thro’ the entire egg mixture! Poor man looked upset when I saw it arrive, but I just assured him I was far too fussy! He has an excellent reputation for getting thro’ over 1.000 eggs a day cooking omelettes for half of Jodhput!!
Ajmer
I took the 7.15am train to Ajmer, having a whale of a time thro’out the journey with a big group of gorgeous Army guys going an a two-week exercise. They were really good fun and we exchanged a host of cultural differences between our 2 countries, along with so many laughs about the stark difference in sexual liaisons. Incredibly, it’s absolutely normal for both groom and bride to marry without ever having had a close friendship with any previous person of the opposite sex. With arranged marriages still to dominant precursor to family life here, earlier relationships are not considered at all. So for many, the actual wedding day is the first time they’ve ever met their intended partner, let alone shared any kind of discourse!!
Relationships are so very different here. Clearly, there are some ‘love’ marriages, particularly where the parents are educated and allow their children more freedom and liberal attitudes, but it’s highly probable that they’ve also been included in the discussions about the marriage and how auspicious & appropriate the match will be. Nonetheless, the majority (and certainly in all rural areas) are arranged, with quite a number still taking place with minors below 16 years (especially in villages), with all the ramifications caused by early pregnancies and childbirth. Thankfully, arranged marriages are still seen as the favoured option by most people, including the young, and it does have many advantages.
It’s clear that there’s a whole learning curve starting at the beginning of these marriages, though, as it’s likely each won’t have any idea of the personality, sense of humour, likes & dislikes or thought processes of someone they’re going to be with for the rest of their lives (and almost all do, since few divorce due to the overwhelming social stigma). I’ve also been told that relationships aren’t necessarily as intimate as love marriages, with lovemaking being a functional act, rather than one of ensuring each person's needs are satisfied. One man told me that he’d never kissed his wife, as ‘Indian men don’t do this, they’ve never been taught how to or encouraged’. It’s a fascinating topic that’s clearly a world away from Western views and values (altho’ I’m sure that many are very happy and I’m definitely not convinced that our ‘love’ marriages are any better!).
I left my backpack in left luggage at the station and enjoyed a good thali at a local restaurant, writing up my diary under a good, fast fan. Then I made a flying visit to the Dargah – one of the most important Muslim pilgrimage sites here. Built by Humayun, it houses the tomb of Sufi saint Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chisti who’d arrived here from Persia. Akbar came here every year from Agra and I could see why! It was an incredible, predominantly green structure with towering minarets but looked even more imposing because of all the tiny alleyways leading off all around it. It’s located in a shopping bazaar area and as all Indian women love shopping, it’s packed to the hilt. This warren of really narrow cobbled streets is like a scene from the Arabian Nights, with cloaked Muslim women mysteriously going about their lives within a personal shroud. There were no burkhas as such, but there were few bare-headed ladies around.
On to the Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra (the Two and a Half Days) mosque, it was built in 1153 and was supposed to have taken less than a week to build (altho’ others believe it was more likely to have been named after a festival that lasted that long!). My (supposedly new Chinese/Tibetan) camera broke here, so I didn’t manage to get any pics, but it was a big place on top of a hill, with large halls supported by huge pillars. Altho’ strictly a ruin, it was surprising just how many people were walking to the top and using the area as a recreation ground. Akbar’s Palace (1570 and under restoration) was also a small, uninspiring place, but was built to keep an eye on the local chiefs in the area.
The jewel in Ajmer’s crown for me was its Ana Sagar lake. Built in the 12th century, it has 2 lovely parks with marble pavilions donated by Shah Jehan (1651). It was absolutely packed full of locals, with a couple of boys in one pavilion serenading crowds with their songs and music. Seemingly courting couples shared intimacies (altho’ they were probably newly married), extended family groups and children enjoyed picnics and games, others chatted and walked the various courses, while vendors sold huge, billowing poppadoms as big as dustbin lids!! Unfortunately I was plagued with requests for photos (locals all want their photos with Western, white tourists), but it’s difficult to say no when everyone is so nice, even after the 10th!!!
Although a whistle stop tour here, during train connections, it was good to get to the Dargah and round the lake. Mixing with locals is just as important to me as any sightseeing and they’re all such lovely people! My 00.50 train finally left Ajmer at 01.20am and with a little rocking on the train, I was out like a light!!
