On the back of a camel
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2004
1
31
70
Trip End
Nov 10, 2005
Jaisalmer,
India
Friday, April 15, 2005
We arrived in the far west town of Jaisalmer hot and dusty after a long and delayed train ride. Jaisalmer is a small city for India - only 80,000 or so people, 20,000 of which live in a sandstone fort rising out of the desert, their old homes intricately carved facades keeping most tourists gazing upwards as they walk through the maze of alleys.
We stayed one night in the fort in a 400+ year old haveli (traditional style house) where we had a great view of the fort entrance from our picturesque window seat. The fort also housed some Jain temples which displayed spectacular intricacies in a style we had not seen before.
The heat must have gone to our heads as we booked ourselves on a one night camel safari through the Great Thar Desert, and despite sore backsides we were glad we did. There was the obligatory visit to a couple of villages (where the villagers sensibly stayed inside while the tourists wandered around in 40+ degrees) and a night camped under the stars on gigantic sand dunes. The tranquility of one stop, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, was interrupted by 'the pepsi man', who wandered out from the dunes offering cold drinks (well, not as hot as our water). It doesn't matter where you are, if there is money to be made... and yes we did submit to his highly inflated prices!
