India Part 9: Jaisalmer
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
14
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Jaisalmer,
Rajasthan,
India
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Welcome to our India trip part 9: Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer is quite possibly the most beautiful, stunning city I have ever seen in India to date. We both completely fell in love with it. Set in the middle, quite literally, of a desert, all you can see for miles is sand and palm trees. Most buildings are made with the yellow sandstone which, against the sand of the desert and the shimmering orange of the sun just makes the whole city look like a big sandcastle. All dwellings and shops crowd around the fort which dominates the landscape perched high on the mountain.
Our Hotel, Hotel Fifu, was tall and thin and also made with the yellow sandstone. Located off of the main road, down a quiet track which had several small houses, cows roaming up and down and children running around laughing. From our bedroom window you could see the desert far off. It was a really beautiful Hotel. We were thrilled with it. We decided to hit the fort before the sun set so Arif dropped us off, a 5minute drive up the road, and we tackled the steep walk, up to where the entrance was
A customer!
. Expecting another bloody fort... but this one is a living fort. We found ourselves immersed immediately within the fort which consisted of deep labyrinths of small houses, tiny shops, temples and tucked away restaurants. Narrow, curving alleyways twisted round and up and down and back on themselves. Women sat on doorsteps peeling vegetables, men invited us into their jewellery shops and children strolled around barefoot staring up at you as if you were a Big Friendly Giant. We got to a sort of dead end where there was a lot of rubble, perhaps someone's house demolished. However, where the cow was licking the steps, was a climb onto a very high platform. Up we climbed and blown away by the view of Jaisalmer and the barren desert. Suddenly this local guy came up to join us and we started talking to him. He started telling us about his jewellery shop and how it's now in Lonely Planet and how everyone from all over the world comes just for his jewellery because it is so unique. We listened attentively, secretly thinking "here we go, another hard sell." But he didn't invite us or plead with us to come into his shop, which was odd!? I was intrigued. His shop was right next to us and he happily satisfied my curiosity. Inside, on his wall were pinned lots of necklaces and bracelets that just looked like tarnished tat but I made polite "ooo, lovely" noises while thinking "for god's sakes! is this it??!"
The shopkeeper invited us to sit down. "don't look at this old stuff hanging up.....just rubbish, this is what people travel to me for" and from the glass cabinet in front of him he brought out a velvet case which contained lots of silver rings
If there's no seats ON the bus......
. More silver rings! Every city we've been to in India. "you want silver?" "you want gold?" we've heard it all before. However, I was not at all prepared for what was to come. What we next encountered was something so so incredible that it brought a lump to my throat. This man, Raja, was the shop owner. His brother was a craftsman. What his brother makes are silver rings specifically designed by customers themselves. What makes these silver rings so incredible are the designs on them. It is very difficult to describe unless you can see it for yourself. But basically these silver rings are made up of tiny symbols like a sun, or a palm tree or a house, or a computer screen or an apple etc. Customers come into his shop and tell him their life story or a travel experience and tiny symbols depicting these personal stories are crafted out of the silver ring so that the whole circumference is adorned with your own magical story. They are totally unique and are the most beautiful thing you have ever seen in your life. The work and the skill that goes into it is absolutely magnificent.
Raja had one really thick ring he showed us which had three tiers to it with all tiers illustrating different cities around the world i.e. St Paul's Cathedral, the leaning tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower. If you can't properly visualise what these rings could look like with all these symbols on you may just imagine something quite tacky and bulky. But believe me, I am not the kind of person to wear a knuckle duster from Argos! These rings are delicate, modest and actually very elegant
Jaisalmer and the desert
. I just love them!David and I instantly said we wanted one to depict our travels and our life together. We were told each ring takes about 4 days to make and we were so upset that we were only in Jaisalmer for two days. Raja made us a cup of Indian tea while we sat and looked through his pile of books with customer comments in. Customers had written their life stories down and then drawn the designs they wanted for Raja's brother to carve into the ring. People from all over the world, had indeed travelled just for these rings, buying them for family members. Many couples had come to design their engagement and wedding rings from him.
While we sipped tea, the three of us sat chatting about everything. We were in the shop for 2 hours. It was absolutely fascinating being introduced to this wonderful man and his beautiful jewellery. How stupid I felt now when I recalled first walking into his shop and eyeing the tat on the walls. David and I vowed we would return after our honeymoon. He gave us his card and told us that at the moment his brother is training up someone else to help him with making the rings because Lonely Planet had inundated him with customers. He said he had no need for a website because all his customers were recommended by other customers but that he realised he needed one soon!!!
After this we went to the Palace which is within the fort. The citadel stands 80 metres high. Inside is a rabbit warren of tiny corridors, tiny doors (where I smashed my head against the frame! I didn't cry!), beautiful mosaic rooms with chandeliers, historical weaponry, stunning vistas and steep, curving lanes leading to different wings and turrets
John Perryman???
. We walked back to our Hotel which was only 5mins down the road and we headed up to the roof terrace restaurant. It looked out towards the Fort and over to the barren landscape of the desert. Tiny little birds had nested up in the beams of the windowless restaurant and occasionally they would flutter down to say hello, it was lovely. We watched the tv while sipping beer, watching the sun set and eating curry. A really fabulously relaxed and romantic night. We met the owner of the small Hotel, Fifu himself. He was really warm and welcoming and the rest of the staff there were just brilliant. Nothing was too much trouble, everyone had a smile for you. So homely.
The next morning we chilled out completely checking our emails and just reading. We had had so many car journeys and manic sight-seeing tours recently we just needed a few hours chilling. In the afternoon we jumped into the hotel jeep that was taking us on a camel safari in the desert to include a campfire dinner under the stars. What a great idea it was initially!!! The jeep first took us to Bada Bagh which is a congregation of intricately carved Cenotaphs of Indian rulers of Jaisalmer set amidst hundreds of lush green trees and absolute tranquility.
Next we went to a temple which was scorching hot but beautiful. I was so hot my face went blood red and I almost passed out so we legged it back to the jeep and onto the camels for our sojourn into the desert. The camels were about an hour's drive away through very bumpy desert land, past women walking from isolated lakes with water urns on their head
Palace tiles
. Past hundreds of aimlessly wandering donkeys and men in turbans passing the time of day just in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, we created a dust cloud as we abruptly pulled up to this deserted little shack where two camels were being prepared with cushions and straps. I'm getting sweaty palms writing this as I recount the horror (perhaps a slight exaggeration but I use it for comedy effect!) of my camel-riding experience.
I sat on one, David on the other. Our camel 'guide' walked mine and David had sole reigns control of his. Evidently women are crap at controlling camels!! I thought sitting atop a rising elephant was scary enough, but being on a camel and sitting there at a 45 degree angel while it rises up was completely terrifying. Unlike the elephant ride, there were no BIG handles to grab each side of my seat but just this tiny pathetic knob in front of me which I clutched soooooo hard as the guide said to me "hold tight as it get up....hold on please, maam". My face must have been a picture!! David meanwhile, was like flaming Indiana Jones on his! One camel whip and he would have been fine galloping off into the desert. Sickening!
So, off we rode. Camel's have this lurching movement when it walks and man oh man for a woman to ride a camel will surely put paid to any future sexual activity she may want to indulge in. I was soooooooooooo uncomfortable not to mention absolutely wetting my pants at the very thought that I may fall off at any moment
The fort
. This was not cricket for me! When we stopped for a short 5min break, the guide gave me the reigns and said he would sit behind David. Well, you can forget THAT cowboy! You aint leaving me alone with NO camel for ANY amount of flaming frankinsence or mirth in all the world. So I asked if I could sit behind David on his camel. I gripped his shirt so tightly he said he didn't know if his buttons would survive the rest of the journey. I was absolutely loathing this flaming ride, being lurched back and forth and wobbling from side to side. Plus, my lady bits were absolutely burning with pain! Several times David insisted I didn't stick my nails so far into him! Eventually we got to the parked jeep where our jeep driver was already chopping up veg for dinner and his very young helper was building a really good fire! I got off of that camel, and went "oh thank god for THAT!!!!!" while the camels just looked at me nonchalantly, munching away, as if to say, "another ungrateful punter!"
While our dinner was being cooked, we were invited to walk off into the dunes nearby and watch the sun set. So David and I set off and were suddenly immersed by towering dunes which if there were no footsteps to follow you would surely never find your way back to camp. Quite a scary prospect. We trudged for about 20mins to a high spot to watch the sun set. We wrote things in the sand, had a kiss, took photos and enjoyed the eery silence of the sand whispering in the wind. Actually it was a bit of a Hollywood desert
The fort entrance
. Like a scene from Lawrence of Arabia but in the distance you could see acres of trees, some villages with electricity so it wasn't like you were completely isolated, it was just more like a film set. The sun set wasn't quite as Mills & Boon as anticipated as it slid down behind a lemon yellow cloud but we held hands and followed our footsteps back to camp so it was really romantic still. At 'camp' we were given a couple of beers to sip while we chatted and watched them cook our dinner. They washed bowls and utensils with water and sand while the two camels sat beside us all munching away as if we were all part of one big outdoor family! Then all of a sudden all these men in turbans turned up! About 8 of them! They sat round the fire chatting in local language to our guides. The 8 men kept looking over and laughing. I suddenly got a) quite angry and b) extremely scared. I was the only flaming woman there and this dinner was for us not us plus 8 men from the local village. As the light got darker, no one built the fire up and I was really getting scared. What if these men tried to take advantage of me or something?? I think David was a bit freaked out by it too as he was a bit miffed and said "what shall we do then?" then before we knew it all 8 men got up, said their goodbyes and then vanished into the desert. WHAT a relief!! (David: They were probably the lookout guys to ward off bandits J )
Our dinner was utterly delicious but I was terrified eating it! The sun had gone down completely
Turbans for sale!
. Only the camp fire orange embers were radiating away and you could barely see the hand in front of your face. Our eyes were gradually adjusting but all I could think of was a) what if a locust or something equally vile crawls into my dinner and I eat it? I can't see a frigging thing! And b) what if I need to go to the loo???! I really tried hard not to be a killjoy for David as he was salivating over the formation of the stars which twinkled away like diamonds on black velvet. It was really beautiful. By the time we finished dinner and our beers, the night was Quink Black. We shook hands with everyone, said thanks, gave tips and then our jeep driver switched on his torch and led us back through the desert to his parked jeep. An oasis. The jeep drive back was windy, bumpy but entertaining as the driver switched on his local Indian music consisting of tambourines, flutes and clapping! Back at the Hotel, we had a shower that was just glorious!. Clean, fresh, warm water, lights, no bugs, no spitting camels, a warm soft bed. I was in utter heaven and I fell asleep smelling sweet and fresh with a big smile on my face.
The next day we had to check out for yet another car journey onto our next destination. After breakfast, the very lovely Fifu, the owner, handed us a goodbye gift. It was a black and white print of a small cobbled street in the Jaisalmer of yesteryear. I was so touched. It was a beautiful souvenir "for our married home". He asked us to keep in touch and we said we would definitely return for another visit.
Our time in Jaisalmer had been so wonderful. Apart from the horrendous camel ride, Jaisalmer had been romantic, historically stunning, visually exquisite and a breath of fresh air. I was really genuinely sorry to leave. I would have stayed on for a few more days.
Our next destination was Bikaner. Oh god! That was a flaming JOKE!
Love Lois & David xxxx
