8: Jaisalmer

The drive from Bikaner is long so we make a couple of breaks in the journey.

The first is recommended to us by Mahendra and Bhawna, it is a palace which is now a hotel - the Gajner Palace. It was built as a hunting resort for the Maharajas and the British, it was even visited by the then Prince of Wales in 1905 and by Mountbatten when he was Viceroy.

Now it’s a place of slightly faded grandeur, a beautiful, red sandstone palace built on the edge of a huge lake.  As we approach we see peacocks in the grounds although they look a bit moth eaten!

There is a courtyard with a fountain at its centre in which green parakeets are washing their plumage.

We sit on a terrace overlooking the lake, some terrapins even stick their heads out of the water in hopes we’ll feed them.

We hit the road again but haven’t got far when Ravi is pulled over for speeding, he manages to smooth talk his way out of a fine and we’re underway once more but at a slightly more sedate speed!

The scenery here isn’t very exciting - dry and sandy scrubland which isn’t surprising as we’re headed towards the desert.

We do however see a herd of camels and a mongoose dashes across the road in front of the car… which livens the journey up a bit!

Our lunch stop is at a roadside restaurant next to a fuel station in the village of Pokhran. We have a pleasant time sitting in the restaurant’s garden and we enjoy our food until Ravi happens to mention that the Pokhran area was the site not only of the first nuclear detonation in India, but also several more in 1998.

The first in 1974, code named Operation Smiling Buddha was described by the Government as ‘a peaceful nuclear explosion’!

The second, Operation Shakir was in 1998 and consisted of five nuclear bomb tests.

There’s even a memorial to the mark the events.

We’re fairly keen to be on our way now!

We head off, passing a good number of overloaded vehicles carrying cattle feed.

Our destination this evening isn’t Jaisalmer proper but a camp in the Thar desert. This massive desert covers 77,000 square miles in both India and Pakistan.

We have been anticipating an isolated camp surrounded by sand dunes where we’ll sit around a camp fire and gaze at the stars. The reality couldn’t be further from this image. 

We arrive in an area with camp upon camp stretching for miles, like a tent city. The area isn’t the kind of desert we had in mind, it’s dusty for sure but there’s quite a lot of scrubby vegetation about.

The idea is that we’ll go to watch the sunset as part of a camel ride.

We see a large numbers of jeeps whizzing past on the road outside our camp all with loud music blaring out and whooping tourists standing up in the open back.  Mmmmm, not what we had in mind.

We are driven to the sunset and camel riding destination in the two-wheel drive car we’ve arrived in. 

Bad idea. As we approach the top of the track and arrive at the sand dune the inevitable happens and we get stuck in the sand. 

We abandon the car and walk over to where everyone’s gathered for camel riding.

We are the only western tourists here, this is obviously a resort for Indian holidaymakers and they’re having a ball.

We do the camel riding - which is brief and a bit more like a donkey ride on Blackpool beach than a Lawrence of Arabia experience!

We watch the sunset - which we have to say was worth it.

We return to the stricken car and try to free it without any success. It just sinks deeper into the soft sand.

There are plenty of jeeps about. Nick takes the wheel and one chap is kind enough to tow us out. We head back to camp and that’s when the ‘fun’ really begins.

We all sit on charpoys (traditional South Asian beds with wooden frames and woven rope webbing) around a stage on which sit some musicians.

We can’t tell you how many musicians, as we can’t actually see them! The spotlights are aimed directly into our eyes rather than onto the performers. We can certainly hear them though as the speakers are turned up so high that the sound is distorting. It is a grim experience.

There’s a traditional dancer - we can see her a bit better… and a fire eater who puts accelerant in his mouth and applies a naked flame - horrifying and impressive in equal measure!

Nick goes back to our tent briefly, he’s gone for three minutes maximum but in that time all hell breaks loose! Ravi and one of the guests who was sitting behind us are literally squaring up to each other and there’s lots of shouting and posturing.  

Neither Nick nor Janette has any idea what’s happening. It transpires that one of the guests behind Nick was drunk and making some kind of gestures and Ravi thought he had touched Nick’s head. All of this is apparently very inappropriate and Ravi was defending Nick’s honour. The situation is defused which is a relief as for a minute there Nick thought he’d have to get involved in a punch-up!

The evening ends not a moment too soon. We have opted to return to the desert to watch the sunrise in the morning, though this time we’ll go by jeep. 

Perhaps foolishly we don’t check the time of the sun’s rise tomorrow and accept the advice we are given to be dressed and ready to go for 5 a.m.

The alarm goes off at 4.45 and we stumble, bleary eyed into reception promptly for 5, not a soul is about. We wait, and we wait as first ten, then fifteen, then thirty minutes pass. At this point we consult Google only to discover that sunrise isn’t ‘t until 7.10! We return to our tent for a cup of tea and eventually the jeep rolls up at 6.40… our patience by this stage has worn a little thin.

We head off back to the small area of dunes we were at yesterday. It’s much quieter in the early morning which is always the best part of the day. 

The sky is hazy and we don’t think we’ll see the sun at all but suddenly…

an unmistakable orange sliver reveals itself on the horizon and soon the whole, glorious, vivid orange sun has revealed itself; the sight never ceases to be novel even though it happens every day.

We’re keen to get to Jaisalmer but Ravi tells us there’s somewhere he’d like us to see first, the deserted village of Kuldhara. Most of the site consists of ruins, however some buildings in the village centre have been restored.

According to Ravi, hundreds of years ago the local maharajah saw a girl from the Kuldhara whose beauty so bewitched him that he wanted her for his wife. The villagers refused this request because it would mean the girl marrying out of her caste. The maharajah was enraged by this and gave the villagers seven days to accede to his request; if they did not he said he would have them all killed. 

The villagers decided to stick to their guns and in order to avoid the maharajah carrying out his threat, each and every villager left together in the dead of night and travelled 500km to another part of Rajasthan where their descendants are settled to this day.

Less romantically, the information plaque in the village puts the sudden desertion of the village down to persecution by a local government minister, flood or earthquake. Given that the village has only been deserted since the early 19th century it is difficult to understand why the exact reason for the desertion isn’t known.

Whatever happened in Kuldhara it is a fascinating place. Large and clearly once prosperous, a number of the buildings have been restored although judging by the steel RSJs in some of the buildings, how traditional the restoration methods have been so far is questionable!

We arrive in Jaisalmer and we’re keen to explore but we need to go to our hotel first for a wash and brush up.

The hotel is ok but is in the midst of building works so it’s noisy and dusty, not a place where we want to linger.

We take a tuk tuk to Jaisalmer Fort, there are roadworks outside the hotel and our driver gamely takes us through them on what can only be described as an off-road tuk tuk safari - quite and experience for all concerned!

Jaisalmer, the Golden City, so called because of the golden stone of its buildings is really lovely.

As soon as we alight from the tuk tuk at the fort entrance, we are approached by one guide after another. We’ve decided that we want to take this visit at our own pace; guides can be great but if we’re being truthful we much prefer to visit places by ourselves, to just wander and take it all in, we can research details later if we want to.

Jaisalmer Fort is one of only a tiny number of living forts (in other words forts where people continue to live and carry on their day to lives) left in the world; two thousand people continue to call Jaisalmer Fort home

We climb up the steep slope towards the fort accompanied by tuk tuks, mopeds and cows. We reach the main square which is edged by beautifully ornate buildings and we continue up one of the tiny roads that lead off it.

We’d be lying if we said the place isn’t touristy, all the shops we see are selling tourist merchandise, clothes and textiles, but we wander beyond the shops and see daily life going on.

We also find a wonderful bookshop cum coffee shop  - The Traveller’s Cup - where we take a break; Janette of course can’t resist buying a book (when can she ever?).

As we sit enjoying our golden turmeric latte (delicious!) it tickles us that cows wander past the door, the street is so narrow that they are only a few feet away from us!

A big draw for us in the Fort is the Jain temple complex, a series of seven temples all in very close proximity, some connected by corridors or staircases.

The problem for us is that the temples close in about an hour, we don’t have enough cash for tickets and the nearest ATM is outside the fort. The

owner at The Traveller’s Cup doesn’t hesitate, he gives us the entry fee telling us to pay him when we’re next passing!

We’re so glad we were given the chance to see these temples, they are a highlight of our trip.

The walls and ceilings are built of stone, the carvings on which are so intricate that it’s hard to believe they were done so long ago (16th century).

One of Janette’s grandfathers was a stonemason, he would have been so interested to see this.

We manage to see all of the Jain temples before closing time, we nip to the ATM and return to repay the cafe owner, it’s not often you find a complete stranger so willing to place their trust in you and we’re pleased to show it wasn’t misplaced.

We wander back towards the main town but  just before the gateway out of the fort we find ourselves persuaded into a textile shop and much  banter and masala chai later we find ourselves leaving with two more wall hangings and significantly lighter wallets - c’est la vie!

There is another highlight we don’t want to miss. The Havelis of 

Jaisalmer are renowned for their exquisite architecture and opulent interiors.

We visit Patwon Ki Haveli which is actually a cluster of five havelis, now a museum exhibiting the lifestyles of the former inhabitants. 

The Havelis in Jaisalmer we’re built by wealthy Jain merchants; Patwon Ki was built in 1805 by the Patwa family, five Havelis for five sons and the luxury living they enjoyed is very evident, ornate mirrored walls, frescoed ceilings and lavish furnishings.

There are sixty ornately carved windows with balconies known as Jharokhas. 

We’re really tired by now but it was worth it to see these wonderful buildings

We round a lovely day off with drinks and dinner at Cafe Kaku. 

We walk here from the haveli and we’re not sure we’re on the right track, we seem to be heading out of town. We place our trust in Google Maps and persevere until at the end of a dusty road we find the place. 

From the outside it still looks dubious but once inside we realise we’ve picked a winner! The roof top terrace overlooks the city and the fort and it faces west so we are treated to a sunset too!

We while away the whole evening here, we’d only stopped for a beer but they have an outdoor wood-fired pizza oven and traditional music so what’s not to like? We even have a go at Rajasthani wine which is not at all bad!

As we sit and wait for a tuk tuk a rather sobering poster opposite us reminds us why we want to travel, see the world and experience as many different cultures as we can.

We head back to our hotel on another crazy tuk tuk journey weary, happy and a bit squiffy!