Jaisalmer

So I had a 17 hour train from Delhi to Jaisalmer. Delhi is so big it’s a state of it’s own but Jaisalmer is on the Pakistan border and in Rajastan. I again left the accomodation to last minute so in a moment of 3G reception on the train, I managed to get a number of a hostel and book it.

So there is this system here for train bookings called Tatkal. Basically for all trains they keep a Tatkal allocation, and it only gets released the day before your date of travel from 10am-12pm but gets sold out in 30-45 mins. I was a bit worried about train booking when everyone I met told me they get booked up weeks in advance but with this system I am sorted. I pay a premium but like maybe £2-£3 more, for the flexibility you get it’s well worth it.

Anyway so the train was very comfortable, I slept A LOT so must have needed it. I didn’t really feel the journey drag, but a laptop loaded with movies will have that effect! Now the train was running 2 hours late, there is no kind of announcement or anything on these trains. So I woke up and checked GPS on my phone what station we were at. I then had a printout of all stations along my route and timings so I could see exactly how much longer it would take. I really have no idea how people did this before the internet.

Eventually I got to Jaisaler around noon and on arriving at the hostel I found that a desert safari was leaving in a few hours for return the following morning so booked myself onto it. The drive to the desert was another death drive. The driver was going round corners at 100 kpH with no hope of seeing what’s coming from the other side on a one lane road. Anyway on the way we stopped off a village which was interesting to see, they lead a VERY basic life. The house was made of mud and cow manure. It was amazingly cool in the house given it was in a really hot desert.

Storage Room:

Kitchen:

Eventually we made it to the camels and headed on a 2 hour safari. The camel safari was fun for about 30 mins after that I couldn’t wait to get off. God knows how people ride them across deserts. I had already been warned by another traveller not to book more than a one night safari as the camel riding is not quite as fun as you’d think.

Eventually we reached the dunes, quite literally in the middle of nowhere, just in time for sunset:

After sunset we had a few beers and they cooked some food. It was Daal, rice and roti. Very simple but nice. We sat beside a fire until bedtime and the guides started to sing “desert songs” (I have videos):

We were on blankets in the middle of the desert, no tent nothing just a layer of a few blankets was the bed. It was a very basic desert safari. They gave us a couple of blankets as it gets cold at night and I had my thermals on. The best bit about the safari is supposed to be the sky however with all the pollution India gives off as a whole the sky was not as clear as I’ve seen, in say Spain. It was a full moon so still a nicely lit sky.

This was my bed for the night:

We woke up nice and early for sunrise:

After which we proceeded to have breakfast of fruit and chai. The tea was actually very nice. After this it was another camel safari back to the car.

I didin’t sleep too well but was an interesting experience. In the middle of no where there is no bathroom so they have an open bathroom policy which was an experience in itself in the morning. In the morning desert safari I found out that there were loads of poisenous scorpians in the desert, I was so happy no one brought that up the previous evening. Anyway after another desert ride we got back to the accomodation amazingly in one piece. This time the drive was texting while driving 100 kph round a corner.

Now Jaisalmer is one of the places in India you can legally buy Bhang lassi. So with the others from my hostel we went to visit the shop:

This guy is called Dr Bhang:

So apparently Lord Shiva is often depicted smoking Bhang therefore it’s a part of Indian culture and religion and so legal at certain places in India. Bhang is apparently more popular in holy cities because Brahmins, the holy class, are not allowed to consume alcohol or tobacco. And Bhang comes with the blessing of Bhole Shankar, or Lord Shiva. You can have bhang in many forms at his shop: in chocolates, cookies, sweets, buttermilk and juices. The dosage comes in ‘baby’ and strong portions; the former is for those just starting out. Or for Japanese and Koreans because they have small eyes, and they will not return if they can’t handle it says the ‘doctor.’ I sampled various Bhang doses, mostly in chocolate milkshake and had a very very relaxing afternoon 🙂 I have bought some cookies for the long journeys ahead!

Anyway the next day I thought I better actually see the sights of Jaisalmer. The two big things to see in Jaisalmer is the fort and the havelis. Havelis are names of buildings with amazingly intricate designs that had historical significance of some sort. Not all intricately decorated buildings are Havelis they have to have some historical significance. So we started with the fort and got a guide.

The fort is perched above the city and is like a small city in itself:

The views from the fort were amazing:

The carvings on the outside of all the buildings are stunning. So intricate and beautiful:

The fort is full of small streets like the following:

All streets leading from this main part:

Essentially the fort used to be full of houses. Nowadays the houses are all converted into shops with houses at the top. The whole place is a world heritage sight therefore the land owners cannot sell any of it:

There are a number of Jain temples in the complex that are again very nicely carved out. We learnt that there are two main parts to Jainism. One where they don’t wear any clothes and medidate all day and another that wear only white and believe in praying to their main God so have built temples:

We then proceeded to see the Havelis which were STUNNING:

Tomorrow I am taking a train to Jodhpur.