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.

Delhi

So after not being in temperatures below 30 degrees, I hit Delhi. I didn’t have any accomodation booked but had a 4 hour stopover in Chennai so lots of time to get stuff sorted. I continue to be astounded by technology. It makes travelling SO easy. I booked one night in a private room and then after was in a dorm. This hostel was pretty new but AMAZING. It was like a hotel. I got to Delhi around 10:30pm and thought I would try the train system. There is a fast link to central delhi which I managed to take after which I took an Auto. Delhi is HUGE so the driver had no idea where the accomodation was but with my phone I switched on google maps and was directing him. He was amazed. On arriving this was my accomodation:

I unforunately forgot to take pics of the bathroom which was really nice.

The accomodation was fully equiped with air conditioning units but NO heaters. Man, it was FREEEZING. I immediately dug to the bottom of my bag and got my thermals out. The night was very cold. I then went for a shower in the morning without knowing you have to give the system 10 mins to heat up therefore on awaking to a FREEZING room I had a cold shower. I wasn’t too happy. Anyway I thought might as well go and explore Delhi. Wearing both thermals and fleece I went out. Now this was the first time I didn’t have a guide to show me around a City.

Delhi has a very extensive Metro system which is clean and the trains run very frequently. The thing that hit me most about Delhi is the security. They have airport style security at ALL Metro stations and each train only comes in once it gets the okay from the security at the front. There was also extensive security at all malls and business parks. I wanted to take some pictures but thought it wise not to take pictures inside any aiports or metro stations. Anyway so I started off at the national museum. I was hoping to learn a little more about the more recent Delhi history but the museum was more for very old history. Delhi is a place STEEPED in history. I got an audio tour of the museum. Here are a few artifacts I came across that were quite interesting:

Anyway after that I went to see Gandhi’s Smriti and the museum after him. The smriti had A LOT to read about the 1887 uprising against the British. It wasn’t a great time in both British and Indian history as the British tried continually to squash the uprising with quite brutal measures. What was interesting was that to spead the word and coordinate the uprising, the Indians had a runner network all across India that delivered messages and whatever else faster than the postal system where the mail was distributed by horses riding across the country. There was a lot to read about the uprising and the smriti was beautiful.

The final steps he took:

Where he was killed:

Information on the uprising:

Anyway after that went to the museum and read some inspiring quotes:

So after this I went to Humayun’s Tomb. It’s a world hertage sight and definately was something worth seeing. This is the tomb of the Moghul Emporer Humayun. It’s very imprssive from the outside.

The view from the top looking out into the gardens:

The inside was just tombs. After this went home and ended up going for a night out with the people in the hostel. Delhi clubs are CRAZY. Packed to the brim with people who are pretty damn crazy and drink prices you see are always excluding taxes which come upto like 30% more. Anyway was interesting.

The next day after finally figuring out the hot water system, had breakfast of puri and chai and went to another world heritage sight called Qutub Minar. It’s
a tall spire which is a distinctive architectural feature of mosques. Construction was started in 1193 by Qutb-ud-din Aibak and was carried on by his successor, Iltutmish. In 1368, Firoz Shah Tughlaq constructed the fifth and the last storey (had to look that up). You can quite clearly the differing styles of architecture as you go up. It was quite impressive.

 

It’s a whole complex not just one momument and all very impressive:

I had an audio guide tour of the place which was nice.

Afterwards I decided to head to Old Delhi (real Delhi) to a place called Chandi Chowk. What a place:

On walking around I ran across a food chain called Haldirams that multiple people had recommended. Now out of all the recommendations, everyone failed to mention it was Veg. Anyway I had a very nice Chaat starter and a thali.

Starters:

Mains:

After this I had read of a mosque called Jama Masjid where you could see over Chandi Chowk. There was this huge tower you had to climb up with barely enough space to squeeze past anyone coming the other direction. The views from the top were pretty amazing:

The Climb Up:

The view from the top:

After this had enough so went home. Whilst I was working at Deutsche Bank we had an offshore team we worked with quite closely and one guy was from Delhi. He went back to Delhi a year ago and so I met him in the evening for a few drinks and dinner.

The next day someone at my hostel told me about a Swami Narayan temple (thought of Shobhufoi) that I have to see. It was a little far as I actually had to change line on the metro but nonetheless made the pilgrimidge. Being a Monday it was closed! Then had heard of this restaurant at Chandi Chowk called Karim’s which was famous for BBQ meat, so to balance out the Haldirams the previous day I headed there. Very nice meal. Apparently this place is famous all over India and is very basic. I completely forgot to take a pic. Overall Delhi is one the crazier places I have been to. During my time there I saw multiple people urinating openly on the street during daytime & surprisingly the streets all STANK of sewage. It’s definately one of the dirtier places in India even though the metro is spotless. Chandi Chowk was an experience in itself just walking through (I have some interesting videos). Although saying that there is a place called Cannaught Place (I completely forgot to take pics of) which looks very modern and clean. Aditionally the place I went to for drinks one night looked exactly like the bars around London Bridge so I guess it depends on where you are in Delhi. The next day I had an evening night train to Jaisalmer.