After Jodhpur we caught an over night train to Jaisalmer out in the desert at the Eastern-most town before the Pakistan border about 150Km away
We were 3rd class this time no more luxury but it was late so we crashed out pretty quickly.
Arriving in Jaisalmer was fun, an auto rickshaw to the Akashdeep hotel which was completely dark at 5 am and we opened the door to find the security guard fast asleep under a duvet and no-one else around. We were both bushed so dozed on the sofa in the dark waiting for someone to wake up. After an hour or so there was a tentative 'hello' out of the dark and we got to a room and crashed for a few more hours!
After breakfast (Puri and Paratha for me - a new favourite) we headed out to explore on foot, Jaisalmer is quite a small and relatively affluent town, built around - you guessed it - a fort. As a result the feel is a lot more relaxed and everyone was very friendly and a lot less hassle than the big cities. We were approached by a guy who chatted to us about being a city guide and waited for the hard sell but a few minutes later we were in his house sat on their bed/sofa in their communal lounge/bedroom talking and drinking homemade chai with his wife, sons and daughter to help her practice her English. No more mention of guided tours he just wanted to chat and find out more about us and vice versa, a very odd but friendly experience.
A little further down the road we saw a stall selling duvets and fabric items with a unique marketing technique (see below) when the stallholder saw me taking the photo, he came across and started chatting. Waiting for another hard sell we were invited inside to help him out with some of his new marketing slogans as his English didn't stretch to smutty slang! See below some images of Ana cheapening the Indian culture with our contributions to Shanka's stall. A surreal experience trying to explain a 'pile cushion'.
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Next day on the way to the fort we booked the 'must do' tourist activity in Jaisalmer, a camel safari into the desert. We have not been following a guidebook as such but ended up booking with one of the lonely planet recommendations, Trotters Independant Travels, mainly because the guy running there office, Sobu, was very friendly and genuine (and it was cheaper than the others!) If the company name sounds familiar then I should also say we met the company manager who calls himself Del boy and keeps saying 'lovely jubbly' if you look hard enough, you will see that Jaisalmer has been corrupted by a single TV sitcom and there is a real perception that everyone from England is a Peckham market trader! We asked if Del Boy had seen any of only fools and horses but of course he hasn't, he has just made a business out of it!
Trotters Independant Travel - Really!
The fort in Jaisalmer is a living fort, 25% of the town's residents live within it's walls making it a very different experience to the monuments we have seen so far. Quite busy and vibrant and full of tourists and the inevitable bazaars to ply t shirts and other tourist tat. We did a guided audio tour and made the most of the viewpoints over the desert town, see below...
Ana had a very close encounter with a local cow- fortunately a young one with no horns, as it butted her up the bum to get her out of the way! As cows are sacred I assume this sort of thing is considered good luck or a blessing but it looked painful!
back to the hotel to change rooms as the shower didn't work, only to find that the toilet didn't work in the new 'super delux' room! Settled in to an evening of the star movie channel, a channel showing English speaking movies from 15 years ago or modern tripe! So I am afraid to say we watched Titanic until we had a power cut and when the generator kicked in we watched terminator 2 before an early night as we were up at 5am for the camel safari next day.
We bumped into Sobu a little early en route to Trotters, he called us over to join him and his friends for chai before heading across to meet our fellow intrepid travellers to get a jeep into the desert.
Just the 4 of us it turned out, we met Kim and Harold in the Jeep, they turned out to be great guys, slightly older travellers from Holland but living in Norway. Funny and interesting and mercilessly taking the mick of any unsuspecting gullible people (me). We'd spotted both Kim and Harold in Jodhpur at our last hotel but hadn't got round to chatting so was good to catch up.
We met up with Issa the camel driver who lives in the desert and Sola, his apprentice who meant have been much more than 10. We met our camels (mine, Calu was sporting the festive tinsel round his neck)
And saddled up for a 3 hour trek into the Great Thar desert. We stopped for lunch under a tree at the height of the heat for a few hours and Isaa prepared a veg curry And chapatis from scratch over a fire.
A group of women had crossed the desert to the well we were nearby. There was nothing for miles and they appeared like a mirage :) At this point Kim had convinced Andy that they'd come to get water AND fish out of the well! Who would've thought it- fish in the desert well... Of course Andy Rotton did :-) Hence the good banter between the Dutch and ourselves, it certainly helped so cheers And ;-)
Another few hours on the camels through the burning sun (which involved a pit stop for Ana who nearly fainted and was nursed to better health by Kim- a nurse!) and we arrived at the Bigi dunes in time for sunset and to set up camp for the night. camp was a fire using dried bushes and a thin mattress each on the sand and a warm duvet. We sat around the fire and ate another meal prepared from scratch and chatted the night away with Issa, Harold and Kim. The temperature plummeted and we retired to our beds for warmth and the best nights sleep I have had in India, the cicadas the only noise and if you were brave enough to poke your head out into the freezing night air the stars and full moon were spectacular for as long as you could stand the cold before ducking back under cover.
We headed back the next morning, with outrageous camel sore and still a little tender a few days on. Camel Safari Photo highlights follow....
Andy does the distant explorer look
I make a camel train shadow puppet using only my hands
An unhappy camel - it wasn't even carrying Andy
camel prints
Ana pretending not to be offended by the camel smell
Lunch spot - the only real shade for miles
Smiling through the pain of camel sore
What do camel do at night? Stand around and smell mostly...
Sola - making breakfast
Very festive, the 3 kings on camels, and me at the back
Next day I figured the Robinson Crusoe look had got a bit much and headed to Peru's ( a barber) for a 'close shave' I was as still as a statue as he used the cutthroat razor with flashes of the Sweeny Todd movie running through my head and despite Ana and Peru's best efforts, I insisted in not being left with an Indian look 'tash which seems so popular here!
A giant tip if you dont cut my ear off
I'm alive!
We left Jaisalmer with good memories, new friends and my faith restored (Ana) in Indians! ...
I hope you sang 'we three kings'
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