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Published: March 24th 2009
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Jaisalmer express from old delhi to jaisalmer arrived almost an hour late at the platform. we were in 2nd ac coach number A1. we rushed to the only second ac coach with our heavy luggage but the door was locked. the coach has AE written on it with chalk. we went to the other end of the coach hoping there was a reservation chart on it, but there was none and it was locked too. after some bumpy to and from motion from one end of the coach to another in which we frequently lost sight of each other and kept in touch by shouting in the crowd i finally managed to find a railway official who confirmed that AE was A1 and some angel opened the door. count on the indian railways to make your holidays exciting.
we reached jaisalmer and i nodded to the first fellow who asked if we wanted a taxi. 10 rupees per head, he said. it was a nice well maintained seven seater and i enquired at least 10 times if he was indeed asking for forty rupees only. the hotel though out of the city is near the station, still forty rupees is
very cheap. i was to find the hiden cost later in the day.
checked in hotel jaisalgarh. it is a new hotel, we had a 50% discount deal from citibank magic holidays. nice peaceful place away from the maddening crowds. not exactly five star but nice clean place with extra helpful staff. it is a new hotel away from the hustle and bustle of crowded city centre. just a few minutes drive from the railway station.in fact we can see the hotel from the train entering the station. the hotel staff promptly pounced on the luggage as soon as the taxi stopped. we had booked in advance and they were ready. all smiles. going out of their way to provide us with adjoining rooms. upgraded one of our rooms free of cost. even plush five star hotels can't provide such service.
we had an amazing deal which effectively gave us one out of two nights free stay for both rooms on rates indicated on their site. true value for money, sply if you dont use jacuzzi, spa and pool. we end up paying for all that in five stars even when we dont use them.
some disadvantages of not
being a top luxury hotel were also there. like no tandoori food, no ice (they did provide chilled water and soda), seepage in their walls, sluggish drainage of the flushes and no bar. they did make it up by providing excellent freshly prepared food. though the choice was limited it was prepared after we placed the order, chicken curry had authentic taste. food was clean , well cooked and hygienic. my experience as a traveller in India helped me as i had my own liquids. it is always advisable to have authentic stuff from delhi rather than searching in local vends or paying through the nose in luxury hotels.
the sweet dish was a disappointment. they said it was rice pudding or kheer. it was rice pudding all right, but kheer it certainly was not.
dhanraj ranmal bhatia is the best sweet shop in jaisalmer. it is near the fort. we got rasmalais from there for our dinner sweet dish for the second day.
we did had to make some adjustments, but not complaining at the rates we got. the hotel needs to solve its seepage problems, surprising why it is there in a brand new hotel.
i called
up the same taxi driver for a drive to sam sand dunes, 1800, he said, he had gained my confidence so i did not bargain much and settelled for 1500 rupees. the actual ongoing rate was around 1000 rupees i was told later. this has given anupama a lot of ammunition to use about my bargaining power in our future arguments.
it was cloudy and drizzling when we reached sam sand dunes. we were immediately sorrounded by camel owners and mobbed for a camel ride. we opted for a camel cart which was pretty basic. anshul had a seat (see last photo )which made him nervous as he had read about the flatulous nature of the beast. from what we had read at the net we were expecting a long camel drive to reach the dunes, but they were right there, just on the left side of the road. we were in the thick of things within a few minutes. sand dunes all around and high dusty winds and heavy clouds. we thought we we caught in a sand storm and imagined being covered by huge sand dunes in a matter of minutes. it was dark and cloudy and
very windy. anupama started shouting at the top of her voice " bhaiya wapas chalo".
it stopped as soon as it had started. but we were already on our way back. we chose to walk on the dunes, and it was surprisingly easy. we could chose our spots rather than being taken to crowded "points" by the camels. we visited the dunes the next day too, thankfully the sun was out so we could see different golden colours of the evening rather than the varying shades of grey we saw the previous evening. we asked the taxi driver to park a bit further away from the normal parking and trekked to a beautiful high dune to watch the sunset. anshul had a handycam all by himself and was busy filming the dung beetles and the lovely scenery.
jaisalmer is a nice quite place with a lot of hotels. law and order is very good. people are very friendly. a lot of foreign tourists visit the place for long desert safaris. they prefer the ganga sand dunes near khurri as it is quieter and less crowded. the sand dunes are higher too. we chose sam sand dunes as we
wanted instant view of dunes without too much of a camel ride and were not perticulalry interested in village life. our guide wanted to push us in a desert safari camp in khurri with village life and folk dances and dinner under the stars etc. we are not so adventerous so we opted to go to sam again. if you have some time at your hand i am told khurri is a good place to visit.
jaisalmer is a nice place for indian tourists too, specially if you are wondering where to visit after seeing the mountains and beaches and rivers and jungles. we took a tour of the city and fort and havelis. not a detailed tour, just a walk around with polite "no no" as answers to our guides querries if we wanted to see things in detail. historical things dont excite me much specially with guides of dubious knowledge guiding us around. my personal preference during a holiday is to see natural beauty and eat some good food. our food bills almost equalled the amount billed for the rooms!!!
visit www.anishawasthi.com for all my blogs, photos, videos etc.
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Niranjan
non-member comment
nice blog
Hi Anish, I liked the blog, has some relevant details like how much a taxi guy would charge..to go to the sanddunes. thanks