Jaisamler- The Golden City

Our arrival into Jaisalmer was not as expected. We had planned to walk to the fort and find the accommodation we had earmarked for that night, inside the walls of the fort itself. However, 2 stops before our disembarkation on the outskirts of town a couple of ''locals' got on and started inviting us to take their company car to our accommodation for 20rs. We initially refused, used to scams like this, but on the 4th enquiry and reassurance they would take us straight there we agreed (a decision coloured by the approach of the fort which was quite a climb away).

We should have stuck by our first decision. On nearing the fort entrance they guys started telling us about a family run place near to where we were heading for only 150rs a night, showing us a leaflet with pictures and info about it. To be honest it looked okay, but we refused and insisted to be taken where originally asked. They then said that we could have a look at the place but that if we did not like it, they would take us to our accommodation. On this proviso, we did have a look and decided that actually it was a better location - the room was fine and clean. Quite honestly I was annoyed at the pushiness of the driver, but the room is a bargain; a compromise in our morals?

After a rather hot and sticky night (its even hotter and drier here than anywhere else) we decided our first area of business was to reserve our train ticket to Bikaner for the following day. A couple of wrong turns later and a disagreement with a rickshaw driver later, we were at the station. Jaisalmer train station is an impressive building, made of the same golden sandstone as many other buildings in the city and unlike other stations, seemed to be orderly and clean. Our mood improved further when we arranged our seats with minimal hassle.

We found our own unique route back to the fort, via back streets and many sad faced cows, only a couple of times wondering if we really were doing the right thing in taking the 'scenic route'. Luckily 20mins later we found ourselves surrounded by the (comforting?) hub-bub of street sellers that line the streets leading up to the fort area.

Our first destination once we had climbed the steep path and entered through the gates was a cafe for breakfast (it now being 11am and not having had dinner the night before) then onto the Jain temple complex. The temple is impressively imposing from the outside, although devilishly hard to find amongst the tightly packed streets inside the fort. Intrinsically carved stonework surrounds you both inside and outside the building, and one has to wonder how long it took to create such beauty. Once inside, you can explore all 7 of the interlinking rooms - temples - which combine both Jain and Hindu imagery (and , as in our case, try to escape the friendly but persistent guides). Well worth a visit.

Following this we made our way to the Palace Museum - the main stop on our tour of the town. Apart from the carved stone fretwork, the building almost blends into the others around it, but once inside the purpose of the place becomes more apparent. It has been standing in that spot for over 800 years but unfortunately as it is built of sandstone the foundations are rapidly being eroded by the increase in water use buy surrounding buildings within the fort. Work is being done to rectify the problem of excess 'run off' water, but some areas of the palace are already being affected. It is actually on the 'World's 100 most endangered sites' list - hopefully this will give them the financial backing they need.

The audio tour was informative and helped us understand a little more about how the inhabitants lived in such an arguably inhospitable place. Although it was nowhere near as impressive as Meherangarh in Jodhpur, it was interesting to see the oldest inhabited fort and palace in the world. The marble flooring and masonry work was impressive, but that came second to the colonies of bats that were just 'hanging around'! I have never seen them out of a cave setting before, but here they were, partly awake and dive bombing tourists in the heat of the day! Only in India.

We wandered around the streets a little more, taking in a couple of viewpoints where we could gaze across the 'golden city' before making our way back to our accommodation. The hotel manager who was so keen to get us in last night seemed keen to get rid of us to another hotel when we arrived- perhaps because we told him quite plainly that we weren't going to go on his camel safari into the desert. We stood our ground and told he we weren't moving. He annoyed us so much with this that we decided we would employ a little trick that we had learnt on our audio tour of the palace. Back then, they soaked cloth with water and hung them around the maharajahs room to help reduce the temperature due to the cooling effect of the evaporating water. As this seemed such a good idea, we decided to soak the curtains and towels in a bucket of water and hang them around the room. Amazingly, it made a noticeable difference to the temperature.

That evening we got a bite to eat and enjoyed a fine view of the fort in the cool of the evening before catching a train to Bikaner the next day to see the rat temple.

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