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Published: October 3rd 2007
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Jaisalmer - Gaelle and Papu
Just after we arrived, having a chai on the roof terrace. Papu is a cousin of the 4 brothers running this place, and also the organizer of the camel safaris. Each of them is very friendly. At first, I was hesitant to trust him, but I know better now. The train ride from Delhi to Jaisalmer is my longest train ride so far. The normal duration is 20 hours, but it took us 23 hours. We almost missed it, so we were a little stressed but relieved at first. Fortunately, we shared seats with a nice Spanish couple. We expected the journey to be long (which it was) and boring, but somehow time went by easily thanks to a little "entertainment". We started exchanging experiences, so I told him my Srinigar story and how I feel like a www... an Indian guy who was sitting right across me had overheard the conversation and suddenly told me with a strong voice to stop talking about India like this. For more than half an hour we were arguing on the topic of the cheating that goes on in India. He claimed that maybe only 10% of the Indian people are like that, and it is the same in every country in the world. I couldn't really agree with him, and diplomacy is not really my nature. I always defend what I believe, sometimes the price is heavy discussion. He calmed down after a while though, possibly because Gaelle mentioned the name of
the CEO of the company he works for. He turned out to be a nice guy. The rest of the evening, we were entertained by a pur-sang salesman, trying to talk us into subscribing into a pyramid networking system. The article is a "bio-disc" that will heal you and give you more energy, and neutralize the influences of all kinds of disturbing energies coming from mobile phones and so on. The holy grail basically.
Arriving at the train station was almost worse than arriving in Delhi. Just a little too many taxi drivers, hotel boys and travel agents jumping at us. The 4 of us took a jeep together, and had ourselves driven to a hotel that is in the Lonely Planet. We could not have found a better place than this, and trust me, I am a critical customer when it comes to things like this. For those heading this way, take this advice (if you don't mind spending a little more than the cheapest rooms) : Shahi Palace Hotel (www.shahipalacehotel.com). The people are the friendliest I have met so far, and know perfectly what we - spoiled westerners - like and dislike. So no pushing, wonderfully decorated
Jaisalmer - Our room
This is the room we got when we first arrived. The one we have now is larger and nicer. rooms, normal toilets with toilet paper, nice atmosphere, cleanliness incomparable to 90% of the other budget hotels, and a restaurant on the roof terrace where you can enjoy salads that are washed in mineral water. View of the Fort makes it a magical experience. Almost too good to be true after Delhi. But it is true. Just look at the pictures.
So after a nice post-23hr-train-ride shower and a good rest, we went out to explore the village and the Fort. And yes, the inevitable has happened: I have a diarrhea. So as we were visiting little shops and Gaelle enjoyed herself talking to the shop owners, I had to run for whatever toilet I could find. It sucked the energy out of me very quickly, so I was not in a socializing mood myself. The Fort Palace is the perfect setting for a 1001 nights movie. The finesse of the architecture and craftsmanship is beyond imagination. It's always hard to describe places like this, because there is so much to be said about it. Gaelle and I imagined living in a place like this, almost like living in a fairy tale. Oh and some of the royals who
ruled this place had Dutch tiles (Delfts blauw) in their bedrooms...
After the museum, we had dinner in a small Tibetan restaurant inside the Fort walls. No spicy experiments for me this time: I had a spaghetti :=)). The owner is a yoga teacher, and offered to teach us some yoga (for free, because he feels that charging money would corrupt his motivation to teach yoga) after our desert safari. So we plan to go for that tomorrow morning, as early as possible.
We just finished dinner here in the hotel (we got an even better room for the same price as the first room), after returning from our camel trip and washing off the camel smells. I hope the pictures give a good idea of how it was. My primary reason to visit the desert was to experience the silence, but I think 2 days is too short to fulfill that. Nevertheless, it was magic. We took the "non touristic route", leaving at 9AM yesterday and returning around 6PM today. The jeep drove us about 20km into the desert. The first part was still vegetated, mostly with cactus's and dry bushes. Then there were some hills and it
Jaisalmer - Sadhu?? right...
He asked 100 INR for a rope bracelet, so we gave him nothing. But this is not exactly Sadhu behaviour, is it? got a little rockier. The day ended by the actual sand dunes. The sand dunes didn't cover a very large area, so it didn't exactly have a Namibian desert or Saharan feel to it, but it's a start. Gaelle had been a little afraid that the camel trip would not be her thing, but the experience proved her fears to be invalid. The camels turned out to be the sweetest creatures in the world. Strong and proud, but yet a very shy and soft nature. Their heads with big eyes that stick out reminded us a little of E.T. Sitting on a camel gets to be painful, but that's part of the game. And so is the camel in front of me having diarrhea. But I changed positions after lunch today and sat on the middle camel, so the camel behind me got a little taste of my diarrhea smells too... sweet revenge ;-)
We hadn't realized when we signed up that there would be no tent for us, so we got to sleep under 1001 stars, and saw the milky way pass over our heads. The hotel guy told us tonight that they do not bring tents because
they want to make the experience as authentic as possible, allowing tourists to get the feel of how the camel people live and forcing tourists to have conversations with them, as opposed to just having them take care of the camels and cook food. But sleeping in dirty blankets was not necessary for me, so we were very happy to have our own sleeping bags. The people who live here know each other and know exactly where we are, so I wasn't sure how to protect my backpack. I fell asleep at some point and had a nightmare about us getting robbed in our sleep. In my dream, I had decided to start yelling in order to alarm our guides, so I woke up with a loud scream and scared Gaelle. I was also a little worried about spiders, snakes or scorpions, but the only creatures that bothered us, were beetles. They are cute, and so are the traces they leave behind in the sand, but you don't want them jumping on your face when you sleep. They didn't bother me so much, because my sleeping bag has a cap, but Gaelle had little sleep because of it.
The
Jaisalmer - Antiques
For less than 3000 Euros, this one is delivered at your door. If only I had the money! ride back seemed easier to me than the way up, but maybe that's just because I got a little used to it. We had a long rest after lunch, and then it was only a small trip to where the jeep picked us up.
The plan for tomorrow is pure wellness: yoga first, a swim in the afternoon (a swimming pool of another hotel), and an ayurvedic massage. The next day, we will probably shop around some more. In the late evening, we will take a night train to Jodhpur.
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ross
non-member comment
swinging
Hi Sabrina - it really looks like you are getting into the swing of things .. (on the Indian adventure) now. It sounds like you are having fun notwithstanding the people, the elements and tummy trouble. best regards Ross and Tracey