Rajasthan Part 2 (Jodhpur - Jaisalmer)

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We continued our adventures in Rajasthan with a quick stop in Jodhpur, known as ‘the blue city’ thanks to the bright blue painted houses of the old city. Our main purpose in coming here was to visit the mighty Meherangarh - the old fort of Jodhpur - which absolutely towers over the rest of the city. It really is nothing short of awesome, everything a fort should be - imposing, grand and beautiful, with formidable walls on the outside and intricately carved decorations on the inside. It is easily the best fort we have seen in our two months in India and so worth the stopover (for us, we didn’t find that Jodhpur offered that much else). After a day spent admiring the fort we jumped on a bus for a very dusty ride to Jaisalmer - ‘the golden city’.

Arriving in Jaisalmer we felt as if we were walking rupees in a crowd of beggars. There were touts absolutely everywhere, we couldn’t even move without someone trying to drag us away, shove a leaflet in our face or take our bags into their rickshaw. They even got on the bus one stop before Jaisalmer and started hassling us there. Thankfully, we had arranged a hotel pickup... but even then they tried to get us to recruit other Westerners on the bus for them. It was madness.

Jaisalmer fort dominated the landscape, closely resembling a giant sandcastle atop a sea of golden houses (and camel safari salesmen). Whilst Jaisalmer fort was amazing, the surrounding city was not to be discounted. On our first day, in between dodging more camel safari salesmen, cows and whatever else India tends to throw at you, we checked out some of the city’s most magnificent havelis (grand old houses with elaborate decoration usually built by wealthy citizens). They were amazing, with the largest and most magnificent of them all - Patwa-ki-Haveli, resembling a small palace.

After wandering through the streets of Jaisalmer we were keen to check out the fort. Unfortunately this was not to be however, as I was assaulted by a pigeon leaving my whole left side covered in bird crap. It was like having a water bomb dropped on me, but without the water. As a result the day was cut short and I had to go back to the hotel to shower and then eat to recover from this life scarring event.

Keen to pick up where we left off, after switching hotels to one actually inside the fort (ok, so this is apparently unsustainable but it was better and cheaper than the one we had outside the fort AND 25% of Jaisalmer’s population themselves live in the fort) we checked out our surroundings. So, as mentioned, the fort is home to a large portion of the population of the city, as well as numerous hotels, restaurants, shops as well as seven Jain temples and of course, the Maharaja’s palace. We spent the majority of the day checking out the latter two.

The Jain Temples were quite amazing. Built between the 12th and 16th centuries, each temple was intricately carved with figures reflecting the Jain religion, with each temple connected to another forming an almost maze like structure. In the afternoon we checked out the Maharaja’s palace. We both found the palace to be fairly so-so, especially after seeing the palace in Udaipur and the fort in Jodhpur. The museum just wasn’t as good and there seemed to be a lot of construction work going on. The views from the top of the palace over surrounding Jaisalmer were amazing, but definitely not enough to make us want to go back.

Whilst in Jaisalmer, the thing to do is a camel safari in the Thar Desert. We opted for an overnight two day safari, so the following morning after an early start we found ourselves plodding through the desert atop very large camels. We rode the camels for about 5 hours each day, visiting desert villages on the way and despite having very sore backsides at the end (I somehow ended up with really bad rope burn on mine!!) we had great fun. We slept on the sand dunes after watching the sunset and swapped stories of India with the other travellers on the safari with us. We slept surprisingly well, despite waking up sometime around 3am to find ourselves absolutely surrounded by massive wild camels. They were everywhere with a new one materialising out of the darkness at every moment. It is very disturbing to wake up and find a camel half a metre from your head. Anyway, we managed to get the trek leader to chase them away, but I had to check that every remaining camel (the ones that we were riding) was adequately harnessed, before heading back to sleep.
We had originally planned after the camel safari to jump on a train and head north to Amritsar. However, there was no train directly to Amritsar, meaning that we would have to stay overnight at Bikaner before moving on. Unfortunately, seeing as we lost so many days with our Delhi Belly earlier in the trip, this was just not possible, meaning sadly, Amritsar had to be scratched from the itinerary in favour of a couple more days in Jaisalmer. So instead of seeing the wonders of the Golden Temple and the India-Pakistan border closing ceremony, we spent the next few days recovering from the camel safari and wandering around the fort before jumping on a very long (20 hours!) and dusty train to Delhi... our last stop in India.

That’s all for now,

Kate xox

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Comments

[erin]

Hello!
Stumbled onto your blog while trying to find out information on Udaipur. It looks like we're doing your exact route, only in reverse. We got the exact same photo of the child beer sign! And also got crapped on by a pidgeon. I'm glad to hear that you aren't such a walking ATM in the south, it's been driving me crazy. (edtraveling.blogspot.com)

[Marianne]

Brilliant photos
Hello, just wanted to say that the photos in your blog are really good. I went to India with a group of friends last summer and saw both of these places so seeing the photos brought back some brilliant memories...although having to end in Dehli wasn't the best part of the trip!

[James Waller]

"I had to go back to the hotel to shower and then eat to recover from this Jodhpur life scarring event." - I knew you'd regret not taking your biohazard suit with you eventually. "It is very disturbing to wake up and find a camel half a metre from your head." - Also great to know that while you might be changing India, it isn't changing you, haha. The blue city looked phenomenal, I know that word has been oft used in my analysis of your travels but it's oh so true. I am also sure the camel safari was rewarding, although two days riding is a little backside reliant for my liking (and seemingly for you too). Shocked you scrapped the golden temple though, that would probably have been the one thing I'd have ensured I saw.

[Kaaate]

Not travelling to Amritstar was one of the hardest decisions we have had to make on this trip. You have to understand, if it was up to us, we would have gone. However, it was only once we got to Jaisalmer we realised that we couldn't go to Amritsar directly (even if a train line connects it, doesn't mean there is a train running!) and once there we simply didn't have enough time. It would have taken almost 3 days straight travelling (Jaisalmer has no active airport due to its proximity to the Pakistan border) which would have given us 1 day in Amritsar and then a day to get to Dehli by train to get the flight out. As we have come to realise, it is not unusual for trains to be cancelled due or many hours late. You'll see sometimes things don't work out when you are travelling and thats just the way it is. Not to concerned though as I am already planning a return journey taking in much of the North West and North East I didn't get to see. You need at least 6 months to do India justice, so really, I'm not even halfway there!