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Published: June 19th 2010
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The Exquisite 8th July Restaurant (serving both Marmite and Vegemite-happy Brits and Aussies) in JaisalmerAfter a very early start and a freezing cold shower we packed ourselves and our now rather well travelled rucksacks into autorickshaws and wound our way down the narrow streets of Jodhpur to the train station for our next train journey to Jaisalmer. The platform was deserted aside from the chai sellers and a man selling food from his wagon. We bought some breakfast and waited for the train.
It seemed whenever we got on a train at any point in India things were always calm until the train arrived and then this mad frenzied rush occured to get on, find out where the hell we were meant to be and which beds or seats were ours. After all the effort, you would nearly always find someone asleep in your spot or a family who looked like they'd been living there happily for several months. This time a guy was half sitting, half lying down where we were supposed to be and had cunningly wrapped his scarf completely around his head so we couldn't tell if he was awake or asleep! We found a good booth to sit next to a window and settled down for the trip. The doors
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Rooftops in Jaisalmer at the end of end compartment of the train are open so you can go and stand and watch the countryside, or in this case, the desert roll by. The shrubs seemed sparser and less green the further we went and the ground turner golden in the early morning sun. Next to us were a group of young men from Delhi who were 'computer students'. They were very interested in us and we were astonished how they managed to come up with as many questions about us as was humanly possible to reasonably ask a stranger! We tried to show interest in them too but they were persistent and keen to recommend us to people/shops in Delhi. They had never been to Jaisalmer either so we exchanged the kind of knowledge you have before you go somewhere: all the places you 'must see', the places you 'must eat at' and the bargainning power/money-extracting capabilities of the local businessmen- which according to them was fabled in Jaisalmer. We were told that the local Jaisalmers were descended from the travelling salesmen and women who covered long distances on exotic trade routes, crossing the Thar desert trading between India and Pakistan. They told
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Wedding invitation, Jaisalmer us essentially that native Jaisalmeres are skilled gypsies and that their extraordinary cunning and well-honed skills of persuasion were genetically inherited! These rumours were confirmed by Papi who said that the initial prices quoted by Jaisalmer's tradesmen were eye-wateringly high compared to even the tourist hot-spots we have visited in Rajasthan. We looked at each other with raised eyebrows anticipating the crowd that would surround and follow us from the train!
Well we were proved right, but having said that Jaisalmer was definately my favourite part of the trip. Jaisalmer is the last desert town before you enter the proper Thar desert, surrounded by vast sand dunes. The town is called 'The Golden City' and this is not over-romanticised, it actually is gold in the sun. We were surprised, for a desert town to see so much greenery and foliage, it seemed strange in an area where water is so much scarcer. The town itself circles the fort which has to be the most beautiful we've seen yet, a massive sand castle with a fairy tale-like feeling to it. Around the base of the fort but inside it's walls are a little higgledy-piggledy maze of streets filled with beautifully
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Beautiful doorways, Jaisalmer carved havelis, some older, some newer and these were not ancient monuments but actual homes for people so life was going on full swing within them. We stayed outside the fort as the Lonely Planet guide anxiously advised us to, to protect the delicate infrastructure of the city's ancient plumbing system. This is struggling to pump enough water inside the fort and at the same time slowly destroying it, several anceint bastions have already collapsed. At least we sensed an awareness from the local people that this was the case, but as always it's making money now vs. perserving world heritage sites. Short-sightedness gets you no-where but then you have to eat, hmmm. Having say that the people here were well clothed, looked well-fed and although there were some beggars around the fort entrance, most people were making a living, mainly off tourist-related things such as camel safaris (more on that later!).
It was a short walk from our fairly basic hotel to the main town and we again came across the ubiquitous cows grazing in large numbers all over the place. The handicraft stalls were particularly impressive here, but as mentionned, a fair effort at bargainning is required.
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Beautiful doorways, Jaisalmer I took a fancy to some large camel-hide bound photo albums which were beautifully decorated, the guy asked for the equivalent of £20 each! Easiest thing to do is walk away, the price drops and this guy even followed me through about 3 streets decreasing his price. Sadly for him, another man with the same beautiful goods was quoting a lower price, we haggled and then I bought from him instead. They are gorgeous, although i'm not sure as a vegetarian that I can square the camel-hide with my conscience, but they are gorgeous and definately something i'd never find elsewhere.
We wandered around exploring the streets, Papi showing us painted murals on the wall which were wedding invitations with a smiling Ganesh in the centre which invites everyone who see it, nice! We also saw a man milking a cow, something we hadn't seen yet in India (no idea why) but he had a job as it seemed the cow had other ideas....wondering why it was being detained by a mere human, it kept walking off! It was funny to watch. There was a real sense of community here within the fort and we could also be a
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A private haveli, Jaisalmer little nosy and look inside open doorways into people's houses. It was great fun!
Next some of us decided to peel off from the rest of the group and visit the Salim Singh Haveli. This man was a very ambitious and clever prime minister in Jaisalmer over 300 years ago. He was quite a ruthless leader by all accounts and was cruel to the people he governed, causing many to leave their towns, there are still deserted 'ghost towns' today! He was a power hungry guy, very keen to be socially upwardly mobile, something which is evident from this building. We got an excellent guided tour of his cleverly designed home. It is narrow at the base but opens out up at the top to lavishly designed rooms. The haveli has no cement or mortar between its perfectly cut tongue-and-groove bricks and there are hundreds of stone decorations which can be added or taken away according to the occasion! These can be seen in the photos under the main widened area at the top. These screw in like bayonets and each area of the haveli is decorated slightly differently! The whole place is an amazing work of architecture and
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Beautiful haveli window I have never heard of temporary stone decorations on a building anywhere before. Salim Singh was also a desperately suspicious man who built in many features of the house to protect himself incase of attack. The steps of the staircase are vastly uneven to confuse an attacker at night whereas his own staff would have the stair heights perfectly memorised. The doorways are low causing a person entering to have to bend their head, all the family rooms which may have housed women particularly have doors like this so if an intruder is suspected, an axe or some other weapon can be brought down from the side of the door, beheading him with relative ease. There were lots of other modifications such as very difficult to find hiding places etc. This was such a cooly-thought out place, mind you Salim Singh was not shy! The guide told us about Salim Singh's secret wish to equalise himself with the Maharaja, increasing the height of this building was seen as a direct challenge, as no-one's home should be higher than the rulers. He apparently had plans to make some sort of attachment from his haveli to the Fort for ease of access.
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Fort early morning Fortunately this never happened as he was murdered, despite all the well-designed defensive tricks in this building! Really enjoyed this place, certainly worth a look and a guide!
Papi took us to the rooftop of a favourite internet cafe of his and we watched the sunset over the desert horizon. We went for a meal in an excellent restaurant outside the fort with billowing canvas above our heads whilst the delicious food kept coming and we were played to by local musicians playing instruments (mainly percussion) which I had never seen before. Each guy got his chance to do a little solo performance and they were all really good. Big tips then wandering back amongst the howling dogs via the 'Bear and Wine' shop to our hotel.
Tomorrow we start our camel safari into the Sam Sand Dunes, can't wait to ride a camel!
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