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Published: July 29th 2011
Udaipur to Jaisalmer
The bus to Jaisalmer is... interesting. Its a 12 hour journey through mountains overnight. There are no A/C buses, but we're on a sleeper at least. The sleeper bus has sliding windows on both the inside and outside of our +1 bunks. You can close them both and be in a coffin of tinted windows, or you can open the exterior and have only a small bar to hold you from falling out onto the road. Its too hot to have the window closed, so all night I'm paranoid of my backpack falling out the open window. The window is literally level with the bunk and there is only a small bar to hold you in!
At about dawn, the bus stops in Jodhpur, about 2/3 of the way to Jaisalmer. The driver and a bunch of other guys are yelling at everyone and making a lot of noise to herd us off the bus onto another bus. We all get our same bunks on the new bus so its not so bad, but thanks for the warning, people! There's a stream of grumpy, 1/2 alseep tourists trudging through the dirt from one bus to the
other.
After another couple hours pass the trees give way to small shrubs and the farmland gives way to sand. Everything is a burnt orange colour and the scorching sun is really starting to heat up the landscape. The bus gets hotter and hotter until at about 10 am we finally see the ancient fort city of Jaisalmer rise out of the desert. Its called the fairy tale city for good reason. The fort is on a mound of dirt hundreds of feet above the surrounding desert and glows golden against the blue sky.
Jaisalmer
We've met a French girl on the bus who's arranged tuk tuk transportation to a hotel inside the fort, so we're going to tag along with her to see this hotel. Before we can get off the hot, dusty bus, other drivers are on us like vultures. Its been like 16 hours of busing, so I'm in no mood for tuk tuks today and I push them out of the bus in front of me. Our bags are COVERED with orange dust from the 'trunk' in the back of the bus. As I grab my bag from a driver to dust it
off and keep him from taking it, the drivers have surrounded me in a tight circle and they're all yelling and waving their hands. I can't pick out what they're saying, but I manage to mumble that I'm with some friends and we have a driver and I don't need a tuk tuk, no, I don't need a tuk tuk, no, thank you, no tuk tuks, oh my eyes hurt, where are my sunglasses, I'm sweating already, damn the bag is so dirty, no, no tuk tuks thank you, please let me get my sunglasses from my bag, no I don't need a tuk tuk, my friends are over there, I'm going with them. At this point I'm starting to go a little insane from the heat, a headache from dehydration, the yelling, the tight crowd won't let me get inside my backpack. It all comes to a point and I stand up and actually start yelling at the drivers and tell them to SHUT the F*CK UP!!!!! They immediately go silent and take a step back. Instantly I'm a bit remorseful and apologize and tell them its just a bit too loud to function. They're all repeating what I
shouted and look a bit perplexed. I mean, this IS their livelyhood, but there's only so much a person can take after a 16 hour bus ride in 45 degree heat. Anyways, it definitely shut them up! I'm able to finally unzip the small side pocket in my bag to get my sunglasses.
By this time, Trung and Sandrine (having been ignored because they're not a tall blone guy) are already loaded in the Tuk Tuk. I'm able to pull away from my semi-silent pack of drivers and walk over to their waiting tuk tuk. Thank god for Sandrine to get us out of there!
The tuk tuk proceeds to wind its way through the ancient city of Jaisalmer towards the main gate of the fort which towers over the city. After passing through the main gate, which is on the same level as the city, the road passes through several more gates as it steeply climbs through several switchbacks to get to the top level of the fort. The fort also has a small city within its walls, which now has been transformed more into a large tourist trap rather than an ancient city, however the houses
and streets are extremely intricately carved out of the golden coloured sandstone and its amazingly beautiful. Our hotel is at the end of a small quiet street that we have to walk up. From the outside it looks like an average building, but its actually built into the wall of the fort. Sandrine's room actually looks out over the city, 100's of feet below. The roof of the hotel is the top of the fort wall and the curved ramparts are seating areas for the restaurant. Its all extremely stunning. Our hotel is only 150 rupees per night, or about $1.50 each.
Sandrine is only spending 1 night in Jaisalmer before continuing on her tour of India, so we're off quickly in the early afternoon after settling in at the hotel. The heat is already scorching, but its very dry so I'm not sweating constantly and its actually quite pleasant. After a quick walk around the old fort (which is only a few hundred feet across at the top of the plateau) we decide to walk down to the village and explore. The walk down through the gates is extremely hot and the public market at the base of
the road at the main gate is like an oven. There is only a small group of brave women selling bracelets under the only tree in the square. The imposing wall of the fort reflects the sunlight and the heat into the square, baking everything. Its seriously one of the hottest places I've ever experienced.
Once we're into the tight winding streets of the old town its a small bit cooler becuase of the shade from the buildings, but the sandstone is a great heat sink and traps the heat of the day and reflects it back. We take several rest stops during the day to cool off and drink cold drinks. At one point we realize that the cutlery and glassware on the table actually feels hot. We're in a shaded space with fans, but everything is hot to the touch, inculding my camera, which feels like its overheating, but really its off and just sitting on the table.
Sandstorm!
Later that afternoon we make the trek to 'sunset point' on an opposite hill from the fort. Its a beautiful sight and several kids living in huts on the side of the hill come out to
ask for candy and get their picture taken. Suddenly the light changes drastically and there's a huge black cloud coming over the hill. I think its going to rain quite soon, but before it gets a chance to rain a huge blanket of stinging sand comes on the wind before the storm. The entire city turns to a milky white and we're left walking through the streets trying to get the sand out of our mouths and eyes. Because we're mostly in the tight laneways the sand is just falling vertically, we're out of the wind. As we round the bend and start climbing back up to the fort we're at the mercy of mother nature. The last two gates into the fort are just large funnels caused by the towering walls and we're sand-blasted as we run through the long tunnel into the fort.
That evening the sand settled down but the rain never came. It's really hot in our room, so Trung decides to sleep up on the roof. The curved battlements on the walls are covered with thick pillows for the restaurant and several other people are up on the roof and getting ready to sleep.
The sounds of the town below (which is filled with wedding parties, more roving 'music trucks', fireworks and a huge dry lightning storm) are too loud for me to sleep, so I just settle into a pillow bed to read for awhile in the cool air. Plus, I'm afraid of sleepwalking right off the wall and landing on somebody, like 200 feet straight down. The 'railing' on the edge of the wall only extends to my knees!
The following day is spent much the same as the previous day. We wander the streets of the old city, which still has a very vivid feeling of living 500 years ago. Aside from a few modern shops, most places are tailors and shoe salesmen, and everything is hand made. Trung and I want to get tailored linen shirts made so we can blend with the rest of India. We finally find a guy who is willing to make us some shirts for only 250 rupees, or about 7 dollars. The following day when we pick them up, they're a bit wonkey, but they're made out of super light cotton, linenish stuff, and they're really breezy. The new word for our shirts
is 'floopy'. My shirt pocket is two times too big and wraps almost to my armpit, and soon the button holes are large enough for the shirt to come undone in the wind a la Michael Jackson, but its ok, its the best shirt ever!
Jaisalmer to Jaipur
The following day is time for our train out of Jaisalmer to the first city on the 'Golden Triangle', so named because of the sheer volume of tourists who arrive in Delhi and travel to Agra (the Taj Mahal) and then Jaipur, our next destination. The train is on time, but we're quite early, so we become aquainted at the quiet station with some bag fixers. These guys have duffel bags full of thread, large needles, zippers of all shapes and sizes, and chains to keep your bag safe on the train. It takes some convincing, but they finally leave us alone and stop poking my bag with their needles and explaining why the straps are about to break. There's a really timid dog sleeping under our bench at the station which I partially coax out with some cookies. When the train does arrive and the crowds start, the dog
runs away to hide.
Our train is exactly the same as the previous, except that Trung and I are at the end of the car, he's again in the parallel bunk, and I'm in the lower bunk but in a group of only two. At about midnight that night, a couple gets on the train with bags and bags of stuff, including some burlap sacks filled with...cabbage again? There's a mouse in the sack that keeps poking his head out and looking at me. The woman is on the upper bunk, so she doesn't have to deal with her pile of bags and mice, but I'm on the lower bunk, staring the mouse in the face all night. Pleasant. At 5am we arrive in Jaipur, just in time for sunrise and another adventure!!
xoxo
Andy
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