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Published: April 1st 2005
Jaisalmer Fort
Nice view of the impressive fort in honey-coloured sandstoneThe trains from Jodhpur to
Jaisalmer left at impossible hours, we had to take another bus although we were not very keen on it. It was said to be faster than the train, but the guidebook warned us against a tedious journey, which proved right. There was not much to see, apart from sand, sand, sand, some interspersed rocks, a few shrubs and no trees, Klaudia spotted three small antelopes, otherwise we saw mainly goats and a lot of camels. Believe us, the guidebook was right when saying that the trip would be “scenically tedious”. We travelled for about six hours, which did Stephan’s back no good, but at least the roads were good, even excellent. When we approached Jaisalmer we found out why, as the Indian army has an important base there, due to the close Pakistani border. It is impressive what a difference it makes whether a region is of strategic importance or not! We had taken a hotel out of the fort and to our great surprise it even had a pool. The room was tiny but we paid only EUR 5, included a TV. Stephan only got angry when they took it away for an obscure reason
Ramparts
Part of the exterior wall where the heap of rubble is clearly visible and he could not watch the F1 race in Bahrain, so he negotiated a reduction.
The city of Jaisalmer is not very big, all the buildings within the city walls are made of honey-coloured sandstone, there is even a law that each new building has to be of this material, that's where the sobriquet comes from. As in many Rajasthan cities, also Jaisalmer boasts a
fort, it also dominates the city and is quite special due to its beautiful colour. Seen from far apart, it reminded us a bit of the fortified city of Carcassonne in France, though dirtier, but a closer look gave us the impression that it was perched on a high pile of rubble. The way up is very steep and the stones are so polished that you glide easily on your way down, the streets within the fort are very narrow and often blocked by the odd goat or cow, your way is always obstructed by the unavoidable heap of cow dung. Today, the army and tourism are the mainstays of the local economy, the shops are lined up like pearls on a string, and of course each shopkeeper tries to sell you something. We
Rajmahal Palace
Beautiful palace in the mogul style with the rounded arches did not like the atmosphere within the fort very much due to this fact, but decided to stroll around anyway because there were very pretty houses with carved balconies or doors to be found. The fortifications have an outer and an inner wall, and once we managed to walk between the two. Then we found the reason for the strange look of the fort (heap of rubble). Whenever a house is restored, the old material is thrown out of the openings in the outer wall, so that these days an invader could with little problems enter the fort. When you are in Jaisalmer, you can’t leave without having been on a camel safari. Of course we did it too, but of all the alternatives we chose the second shortest one, only one and a half days with one night under the stars. You can spend up to four days on camel’s back, but since we are no horse riders we decided against those options. You can read about our camel adventure in the next entry, so stay with us.
When we were back from the safari on April 5th, we decided to se some spots close to Jaisalmer, and
Palace detail
Closer look at the arches and the detailed carvings hired a jeep for this purpose. We had a nice and knowledgeable driver and sped along at around 70 km/h, this was our fastest means of transport in India so far! The only disagreeable thing was the sandstorm that had just started, blowing the fine dust into our eyes, between our teeth and also into the camera. Thank God we were not riding the camels any longer!
We first stopped at
Badar Bagh, an oasis with mango trees and other vegetation not normally seen in the desert. This had been a royal garden in former times, close to the maharajas’ burial grounds. There you found a commemorative pavilion for each maharaja, called
cenotaph, the cenotaphs for the maharajas are domed in the Mogul style with beautiful stone carvings, each of them with a stone slate, where the king’s name and dates as well as all his deeds are written. The wives, the maharanis, are buried on top of the small hillock, separated from their husbands, their cenotaphs have pyramidal roofs and are less ornate. Some maharajas who had stayed unmarried lie in linked groups of pavilions, and one maharaja had his girl friends buried by his side. Obviously they
Nathumal-ki haveli
House of a rich merchant, where most parts are delicately carved were closer to his heart than his wife…
Our next stop was at
Lodurva, once a flourishing regional capital, of which only a couple of beautiful Jain temples had remained. We were led around the main temple and could once again admire the Jains’ artistry at stone carving. We were even shown the idols and were allowed to take pictures, something forbidden in the holy temple of Ranakpur. This temple houses a pair of tame cobras, which were fed with milk every day, and Klaudia was very sad when she heard that it would happen only in two hours time. Tourists are allowed to watch (as long as they dare) and she as snake lover would have loved to see this spectacle! One thing about the Jain temple disturbed Stephan very much, namely that he had to take off his leather belt, he almost lost his shorts! In the end we also stopped at Amar Sagar, a nicely restored Jain temple in a dried lake.
On our last evening in Jaisalmer we wanted to eat in a good restaurant, but found out that it had closed down. On learning that we are Austrians, many people had told us
Haveli detail
Even the wooden shutters are carved! about Helmut, who ran an Austrian restaurant. Up to now we had declined to give in to a bang of nostalgia, but evening we decided to give to a try and climbed up to the Artist hotel and restaurant. We learned that Helmut was from Linz and had built the hotel in order to save the colony of storytellers, which was in decline and living in poverty. Crazy as we were we ordered real Austrian food, and expected nothing good since only the Indian cook was present, Helmut had left for Austria. There we met Antoine, a young Frenchman, whom we had already seen in our favourite cyber cafe. He joined us, telling us that he studied Hindi, we were quite astonished! Back to the food, we had “chicken viennoise” and something described as “Austrian egg cake pan fried & sliced with fruit salad”. It all turned out to be absolutely delicious, Stephan kept talking and raving abut it for days! Last remark for our Austrian family and friends, who could not guess our meals: we indeed ate Backhendl and Kaiserschmarrn! Yes, we spent a lovely last evening in Jaisalmer, and should you ever happen to come there, go to
Street shop
You can find all kinds of shops one beside the other within the fort the Artist hotel, the view is also breath taking.
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