Jaisalmer: Hospitality, havelis, temples & a camel safari

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When we got off the train in Jaisalmer, the owner of the guest house we'd booked, Hotel Mirage, was waiting for us with a big smile and a sign that said "Kelly Hepo." In Agra, it was Hoda...Scott said I'd better get used to people butchering my name, haha. In any case, our new host introduced himself as Ba, paid for our rickshaw and accompanied us to Jaisalmer Fort, where the guest house was located. Though the Fort is quite old, it still functions like its own little neighborhood, with homes, hotels, and alleys lined with shops. Our driver dropped us off at the Fort's gate and Ba carried my heavy pack the rest of the way. He then showed us to our room, which was very nice, especially for only 250 rupees a night, and in a good location. He told us to take our time getting settled in, and when we were ready we could check in and have some chai with him.

While we were filling out the necessary paperwork, Ba made friendly conversation and showed us a photo album of the camel safaris he'd led. He said he was from a small farming village in the desert and worked as a safari guide before moving into the Fort, where his late grandfather owned a house, to open his guest house. He still arranges camel safaris, which his uncle guides, that pass through his home village. While before we'd been considering booking a camel safari through a recommended company, we began contemplating booking through Ba, as it seemed as though it would be a more genuine experience. He didn't try to pressure us at all, though, which was refreshing. Once we'd finished the paperwork, we ate lunch on the rooftop terrace where we took in a great view of the surrounding area and enjoyed some delicious home cooking while chatting with Ba. We became quickly aware that we'd made the right choice in terms of our guesthouse because Ba showed us the most kindness and hospitality during our stay that we've experienced in all our time in India.

We spent our first day exploring the Fort and surrounding city, finding some good views and taking note of the good shopping - there were TONS of handicraft , textile and souvenir shops in the area. We went into a few shops to look around, and somehow Scott was able to get a guy to go down from 350 to 100 rupees for a scarf he wanted. As we walked around, we began to really like Jaisalmer since it's small, quiet and has much less traffic and pollution than most places we've visited. We decided to stay for awhile before heading back down south to the Ellora and Ajanta Caves. We ate dinner at a Tibetan/Indian place with a nice rooftop view, then headed back to the guesthouse to get some sleep. The next day we didn't do much in the way of sightseeing aside from touring the Palace of the Maharawal, which not only gave us some good history regarding Jaisalmer, the Fort and its rulers, but also displayed some impressive stone architecture.

We decied to book a camel safari through Ba after all, and departed the following day a little after 7:00 a.m. with our jeep driver and a Russian couple that would be accompanying us. We drove about 60 km outside Jaisalmer and reached our destination, a small desert village, around 8:00 a.m., where Ba's uncle, Mr. Singh, and some villagers were waiting for us with our four camels loaded up and ready to go. Once we'd made our introductions and everything was situated, we mounted our camels and were told to lean back and hold on tight as they stood up. This was pretty scary the first time around, and I quickly discovered that camels are a lot taller than I thought...

Apparently I not only got the biggest, most uncomfortable camel (my legs were hurting after five minutes and there were no reins or stirrups), but also the most absentminded and destructive one. He liked to run me into bushes and stomp on them, and any time we passed a female camel, he made these weird, crazy mouth bubbles that looked like he was pushing a small stomach out of his mouth, which supposedly attracts the ladies. He would then turn his head to stare at the females for as long as possible, often causing him to bump into the camel in front of him. Whenever we stopped to rest, he was never allowed to wander around like the other camels because Mr. Singh feared he might find himself a lady friend. Needless to say, he was an interesting fellow.

Despite the constant pain in my legs, riding the camel was a fun and interesting experience. We were led through the desert by Mr. Singh and his nephew, stopping every now and then in a village to give the camels water (where we were followed and harassed by kids who wanted our jewelry, money, candy and pens). While riding, we saw various wildlife, including antelope, deer, sheep, goats, cows, camels, lizards, different birds, desert mice and lots of giant black beetles. The first day was cloudy, making the hot, dry desert much more pleasant. Eventually we stopped for lunch near some sand dunes and were able to walk around, relax, play bakgammon, read or nap while our guides made us chai and cooked us an amazing veg curry with chapatis over a fire. Yum!

After lunch, we rode the camels for a few hours until we reached our stop for the night next to some beautiful, huge sand dunes. We hung out with our Russian friends, took pictures and watched the sunset while Mr. Singh and his nephew cooked us another wonderful meal of daal, rice, chapatis, chai and fruit. Afterward, Mr. Singh made a campfire and we sat around it talking and listening to our hosts drum on a water jug and sing. They tried to get us to sing American and Russian songs, but we were too shy...At bedtime, we were each given two thick blankets to serve as our beds. There were no pillows, so Scott and I made pillow-shaped mounds of sand underneath our blankets and used some clothes for cushioning. It actually turned out to be much more comfortable than I thought it'd be. As we went to sleep, we noticed that the clouds had dispersed, and we were amazed by the number of stars blanketing the sky. I was a bit nervous at first to be sleeping outside without shelter, but the view and weather were spectacular, and the only disturbance during the night was my snoring, flatulent camel sleeping nearby.

I woke up at sunrise feeling surprisingly refreshed, and I immediately reached for the camera to photograph the sun peeking over the dunes. It was absolutely breathtaking. I tried to wake Scott up to watch, but, after a glance, he rolled over and went back to bed. Mr. Singh woke up soon after and brought us chai before making us a breakfast of toast, porridge, boiled eggs and fruit. He then went to find our other three camels, whom he'd let wander during the night, and didn't return for over an hour. His nephew joked that they'd gone to Pakistan, which was only 60-ish km from where we were. When he finally did return, they loaded up the camels, and I asked if I could try riding a different one this time. No one minded, so I got on the one female camel who was much thinner and smaller than the others. She was also the crankiest and "roared" like a dinosaur anytime Mr. Singh tried to get her to do anything.

At first, I felt more comfortable on this saddle because my legs weren't forced practically into a split; however, after a little while I realized that there was little to no padding underneath me (whereas before there had been too much), and it felt like I was straddling a metal bar...Overall, I never really had a comfortable riding experience, but it's all part of the adventure, right? We stopped for lunch a few hours later, and Mr. Singh and his nephew cooked us another delicious veg curry with chapatis. Then we laid out blankets under a big, shady tree and read and napped for awhile before it was time to move on to our last destination, some big dunes where our jeep would be waiting for us. When we got there, we were surprised to see that Ba had some with the driver to pick us up. First, we were served cold Coke followed by chai, during which time Mr. Singh's nephew awkwardly asked us for tips...this put us on the spot, and, while ordinarily I would probably have tipped them (even though we'd already paid a hefty amount for the safari), this rubbed us all the wrong way, causing us to refrain from tipping. Mr. Singh and the boy were very nice and helpful and did their job well, but that's what our fee was for, and they didn't really go above and beyond. Still, I really liked them and was saddened by the boy's disregard for (or ignorance about) manners.

When we'd finished our drinks, we played on the dunes for awhile and took pictures. It was at this point that our already malfunctioning camera ceased to function altogether. We think we somehow got sand inside the lens. Thankfully, the Russians were nice enough to take some pictures for us with one of their four fancy cameras, and we exchanged e-mails so they could send them to us. When playtime was over and I was completely covered in sand from Scott dragging me down the dunes, we piled into the jeep and headed back to Jaisalmer. We arrived at Hotel Mirage, parted ways with our new friends, showered and went out for a less than authentic Italian dinner. The next morning, we woke up at a decent time for once, ate breakfast with Ba on the terrace and went out for some sightseeing.

First, we toured the beautiful and intricately carved Jain temples inside the Fort. These were very cool, but we found it strange that the holy men kept hassling tourists for donations. Then we left the Fort to visit the Kothari Patwa Haveli Museum, once home to a rich Jain businessman. The architecture and decor were amazing, and we were able to learn a little bit about the Jain religion and way of life. When we'd finished our tour, we checked out the museum shop to see if it had better quality patchwork blankets and tapestries than what we'd found thus far. It turned out they had a great selection at reasonable prices, so we ended up buying two items. We spent the remainder of the afternoon shopping a bit before having a wonderful home-cooked dinner with Ba on the rooftop.

On our last day in Jaisalmer, we finally visited the town's lake. Unfortunately, since our camera was broken, we weren't able to take any pictures. We did thoroughly enjoy being stared at constantly as we did a loop around the lake, though...Before we left, we were stopped by a local Jain man who was very interested in talking to us about our sex lives before going back to feeding the giant flocks of pigeons that he claimed to care for every day. He was nice, buy definitely on the creepy side. We then ate dinner and read in our room, which Ba had graciously allowed us to keep all day for no extra charge (in fact, he barely charged us for anything other than the room and our camel safari, along with a meal or two), before taking an interesting rickshaw ride to the train station at 11:00 p.m. with a driver who was either drunk or on something...When we got settled into our berth on the train, we were able to get a few hours of sleep before its 5:30 a.m. arrival in Jodhpur.

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Comments

[RENanDREW]

I enjoyed reading your blog. Your bubble-blowing, flatulent camel sounded hilarious! Cheers Ren