Jaisalmer - Golden City with Dehli Belly

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After a epic overnight train journey to the middle of the desert, we arrived in Jaisalmer. When we arrived our driver was no where to be seen. A tuk tuk driver stated he would take us and we made sure he knew we already had a room booked, but the minute we got into his tuk tuk it was the hard sell to just ‘come look at my guesthouse’. No matter how many times we told him we already had booked a room he was insistent we go with him. I phoned our guesthouse from the tuk tuk and when we arrived at the Fort a staff member was waiting for us. He gave the tuk tuk driver a full mouthful and I thought they were going to have a punchup!



Jaisalmer is nicknamed the “GoldenCity” and is a World Heritage site. The town stands on a ridge of yellowish sandstone and is crowned by a fort which contains the Palace and Jain temples. It lies in the heart of the Thar Desert. The Fort was built in 1156 and has seen many a battle over its years. The sandstone walls are a tawny ‘lion’ colour during the day and turn a magical honey gold colour as the sun sets. This is the only living fort and about a quarter of the city’s population still live inside the fort.





It was a long hot heavy walk up hill to get from the fort gate to our guesthouse, but the scenery along the way was just amazing, and the view from the top? Wow…. It was one of the most mesmerising cities I have been too. Our guesthouse (Surja) was so quaint and built into the wall of the Fort.



We dumped our bags in our rooms and headed out for a wander around the inside of the Fort. I love this place! At lunch time we ended back at Surja lounging on the rooftop with views across the whole city! We spent the rest of the day wandering the fort and ended up at a Haveli for dinner just outside the fort. It had a beautiful view of the Fort which is all lit up at night.



As we started to walk back to the guesthouse I noticed that I was starting to feel a little sick in the stomach. I prayed I was not getting a case of “Dehli belly”.



The following morning we had a big sleep in but when I woke I was starting to feel like crap… it was official, I had dehli belly… I managed to wander down to an Italian restaurant at theFortGatecalled JaisalItalywhere I downed some okay pasta and super yummy nutella icecream before heading back to bed at the Guesthouse. On the way back, I did manage to stop and buy some gorgeous bed spreads from a local shop (Jaisalmer is THE place to buy bedspreads).



We ate dinner at the guesthouse but it was well below average and I had an early night. We were due to go on an overnight safari the following night in the desert so all I could do was pray that my tummy would be better in the morning.



The following morning, I woke up still sick and with a heavy heart cancelled the Camel Safari. I tried to Tayla to go without me but she wasn’t too fussed and decided to stay at the hotel as well…Brandonwent off without us on the safari. We found a café called Australia Café and had breakfast there… I got vegemite toast and was hoping it might settle the stomach!

Still being sick I ended up hanging around the room of our hotel and Tayla hung around catching up with some things online. I was devastated. Jaisalmer was so full of character but I just couldn’t wander around like I wanted too.



I finally managed to get out of the room and Tayla and I discovered a lovely place called First Gate for lunch. It was so good that it became the new hangout over the next 24 hours! Tayla and I managed to look at some more bedspreads closer to our hotel on the way back that afternoon and realised that we had paid WAY too much for the ones we had already bought. We were super mad with ourselves for not having shopped around in the first place!



Another early night was had, and Tayla managed to track down some Nutella Icecream for me when she came back to the guesthouse! The following day we wandered down to First Gate for breakfast and ended up back there withBrandonfor lunch after he got back from his Safari.



Brandonwasn’t that impressed with the safari so it sounds like we hadn’t missed out on much which made me feel slightly better!



That afternoon, Tayla and I headed off to the Post Office to post back the bedspreads and other unwanted items home. It ended up costing us $45 for 5 kgs! I was not happy being on a budget but looking back I am guessing that wasn’t too bad. The system was so antiquated and it took us forever to do the postage. At one point we ended up in this dodgy random shed out the back of the post office while a guy packaged our items in cloth before proceeding to sew it together and then seal it with candle wax! We were quite bemused but nervous as to whether we would see our things ever again! It all seemed so dodgy! Lol



That night we said a sad farewell to Jaisalmer and headed for the next destination,Jodhpur! It was a short 5 hour train ride away…. I was sooooo sick the whole way and was not getting any better. This dehli belly was really hanging around! I ate dinner on the train with my hands (no utensils provided).



I was really starting to feel homesick – it was now Day 22 of my adventure and I was so sick. All I wanted to do was go home. When we arrived inJodhpurit was 10pm at night and the guesthouse we were staying at was close to the railway station. A man from our guesthouse met us at the train and walked us to the guesthouse. It was a pretty scary walk there regardless that it was only 5 minutes. There were homeless people EVERYWHERE, sleeping on the footpath. It was the first time that I really felt unsafe in all of my Indian trip. My initial gut feeling ofJodhpurwas not good.



When we arrived at Govind Hotel and checked in, I jumped online and started looking at changing my trip to go home. By the end of the night I had cancelled a lot of my Southern trip and rebooked flights to go home. I was genuinely over it! Even though I was currently travelling with people, I was finding it tough. Brandon was due to head home a few days later, and Tayla was going to be heading further north not long after that, when I was due to head South… for some reason, I just couldn’t or didn’t want to continue….



Little did I know what was to come……

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