December 25, 2006: Jodhpur to Jaisalmer. 310 kms

At 6:00 AM we told a rather disappointed Mr Newton that we would be moving on in an hour. So that was a short but packed stay at the Blue City. Next stop the mysterious dessert town or the golden city of Jaisalmer. Rajasthan is a colourful place.

What caught my attention was the fact that the people here were kool and different from the abrasive crowd that we left behind in Delhi and UP. Three days into Rajasthan and we'd met and talked to people in all walks and I felt they did their thing and were polite, warm and friendly.

In fact, a scene at the petrol bunk struck me. Where this attendant would welcome customers with a Namaste. Get the car wiped, but request us to shut the windows first, ask if we needed a drink of water to freshen up before we went on our journey. Asked us where we're headed and give a short cut to the highway... this was great relationship building. We left feeling good. It was routine petrol filling and air check. But that was a different for us to vividly remember even now (5 months later.)

Before we hit the dessert road, we went straight to the halwai shop we'd spotted for the usual breakfast... jalebi's, kachori's (these were different from the ones at Agra) and stock up on Chilli pakoras and drinking water.

This ride was simply amazing. The route via Pokran was deserted, in the middle of the dessert and had sand on the road with straying camels, stray cattle. This was the Thar dessert. But let me tell you this was not like the dessert we'd seen in movies. It ain't eloquent sand dunes and winds blowin em away as dust... it was grimy, scrubby and shrubby with a dash mustard plantations to boot. So THIS was the Thar! The temperature was rising rapidly as we drove along and the winter wear started coming off as we went along. Soon we were in the city of Gold. And yes there was no doubt about the gold.

This town's landscape is dominated by the fort which was made of sandstone and was actually a living fort. People still lived there and did business inside and that was a tourist attraction by itself.
I think I skipped the bit about how my camera got back into action... but that late bit of tinkering on the shutter seemed to have worked. But then, on developing rolls realised that the pictures we blotchy only some came out ok...

Anyway, headed straight to FIFU Guest House yet another decently rated place by the Lonely planet it did match. This place was made of sandstone. The rooms had a quaint heritage look and we were apparently lucky to have landed a room here for a couple of days as the traffic was high. This place had some amazing views from the rooftop restaurant as well as a sitout on the floor we were staying. Just too good. A few beers and food later, we were tripping off on a drive around the dessert and dreaming of leaving city life and living here.

Evening was left to a canter in town. Jaisalmer town goes to sleep at 7:00 pm! It was dark and the only lit up place was the fort which we'd decided we would attack the next day...

December 26th was a day I'll remember for the sights that I got to see. A chocked up fort completely busting in its seams, dirt, shit and grime all over, trinket vendors bustling around, tourists making their way into crowded lanes inside the fort. Well no wonder this fort is on self destruct mode. Seeing is believing. Yet another piece of history becoming history soon enough.

We got our share of the views of gold from the top and then it was time to get on to other things such as looking around for trinkets that wifey would take home, or for that official bhang shop to pick some cookies... loaded stuff better watch out how you consume it.

Next on the agenda was a day trip to the interiors of the dessert. We ripped across some touristy places and then up ahead in a distance a Camel vendor...

Time to break for a camel ride... Mine was called Abdul, wifey's was called Michael Jackson. Wow. A couple of hours around the sand, and I started feeling a little tired. So break for a snack and then browse around in the sand dunes - yea these were more movie like! But the minute we went a little further the entire streach became the original grimy, shrubby et al...

Enough of sand for the time being, we planned to stay over an extra day to chill out before making the last stand in Rajasthan at Udaipur.

But the almighty had other plans... Bad news, we'd heard about it, but experienced it first hand. Camel safari's are a draw for the hotel one stays... if you don't take the day or night shift from them they would throw you out!

Since we did a round of the dessert by ourselves and we'd indicated to the FIFU owner that we would not be taking his safari, we were told that the room was not available for the extra day... mind you, this very room was available when requested in the morning... sudden change? Since I had a couple of pegs inside me, the view to the world had changed. And we (that's me and wifey) discussed the situation inside the room and decided to show the finger and fuck off from FIFU fucking guest house early next morning. So all the books came out and calls made to many hotels in Udaipur... finally one yielded a room yet another Lonely Planet guide, but by now we were quite tentative about the whole thing. Obviously this book worked only about 60% of the time for us. But then, no other option for now. What the heck.

The hotel fella was actually surprised when I just quitely asked for the bill and settled the thing after a detailed scrutiny then and there... no tantrums, no arguments, no skirmishes.

Pictures of Jaisalmer. Click here.