Jodhpur and Jaisalmer

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Last week-end four of us embarked on a four-day adventure to Jodhpur, and then further west to the desert-city of Jaisalmer, about 200km from the Pakistan border. Our holiday began at midnight on Thursday when we boarded a train for the 6 hour journey to Jodhpur, the second largest city in Rajasthan. We arrived just as the sun was rising, and were greeted at our hotel by the friendly owner, Mahesh (or Manesh - not sure..) He showed us to our room which was an amazing sandstone edifice perched at the top of the hotel. Apparently the room originally stood in Jaisalmer, and when many of the old buildings were being taken down, he purchased this room and had it unassembled, carted to Jodhpur, and reassembled on top of his hotel! It looked amazing with its yellow sandstone in contrast with the distinctly-‘Jodhpurian’ bright blue colour of the rest of the hotel.

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We spent the day exploring the city, strolling through the streets and narrow alleyways and sampling the street food. We discovered an eight-storey textile warehouse where, as we sipped chai, the shopkeeper showed us gorgeous bed-covers and wall-hangings that he manufactured for high-end fashion names such as Armani and Valentino. Then, when we asked to look at cushion covers, he showed us to an enormous three metre high pile of cushion covers and told us to climb to the top and dig for designs we liked! We sampled Jodhpur’s signature lassi, makhania lassi, which is flavoured with saffron and rose water. We walked through the spice markets near the clock tower, and were surprised when a small boy, no older than 9 or 10, approached us and began chatting away in near-perfect English, leading us to his shop where his father sold scarves and shawls. When I told him I was from Australia, he said ‘Ricky Ponting! - Very good boundary in 2003. Australia is number 1 in cricket!’ When we got hungry, we found an omelette man called Vicky and sat on little stools at his tiny omelette stall and chatted to him about his numerous jobs and the 20 languages he was apparently learning. Later in the day, we went to Mehrangarh Fort, the largest fort in Rajasthan and one of the few forts to never be conquered, and watched the sunset.

for the night, we camped out in the dunes, tried to learn Hindi desert songs, and lay under a blanket of stars

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Early next morning we boarded a bus for yet another 6 hr journey to Jaisalmer. We were astonished as looking out the window at the barren desert landscape we saw peacocks roaming the terrain! Jaisalmer is an extremely small city, popular with tourists (almost all German for some reason!), and a base-point for those heading out on camel safaris. There’s a really nice small-town feel to Jaisalmer, much like the atmosphere in Pushkar (but with less hippies). The people are friendly, shopkeepers don’t hassle you, and you can meander through the streets without being constantly horned-at by motorcycles and rickshaws. We had a look at, and purchased quite a large amount of the local wares – mainly leather wallets and bags, and fabulous embroidered wall-hangings. There’s also a fort in Jaisalmer, which we expected to be just another fort to tick off on our sight-seeing list. But when we walked in we realised that the fort was actually another part of the city! There were shops, hotels, restaurants, houses… all of which lined the narrow cobble-stoned streets and were protected from the harsh desert sun by high sandstone walls. It was an amazing place, but it was sad to learn that inhabiting the fort had put immense pressure on its drainage system, which was close to collapsing. The fort is such a beautiful historical structure and yet it is slowly deteriorating.

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The next day we began our camel safari, driving 45km out into the middle of the desert. Firstly, let me say that camels are amazing animals! They always seem so calm and content, they can survive for days without water, they have the thickest skin and padded feet so they can walk on anything, and when they chew their food they look so funny! Secondly, riding a camel is lots of fun but it is painful! By the second day, we were all walking funny because our legs and bum hurt so much! Also, the months of December through to February are apparently ‘camel love season’, and so be prepared to see male camels foaming at the mouth and literally making advances on female camels. The safari was such an amazing experience though. On top of the camel all we could see was desert and sand-dunes, and the occasional herd of sheep and goats. We stopped in the dunes for lunch, where the camel-drivers built a camp-fire and cooked us vegetables and made chapatti. Then for the night, we camped out in the dunes, tried to learn Hindi desert songs, and lay under six blankets – five real blankets, and one blanket of stars – as we scanned the night sky for shooting stars and made up our own constellations.

Jaisalmer is such an amazing place – anyone who goes to Rajasthan must make the trip out to this desert-city! Explore the fort (but make an ethical choice when it comes to choosing a hotel please! – save the fort!), find a nice textile store and spend a couple of hours looking at beautiful wall hangings (and I’m sure you won’t be able to resist buying some), and go on a camel safari. On the 12-hour train-ride back to Jaipur, we were tired, dirty, sore, and smelt like camel, but it was well worth the incredible experience we had!