Reaching the Golden City @ Monsoon Time

Little ladies in Jaisalmer
see all photos »

Early morning of the 29th Jul we took an Air Sahara (first time I heard of it) flight to Jaipur. We had at least two options to get to Jaisalmer: one was an overnight train that we didn't choose and the other was flying to Jaipur and then going by car to Jaisalmer. Note that the TO program said that from Jaipur to Jaisalmer it would have taken approx. 7 hours of car for a total of 630 km. We accepted because we had underevaluated one crucial event of Rajasthani summer days: the monsoon!! We thought (total idiots!!) that, as we were about to cross the Thar desert, we wouldn't have suffered from Monsoon rain...we were fools! The journey started pretty well, but our driver Ajay had already suggested that it was impossible doing 630 km in India in 7 hours. Real time would have been 9-10 hours of car...a huge journey! I understood later what had happened...It had been me and Dave writing to Compass Tour India asking for a quote for our tour of Rajasthan. We had suggested our requested dates to them, together with the request of visiting Jaisalmer which is, I must admit, the most remote of all the beautiful cities of Rajasthan. I personally think that, in order to keep our interest for their programs alive, the Indian TO tried to furfill all our desires at any cost without simply saying:" Hay, you don't have enough time to visit also Jaisalmer...or better...take a day more, so that you can stop for a night along the way (in Bikaner, for instance which has also an interesting fortress to visit) and reach Jaisalmer the following morning. We could have done so also in our case, stop in Bikaner at a reasonable time (i.e. before sunset) and start again very early to finally get to the living fortress of Jaisalmer. But it didn't go like that. We were still on a dusty deserted road when it started raining very, very hard (the heaviest rain I have ever experienced!). Guess what happened to the road? A flood of mud! We kept on driving even if Ajay proceeded very carefully because of the terrible road conditions until it was dark all around with huge lightnings in the background...But the worst was still waiting for us...the road in a point became so flooded that even four wheels trucks weren't able to cross!!! We were stuck in the middle of nowhere! We kept on waiting along this deserted road until the ground, suffering from months of cruel temperatures and long lasting sun rays, was able to partially absorb the huge volume of water. I will always remember our car where we were closed in and the people of the villages coming to us and looking inside the car with their big humid eyes, laughing and dancing with joy because of the monsoon arrival and laughing at us because they read a terror with no name in our eyes..more than terror, it was an incredible tiredness..we were destroyed by the whole journey and the monsoon was the last thing we expected. When we finally were able to get free from that road, another thing went wrong (I must admit it wasn't our lucky day, that day!). We had a reservation for a roof top room in the Narayan Niwas Palace, one Heritage hotel of Jaisalmer. When we arrived at the reception, the guy over there was sleeping as it was over midnight and he didn't check properly the type of room we had booked. The result was that we received a dark and dirty room at the ground floor of the palace, with dirty blankets which probably costed less and which was horrible!!!! As it was too late to change the room we slept there (kind of ) that night and the following morning asked the guide who had come to us to change hotel. Read the review on Narayan Niwas to have an idea.

band of sacred cows
see all photos »

The other hotel, which is indeed among the ones always suggested by our tour operators, Fort Rajwada was a modern and beautiful hotel where we found ourselves perfectly. We suggest it to anyone going to Jaisalmer during the monsoon!!

Jaisalmer: the mirage in the Thar desert

Was it worth to suffer all these disadventures to get to the Golden city? YES indeed. Jaisalmer is unique. It used to be an important stop along the caravan roads leading to Pakistan and to Middle East. It has maintained its Middle Age structure intact, with people still living within its walls like in ancient times. It is a living Fort built in yellow stone. And the Jain temples inside it are magnificient with their carvings. And the ancient merchants houses named "Havelies" are so beautifully decorated. It is a dream place coming out as a mirage from the Thar desert. In this Jaisalmer memory I must greet our nice guide, an intelligent guy that by that time should have left for Italy in order to practise his Italian and get back to Jaisalmer to promote tourism there, the bright brahman Balu or Jitendra Purohit...would be nice if he could read someday his name here. He introduced his precious city to us which such a warm attitude...hope he will be able to help Jaisalmer to reach its past glories..water supplies are still such a big trouble over there. Another message from this is: beware of the Monsoon even in the desert!!! (even if 2005 was a particularly rich year, in terms of precipitations!!)