Our overnight train from Jaipur to Jaisalmer was scheduled to arrive at noon, so we got to see some Indian landscape while on the way.
Also, when passing one of the stations we saw the whole military train standing on the tracks next to ours, complete with tanks and military personnel. Considering the closeness to the Pakistani border, we were not very surprised.
However, we didn't see much of the military presence when we actually got into town.
The hotel we booked was inside the fort and only reachable by foot from the gates. It was quite a steep walk, but luckily not too long, about 10 min. Dima was carrying the bags and I was taking photos as we went along.
You have to give way to the holy cows :-)
Once at the hotel, we dropped the backpacks at our awesomely Indian room with a desert view...
... and decided to start exploring the city with the fort, and specifically with the Jain Temple Complex that was just around the corner.
A very wise remark: DO NOT TOUCH GOD!
When walking inside the fort, the part that is closer to the gates looks very respectable, polished and tourist friendly, but the further you go the more real it gets.
It is definitely worth going though as you are rewarded with the greatest view from the fort's walls.
... some "not so wild" life...
... and finally into some really "annoying" life in a form of an Italian restaurant owner that was trying to convince us that we absolutely MUST eat Italian food in India. We politely refused and moved on.
They both looked perfectly in place...
Still on the way to the lake, at some point we ended up at an intersection, that looked a lot more like the end of the city then an a possible way to the lake, so we decided to go back to the fort and to leave the lake for tomorrow.
At the fort entrance some gypsy women were selling jewelry, but didn't mind being photographed without buying anything from them. In India, people in general enjoy being photographed and often ask themselves, if I want to take a picture of them. Thus, very opposite to some other countries, like Morocco.
Afterwards, we still had one last thing planned for the day, and that was to go to the Royal Cenotaphs complex, were the sunset was supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. Since the complex is about 6 km outside of town, we started to look for a rickshaw and found Rhaul. At first, he was only suppose to bring us to the complex and back, but he ended being our driver for both days. He chargers like crazy but knows all ins and outs of the city very well which can be quite handy sometimes.
The cenotaphs, although available in large quantity, were not that fascinating, but still interesting to see.
Rhaul was telling us about the purpose of those things. He said that when someone dies and is cremated, those person's ashes are placed in the middle of the base, with a stone on top, and then the cenotaph is build like a roof on top. The larger the cenotaph, the more important the person was.
On the way back it got dark and we decided to walk the streets a bit and to search for one of the restaurants that was recommended on the Tripadvisor, that would have a non-spicy Indian food for me.
The restaurant, as it turned out, was inside a very beautiful Haveli (rich merchant's house), that still belonged to the Maharaja's family. The food was great and reasonably priced, which was a nice surprise. It was in fact so delicious, that I only remembered to photograph it after we emptied the plates.
The first stop was the lake. According to Rhaul, it was build by some Maharaja to cool down with his harem on a hot day and, among other things, to immortalize his name for creating a miracle in the desert. But the story wouldn't be a great story without a twist. So, after the lake was created, some local prostitute, who was servicing camel riders, decided that her name should be immortalized as well, and she built a gate at the main entrance to the lake. Needless to say, the Maharaja was pissed and wanted to destroy the gate, as he obviously would never enter through it. Don't know who let the prostitute to build this gate in the first place, but apparently the woman was no fool. She knew that the only thing which Maharaja would never dare to destroy was a Krishna temple, so she ordered to build one on top of the gate.
The result: the gate is still standing and all the Maharajas since that time use a much less glamorous side door if and when they want to see the lake.
The moral of the story: women...
The gate
About 10 years back somebody through away some catfish in the lake and now it's the dirtiest lake in the area. The locals are having fun though, by throwing bread in the lake and watching the catfish fight for it.
The next stop were the Haveli houses.
As before, Rhaul knew a secret passage to a rooftop nearby where we had the opportunity to see and photograph the Haveli in all its glory.
Other Haveli's were situated a bit further away from the fort, in the maze of small alleys. Beautifully carved from top to bottom, they are very different from the most houses you see in this town.
Desert's sense of humor... :-)
Our next train, to Jodhpur, was leaving at 17:15 so we headed back to the fort and our guest house to check out and to pick up our backpacks.
When we got to the guest house, the women were ironing and that is what they were using!! I tried lifting it and the damn thing is very very heavy.
At the station, our train eventually had 1.5 hour delay in departure...
... but they cleaned it thoroughly in and out.
However, we didn't see much of the military presence when we actually got into town.
The hotel we booked was inside the fort and only reachable by foot from the gates. It was quite a steep walk, but luckily not too long, about 10 min. Dima was carrying the bags and I was taking photos as we went along.
Before getting something to it, I suggested to visit the lake that was suppose to be really close by, so we headed to the main gate. On the way, we bumped into some "wildlife"...
While walking towards the lake in the direction pointed to us by some storeowner, it was interesting to watch people going about their everyday things.
At the fort entrance some gypsy women were selling jewelry, but didn't mind being photographed without buying anything from them. In India, people in general enjoy being photographed and often ask themselves, if I want to take a picture of them. Thus, very opposite to some other countries, like Morocco.
By the time we returned back to the fort we were starving and decided to try a Tibetan restaurant we saw earlier. Great food, great spices, so I was sticking to veg momos for the time being :-)
So eventually, the place turned out to be a cemetery. Still, I was determined to wait for the gorgeous sunset, promised in one of the guides. However, Rhaul said, when he heard about it, that he knows a much better place instead, so we went there. It was indeed a great place to see the whole city and the sunset.
When we returned to the guest house we were staying at, somebody from the owner's family was feeding bread to the cows, which was nice for a change, as so far we only saw them eat carton, plastic (!!) and other non-eatable garbage of the streets. By the way, then and their we decided not to take anything with milk, also not the Chai, because we could only imagine what kind of milk comes from a cow that was eating plastic her whole short life and never saw any grass. I am not even sure that the cows in Jaisalmer know that they suppose to it grass instead.
Anyway, it was along day so we went to bed early.
The next day we needed to finish the city walk by going to the lake and to the three Haveli, so we went to the main square to find Rhaul.
The result: the gate is still standing and all the Maharajas since that time use a much less glamorous side door if and when they want to see the lake.
The moral of the story: women...
Conclusion: Jaisalmer is definitely one of the towns we loved the most. It's warm and cozy, and not at all hectic like other larger cities in Rajasthan. The fact that people still live in the fort adds to its charm. Here you can relax and just enjoy everything around.
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