Desert Festival Jaisalmer!
Jaisalmer…also known as the Golden City is the face of mesmerizing Rajasthan, if few more facilities like Sand scooters ….a working Airport etc are add to the city, a world class desert destination will emerge. The city is not only very beautiful but historic too. A home of beautifully carved Havelis, forts & many more. Once the city was traders specialization as its strategic position on the camel train route. People were rich businessmen. Though I had had most of education from western Rajasthan, surprisingly, I never visited the wonderful destination before, but as with time, hunger for touring developed in me, Jaisalmer got space in my wish-list. I wanted to go there at the time of desert festival & this year I succeeded.
Jaisalmer celebrate Desert festival on Poornima (full moon) every year in the month of Feb.
This year the dates were 12 to 14 Feb 2014. I booked Club Mahindra Resort. Which is 14 Km from Main city. Resort outer look is quite impressive but rooms were just Ok, they were inferior from club Mahindra standard specially studio apartment. I will not recommend the resort. Originally I booked train tickets to Jodhpur, but under pressure of my driving urge I cancelled tickets & plan to drive to Jaisalmer.
Routes from my place in Delhi(Narela) as I goggled were two, both costs around 750 KM
1.Via jhunjhunu (Narela – Bawana-kanjawala- Bahdurgarh bypass – Jajjar- Charkha Dadri- Loharu- Chirawa-Jhunjhnu- Laxamangarh- Salasar Balaji –Nagaur- Phalodi- Ramdevra –Pokran- Jaisalmer).
2.Via Bikaner (Narela –Bawana – Kharkhoda – Rohtak- Bhiwani- Rajgarh –Sardar Shahar- Benisar – Bikaner –Kolayat- Phalodi- Ramdevra-Pokran- Jaisalmer).
I chose the first route as I wanted to visit Salasar Balaji, 300 KM from my place. It is honored place for Hindu pilgrimage. I started the journey around 5 pm of 11th of Feb, & reached to Salasar after 5 hours drive & stayed for night at Sirsa Dharamshala, just adjacent to temple. Place was good. In morning after Bath I visited Temple for Morning Prayer, & checked out for Jaisalmer journey which was still 450 KM far. But road were too good I landed in Jaisalmer in just 5 hours, including we paid a visit to Ramdevra too, again a very famous & honored pilgrimage destination. I spent 45 minutes at Ramdevra, so total driving time was just 4 hours 15 minutes, for 450 km.
Roads are very good in Rajasthan, long scenic desert grounds runs along with you. As it was time of desert festival so I concentrated on that, 1st day programs were at Poonam Stadium near to Sonar fort, it was just OK. 2nd day we did excursions, visited to wood fossil park, Bada bagh, Ludrva, Amar bah, Kuldhara Ghost village & on evening we attended cultural program at Poonam stadium & did camel riding.
Excursions -
Wood Fossil Park – it is 15km far from main city on Barmer Road in a village called Akal.
Here fossils of large trees like deodar, red wood, chirr etc were found suggest that land that is desert today, once had hot & humid climate which support Luxurious forest having such gigantic trees in Jurassic age, around 180 million years ago. These fossils now stand exposed by weathering by winds & erosion of water.
Bada bagh & Chatris – around 15 Km from main city- it is fertile oasis that supplies vegetables & fruits to the city. The place is also house of royal Chatries (cenotaphs) with beautifully carved ceiling. Architecturally few ceilings are of Mugal architecture & few are of Hindu, each Chatries have stone carved with pictures of kings & their queens. Kids were busy in counting number of queens for each king, some have even 16 queens. There are also Chatries of “ SATIS”
Ludarva- it is 15 km from Bada bagh-, the ancient capital of Jaisalmer, famous Jain temple with beautiful carving gloriously stand here
Amar sagar- once it was a pleasant garden with lake, lake here dries up close by Jain temple with beautiful carving can be visited
Kuldhera village- it is famous Ghost temple, 3 to 4 hundreds year ago Paliwal Brahmin left the village & gave curse that no one can stay here. Many stories are prevailing here, one is that A Rajput king wanted to marry with village girl against will, so all people left the village in single night to save . Another story is that this was the silk route of smugglers, so they used to hide things here & all stories are weaved by them
After that I visited to cultural program of desert festival at poonam sadium near fort .
Next day in morning the city tour was planned.
We visited-
Sonar fort, Patawon ki Haveli, Gandhi Chauk, Nathumal ki Haveli.
Sonar fort – the fort stand about 100 meters over the city and in fact houses a citadel within its huge can feel the sheer magic of Jaisalmer .several entrance of fort are there including Ganesh pol, suraj pol, bhoota pol, hawa pol. Inside the fort there is lot of eateries & shops selling smaller things of handicraft, leather things etc. museum & fort can be visited on ticket, showing living status of kings & people of that time.
Patwon ki haveli- The city was traders specialization because of its strategic position on the camel train route brought it great wealth, the merchants grew prosperous & commissioned great havelis, Patwon ki haveli leads all of them but many other beautiful carved home is scattered in all over the city. Patwon ki haveli is group of six havelis, two owned by archeological survey of India now . two by families & two belongs to private purchasers. The havelis show living of that era & best example of architecture & royal living of traders of that time .
I went for food at “Trio” at Gandhi chowk. It is open restaurant, location is amazing, overlooking to present day king house, food was good.
And It was the day of full moon, the day of desert festival, all vehicles of the city were aiming to “ Sand dunes”, the destination 60 km from Jaisalmer. The place where artists from all over Rajasthan gathered to show their talent for the festival, a large sand dune was converted on to the stage, & audience were sitting in groups in different sand dunes in expansion enjoying food & drinks, many were enjoying camel rides, kids were busy in making of sand forts the whole directions were reflecting festive mood of the city An unforgettable evening!
