Jaisalmer - You gotta be there !. Review on Jaisalmer

My experience at Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur. I've recounted the first part under Jaipur and remaining under Jodhpur.

Day 4: We reached Jaisalmer and I must say that it is a beautiful place. Accustomed to the hustle-bustle of city life, quaint Jaisalmer had a turn-around atmosphere. We had booked tents with the Rajasthan Desert Safari Camp in Sam and they arranged for us to be picked up from the station. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the way and resumed our jeep drive to the tents in Sam, 45 kms from the city. Enroute, it was lovely to see the expanse of deserted land, with a few stray camels and thatched huts. We reached the secure RDS camp site, comprising 30 tents sprawling amongst vast stretches of the desert. Chic tents with lovely service! After freshening-up we started on the camel-safari to the dunes. Beyond this, one has to experience the desert feel, the fine sand at the dunes, the vast expanse of nothingness, and simply not read about it . Unlike Hindi films, where we see infinite sand in the desert, in reality, the dunes are actually interspersed with rugged land. However, we found a dune with no foot-prints or camel-prints and clicked away to glory. After enjoying the sun-set over there, we returned on our camels(named Hrithik Roshan and Michael Jackson) to the camps.

RDS had a huge group of foreigners who came to the dunes at sun-set and stayed over for folk-dance and dinner. Owing to the huge group, we were lucky that RDS had brought in some incredible folk dancers(we witnessed dance holding hot coals on weighing balance, with pots on the head, steps with plates and pins).

I must mention something that I observed with the folk dancers. They care 2 pennies for Indian tourists . With 40 foreigners towering over the place and we 4 Indians in a corner, the dancers showed their unique instruments to the foreigners, cajoled them to dance, while coolly keeping away from where we were seated and obviously ignoring us. Well, we were there to enjoy, so we joined the dancing crowd without any persuasion .

Day 5: After a late breakfast we returned to the city and stayed at Gorakh Haveli ]. Rooms with a traditional feel, good service, we could get a distinct fort-view from the terrace, and the hotel is at walking distance from the fort, havelis and the market.

We rested and by 3pm we walked over to the Havelis. The first was Salem-Singh ki Haveli. Awesome is a mild description . From there we walked to Patwon ki Haveli. Now if you’ve seen these 2, I think you’ve seen them all . So we clicked pictures outside the third one – Nathmalji ki Haveli and went over to the Garisar lake at sunset( a director’s paradise). Finally we returned to Gorakh Haveli, played cards and enjoyed dinner on the terrace.

Another pointer. While returning from Nathmalji ki Haveli and close to the fort is a sweet shop called Dhanraj Ranmal. Dive into the Rasmalais, and bite into the mirchi vada and samosas. Sigh! Why did I return?

Day 6: We walked up to the only ‘living’ fort. I think the charm of the Jaisalmer fort arises from the people residing within it. Inside the fort, we saw the Jain temple(exquisite carvings), the city view point and the Raja’s palace. Preferably don’t get tempted and shop inside the fort. Each item is double or triple the original cost.

Then we routed through the sweet shop(Dhanraj Ranmal) again and did the next best thing after sweets. Shopped till we dropped! If you are bored of Rasmalai’s at Dhanraj Ranmal, then Amrit Ras restaurant near the fort is a good place to grab some quick food while you shop.

In the evening we took the train(Delhi-Jaisalmer Express) to Jodhpur and stayed over at RTDC Ghoomar Neat place and spacious rooms.