Our Many Moons of Honey: Jaisalmer: India’s Golden City

We left the chaos of the ‘pink city’ behind and took our first overnight sleeper bus (more on this form of travel in our up coming travel post) to Jaisalmer, also known as the Golden City. Before we fill you in on this sandy outpost, let us tell you a little bit about the bus ride. We left Jaipur quite content with our new mode of transportation and all the necessary provisions on hand: lots of salty and sweet snacks, bananas and three litres of water. Everything was going smoothly until about two am when our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere for five hours. Half way through this breakdown S really needed to use the ladies room but unfortunately the bus broke down on the side of the road next to very flat and open land. She decided to be brave, go back to bed and wait until the bus was fixed and we hit our next rest stop. Much to her painful displeasure the driver decided to make up the lost time by speeding to Jaisalmer without making the conventional rest stops. What this meant was that he continued to stop on the side of the road for men to relieve themselves but whenever S went to the front to ask to go to the bathroom she was greeted with an abrupt: “no, no stop!”. By the time we reached our final destination at noon S could barely move and to top it off we got dropped off at the side of the road in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere rather than a bus stop. S asked some boys where the nearest bathroom was and they sneered, pointed to a field behind them and said: “India is an open toilet”. Oh great … not for this lady!

inside the Jaisalmer fort

Jaisalmer is a smaller town on the edge of the desert and about 100 km from the Pakistani border. This geographic location put Jaisalmer in a strategic position in the old camel routes to Central Asia bringing it great wealth resulting in beautiful houses and mansions around the city. With the rise of the shipping trade out of Mumbai much of this wealth left Jaisalmer. However, the poor relations with Pakistan in the 60’s put Jaisalmer back on the map due to its excellent military positioning. You notice this as you drive into town and pass kilometres upon kilometres of military bases and barracks. Tourism is the military’s big rival now due to the city’s desert location and the beautiful and quite well preserved Jaisalmer fort that sits on top of Trikutu Hill overlooking Jaisalmer city. The fort was built in 1156 by Rajput ruler Jaisala and has about 99 bastions around its circumference and one well fortified entrance (with a series of gates) into the fort.

one of the many laneways inside the fort

While almost a quarter of Jaisalmer’s population lives inside the fort walls, the fort is mostly a tourist playground with most of the old haveli’s (sandstone mansions built by the wealthy merchants) turned into hotels as well as hotels built inside the fort walls and shops and stalls selling jewellery, leather and colourful Rajasthani cloth lining all the laneways. When we first entered the fort it reminded us a bit of the Fez medina because of its narrow laneways lined with shops. However, it is MUCH smaller in scale and can be covered within a couple of hours with plenty of picture taking time included. There are quite a few spots to sit and admire the views of the fort, the Jain temple inside the fort and the new city below. Although pretty crammed with hotels, tourists and merchants, the fort itself has a very peaceful atmosphere and we really enjoyed our days spent wandering around. We also want to note that this is the only city we visited where the streets in the new city were quiet and pretty much devoid of vehicles after 10 pm (that means no honking!!). A true rarity for India thus far!

our room at the hotel Shreenath Palace

In Jaisalmer we stayed inside the fort at three different hotels, two of which are worth mentioning and also got to know and enjoyed dinner and chai with the owner of Jaisalmer Fort’s only boutique hotel, Hotel Victoria (which is definitely worth the price of admission and is very tastefully decorated!). Our first night was spent at the Desert Haveli Guest House which is located in the wall of the fort. While a neat experience, the rooms are very spartan and definitely overpriced. However, the fantastic staff makes up for the ripped off feeling and Aladin’s kitchen, which is located on the rooftop of the guesthouse, served up the best food we have eaten in India (and he taught S how to make his delicious desert gata curry - yummy!!). Our last night was spent at Hotel Shreenath Palace which in one of Jaisalmer’s old haveli’s. This is hands down one of the nicest rooms we have ever stayed in (and only for $60 … yah, we indulged but had a very good and smelly reason to do so but more on that in the next paragraph). The room was exquisitely decorated and we felt like we were sleeping in the royal quarters. As a side note, a funny thing happened while we were staying there: around 9 pm M said he thought he smelt something burning and being the good Samaritan that he is, he went to investigate. To his astonishment, he found out that the source of the smoke was the concierge burning a fire in the middle of the sandstone lobby to keep warm. It was very surreal and classic India J .

S finally gets to experience the desert life

Our main reason for taking the detour to Jaisalmer was so that S could finally experience a camel safari as the first attempt in Morocco was thwarted by M’s evil stomach bacteria and fever. We decided to opt for the ‘authentic’ overnight desert safari which included a camel for each of us, all food and drinks and sleeping under the stars (without a tent). Our experience started with a thirty minute ride outside of Jaisalmer where we were met by two guys running up to our cab who can only be described as Goofy and his silent brother. The cabbie was to our observation very reluctant to let us go with these two guys but after multiple phone calls to confirm their identity and a lengthy conversation in Hindi we packed the camels and set off into the desert. We realized fairly quickly that our guides’ only goal was to do as little as possible while scoring a big baksheesh. Their English was not the best and they didn’t speak to us all that much with the exception of asking how happy we were, to which they always replied “if you are happy we are double happy”. They would also tell us from time to time how great Canadian people are because they are so rich and give good tips. At one point they told us a story about a great Canadian man who bought their friend a camel after a half day trip into the desert which we took as a hint that this is what they expected from us. After we set up camp they both took off for the night and left us with the ‘silent brother’s’ real life brother who kept telling us that there was nothing to be scared of in the desert. Shortly after this M spotted a scorpion centimetres from our feet and pointed it out to the brother who jumped a meter into the air and repeatedly pummelled the poor creature with the biggest pot he could find. We should also mention that before we went to sleep he tucked us into our sleeping area and reassured us that there was nothing to worry about while sleeping in the desert. He then proceeded to mummify himself in his blanket and didn’t reappear until the next morning. Overall we had an unforgettable time, the guides cooked some unbelievable meals, taught us how to make chapati and most importantly they brought us home safe smelling like camels with some seriously bruised asses from all of the camel riding.

If you want to see more of the golden city as well as our desert outing click HERE (password: desert).