Jodhpur & Jaisalmer: Blue streets to Golden sands, Part -2

We started for Jaisalmer by taxi after breakfast. It would be a 6 hours journey. On the way to Jaisalmer we crossed the now famous Osiyan, where there had been a oasis in the desert and the place recently has got its fame for adventure activities. We didn’t stop at Osiyan, but the desert landscape was prominent from here.

The road from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer goes through a crossroad where one way goes to Bikaner and the other to Jaisalmer. Both are equally distant from this point. And thus it somehow becomes difficult where should you head.

Other than the fort, Bikaner has its typical attraction of savory snacks. But the queer fact about this city is that, Bikaner doesn’t have long straight roads in its olden areas. The reason behind such city plan is to break the desert wind from forming a sand storm. Had I got and chance sometimes to visit this place, I’d like to witness and experience such foreseen city planning. The wisdom in daily life itself is a wonder there.

Coming back to the Jodhpur-Jaisalmer road. It goes through a mystic stretch of geography. There may be farms on one side and desert on the other of the road. The farms have their goat and cows and camels. Then there will be acacia groves. And camel carts on the road or disassembled in the farm, probably under an acacia. And when you get down from the car for a quick snack from a roadside dhaba, there you have a stretch of road that leads nowhere. Nobody goes through that road. No one minds where you may wish to go. You are just there. With yourself and the dhaba. It’s a tremendous feeling. Nature here makes human to flourish and then surrender to the inner self.

The famous desert wind literally touches your skin sandy and blows your hair brown.

We stopped at Kheechan bird sanctuary. Lots of flamingos. Much more that the one near Bishnoi villages. The birds assemble around a lake and the site is pretty tourist-free.

We knew we’ll be crossing Pokhran. And so we did. There was a board on the road that shows a cut goes inside the army settlement where atom bomb was tested. 

This stretch of the road is really nearing Jaisalmer. We were seeing little settlements of Banjaras with a few tents at a walking distance from a well. We saw ladies going to fetch water. We saw kids playing around the tents. It’s another mystical lifestyle that we would keep on wondering.

Jaisalmer is not like Jodhpur in terms of allowing the first glimpse of its famed golden fort. While entering the city we could see the fort at its dusk hew at a distance. Jodhpur really doesn’t allow to glimpse upon Mehrangarh so easily.

The golden fort is not something so strange given to this part of the land. This is yellow sandstone. Abandoned in this area. While approaching the town we saw road being cut through golden stones. Then when we are inside the town, there are places where even the footpath is made with this stone. Thus the entire old town becomes golden city.

We stayed in Bhim Kothi. Basicslly a middle size house is converted into a hotel. There is no vehicle access to the entrance. You have to take your luggage from road to the entrance through a narrow private alley. But the distance may be of 10 meters, so it is not a big issue.

The beauty of this hotel, and probably similar hotels here is its typical old world surrounding. The alley that I mentioned leads to a set of golden steps going possibly to terrace house. There are other doors before and after our intended entrance. Thus all these houses are clustered together with common walls and common terraces and common staircases and common old worldly charm.

The interior is a bit overly decorated I felt. But all the same, this also added to the charm. Comfort level is ok here. Overall this is not a very recommended place to stay, but definitely you can visit such houses around the town to get the feel and also stay if you want to remain within budget. Bhim Kothi provides dinner on advance request.

If you are not staying in the resorts around Jaisalmer or near the bus stand, you are always near the fort. There is almost no new city for Jaisalmer other than the areas I mentioned now. All hotels, havelis, kothis, markets everything cluster together within perhaps half km radius from the fort. So wherever you stay, just walk you way up to the fort.

So next morning we took our breakfast from Nachana Haveli. If it suits your budget, you can stay here because the haveli is really beautiful.

After breakfast we took a tour of the haveli, discovering a washroom in the middle of the stairs landing inside an old room. And we reached it through a terrace. This is a nice place to be for whatever time you may manage.

Then we walked up to the fort. There are four concentric guarding walls of this fort, each marked with their entry gate or Pol.

The pols from outside are Akshay Pol, Ganesh Pol, Suraj Pol and Hawa Pol. You cross them all along with bikes and auto rickshaws as around 5000 residents still stay inside the fort and they commute along with walking tourists.

There are few spots inside Jaisalmer fort. Some palaces and temples and so on. What catches the interest of tourist here is the bustling of the place and the twisted lanes leading to the still occupied houses. Jaisalmer had an important role in international trade at its prime. There were markets and there were vendors from faraway lands. Those peoples came here, established their shops – some temporary, some permanent and stayed scattered around the town – some in rented houses, own houses or even in tents. They had walked through these same cobble stoned pathways.

Then came a time when such overland trade routes started fading out from prominence. Jaisalmer was forgotten. And then, strangely, art came into picture. Satyajit Ray made his Sonar Kella here. Bongs started getting interested. International tourists poured in. And whosoever came, they went back mesmerized by the charm of this geographical stretch of Thar desert. And slowly Jaisalmer started getting busy again. Today it is almost over crowded during peak tourist seasons.

What adds to its beauty is the present-day market. You get everything that you may get some other places as well. But the sensation that this is the same market where long ago international trades used to happen, the feeling that these are the same steps, balconies, corridors, outer rooms that held an erstwhile market, the wonder of reaching to a sudden shop inside a hidden dead- end alley beside a small door opening to a courtyard with a bike parked – is magical. You just roam and roam and roam and roam. You just get lost, physically and mindlessly, because of the winding pathways and because your mind is transporting you back and forth with a cease. So what is Jaisalmer fort.

As everyone, we bought golden stone items. Very small ones as we the fliers and airlines keep on charging us on luggage. And we purchased equally small item made of fossil stone that is queried from nearby Habur. You can keep on purchasing other nicknacks as well, there are plenty.

We took our lunch here from Free Tibet restaurant. The Tibetan owner has sold the business to local and moved. The present owner is

doing justice to the business. Food is comfortable here.

Well, we walked out now to Patwon ki Haveli through more winding lanes outside the fort. It has a museum which we skipped. We just kept on roaming on its several outhouse courtyards. There are several buildings in this haveli complex. Each had their roles when occupied in full scale. Wondering how might have been the olden days is the attraction here that we felt. There are musicians in the courtyards. They make song on your name if you ask so. And those are nice Rajasthani folk songs. We loved the one that was made for Tepu. 

These musicians hurry as evening nears. They will ride 40 km to Sam for late evening performances in desert camps. They’ll be back here next day morning to dusk. A semi nomadic life. We see in films. And now we witness it.

There are other havelis in the town, but we got tired. We headed to Gadisar lake now, by an autorickshaw.

We boated here. Seeing the changes of color of approaching evening on the golden walls of the ghat, bastion, the small water leisure hall when you are afloat on a boat, is soothing. There is light and sound show here in evening which we didn’t wait to watch.

As in Jaisalmer fort, at Gadisar lake also, you can dress up as local and take instant photo. We took for Tepu at fort. She enjoyed being decked up with all the jewel adornments.

Well done with Jaisalmer, we headed for Sam next day morning in a taxi. This same taxi will bring us back to Jaisalmer after a day.

Saumya particularly advised to go to Longewala – the 1965 battle and win ground. First, we went to Tanot border, back to Tanot mata temple, then to Longewala and finally in evening reached Sam desert camp.

The border is around 25 km from Tanot. This stretch is a full fledge desert. It stretches all around you. And you are inside army area and you can’t stop to enjoy. There are a very few locals

visible on the road and there are army watchtowers throughout the stretch. Nature is rough here and the main attraction is how different it could be from whatever we see in a plain’s daily life.

Tanot mata temple has its own army legends and the temple is taken care of by Indian Army. The road from Tanot to Longewala is having some nomadic villages scattered. You see a bike, but no petrol pump nearby. But the bike has a full 5 liter can hanging on it. It’s almost filmy here.

We were late to reach Sam after spending time leisurely in other places and had no time for freshening up and had to head for a 4 wheel ride desert safari. The jeep jumped as much as it could to give up the thrill and I was not really getting thrilled.

Once inside desert, we were left on our own. A lot of adventure activities are available there and we took none other than camel ride. Sandeep was to go with Tepu and while getting up on the camel he sprained his thigh. Great. Then I had to accompany Tepu to my utter chagrin. And the camel move to give thrill and I just wanted to be out from being in air. Tepu enjoyed and later mocked me for months for my discomfort on camel’s back. Not a problem for me. I am not ok and I didn’t feel any sympathy for Sandeep for his timely sprain.

What I liked in desert is the texture of the sand. It’s smooth and flowy. Tepu did a little treasure hunt in the desert sand of her little territory and got a hairclip and a bottle cap. She was happy. She buried her feet under sand, made every possible way for the sand to stick all around her. But unlike wet beach sand, this desert sand was falling easily. When we reached, daylight was still there and sand was warm. As the evening fell, so fast fell the sand temperature. By the time it was really dark with just an orange glimmer on the west horizon, the sand was cold. This change happened within a very short span of time. This I felt was wonderful.

Back to camp and get ready for open air folk performances followed by dinner. All were good. We were fighting with our tiredness but enjoying the atmosphere.

Then happened something really wrong. We had been told that this camp will have hot water in bathroom. We really needed it. Once we reached the camp, they told hot water will be available only in morning. So that was a disappointment. We still managed. We now knew we would get hot water only next morning. One thing we forgot to take care due to our exhaustion that we did not fill water in buckets in night before sleeping. The camp attendant told cold water will be available throughout anyway. But in the middle of night there was no water in bathroom. It came around 5 am in morning. Point to note here is enquire properly before booking or be prepared for things like this as you are really out and ways from everything in a desert.

Regarding the patch of desert where all these activities go on, or the dunes, there is an issue. There is no baren dunes in this area. For that you have to go more into the desert, possibly towards border. So these dunes here are basically breach to nature. Here also there used to be acacia. But continuous 4 wheeling, and other activities stopped those acacia to grow and made the bare sand dunes. Sam is not a recommended place overall.

Next day after breakfast we started our return journey with the same taxi. We were to go to Kuldhra village. It’s good. But it’s over popularized. But it’s still gives some quirky sensation to roam through the ruins.

We wanted to go to Khaba fort. We actually should have first gone to Khaba from Sam and then to Kuldhara. Distance would have been less then. We did it in other way due to lack of knowledge. The taxi driver charged some extra amount for this change of planning anyway.

But Khaba was a good decision. The roadsing for Khaba village shows to take a right cut from main road from where we can see a broader road is

going directly to the fort through a winding hilly path. Catch here is to be on the main road to reach the fort. Otherwise, you’ll reach the village from where there may come a trail to climb up to the hill to reach the fort.

Khaba is a very small fort. Most of it is in ruins now. By its size and position it is assumed that it was used as a check post sort of settlement. It towers over a small hillock overlooking the village below. Then once you look away towards the distant horizon, you see a very vast span of desert lay in front of you. The land is typically baren with some occasional scattered acacia. A guard from here can take serious defensive action as required. Being here is a surreal experience. Soothing and serene.

Done with our trip, it’s time to return. We took the evening train to Jodhpur from Jaisalmer. Got down at Rai ka Bagh and checked in Magan Niwas

again. During this train journey I fell sick and almost fainted at Rai ka Bagh station. It was all due to continuous exhaustion and some of my underlaying medical conditions that I kept on trying to adjust with.

The owner family at Magan Niwas helped beyond imagination during such health issues. All thanks to them. After another night in Rajasthan, next day morning we took flight to Chennai. Yes, we were over-lugged as per airlines limits. But it’s ok. It’s worth to lose money some times for some things more important.

Our last night and early morning in Jodhour shown us that winter is coming and it was becoming more and more chilly.

Among some best tours till now, this one was one.