Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, North India
July, 2014
After a relative tranquil time house sitting in south India, we had about 10 days remaining to travel before flying back home to Canada for other house sitting commitments. We wanted to concentrate our efforts in northern India to experience an area known as the "Golden Triangle". With a limited number of days, we felt this area would offer better assurance of more frequent and reliable transportation between our destinations. With our bags packed and an open mind we flew 3 1/2 hours from Kerala to New Delhi to begin our whirl wind adventure. Upon arrival at the Delhi Airport we took the metro line to the main Delhi railway station where we ran the gauntlet of touts (scammers) trying to mislead us into purchasing tickets away from the official station. Successfully dodging the touts, we purchased our first long distance train tickets for our overnight train ride from Delhi to Jaisalmer.
Our Accommodation - Mystic Jaisalmer Hotel
Jaisalmer's claim to fame is an amazing fort still used by locals. As a tourist you can choose to stay either inside the fort which is more atmospheric but mass tourism is putting too much pressure on the infrastructure and the fort walls are beginning to collapse. The more responsible option is to stay outside the fort and the bonus is that many hotels offer roof top terraces with amazing views of the Jaisalmer Fort which is something you miss when staying inside the walls. We opted to stay outside at a fantastic place run by three brothers called Mystic Jaisalmer Hotel. L ocated only a few mintues walk from the historic area with a wonderful roof top terrace and views of the fort, their helpfulness and customer service was outstanding.
Jaisalmer: Is it the most romantic city in Rajasthan?
Jaisalmer sits in the northwestern corner of Rajasthan sitting in the middle of the great Thar desert and feels very close to the end of the world. Located about 100km from the Pakistan border, this small city rises out of the desert and disappears back into it just as quickly. It's known as the "golden city" because of the yellow sandstone making up most of the buildings within Jaisalmer. As our first destination in northern India the dry desert landscape seemed liked something straight out of Lawrence of Arabia movie and was an exotic change from our three months of house sitting in tropical Kerala.
Jaisalmer's claim to fame is the 11th century Jaisalmer Fort that functions as the town's tourist drawcard and a living heritage site. Over 3000 locals still live and work inside the walls. The fort was built in 1156 by the Indian King Rawal Jaisal and it could truly be called the world's largest inhabitable sand castle as it rises 25 stories from the desert floor. The walls of rich yellow sandstone are unique to Rajasthan's quarries and shimmer like a mirage. It's extremely atmospheric and charming to wander the twisting lanes inside the fort filled with shops, colorful embroideries and hotels. A sad consequence of the popularity of the fort is affecting the sandstone blocks of Jaisalmer Fort after nearly 20 years of being immune to the elements. The added volume of tourists is overloading the sewage system and leaking directly into the fort's foundations and its now beginning to crumble. Efforts are in place to advocate more responsible travel by staying outside the fort walls to help take pressure off.
Havelis is an arabic term meaning "private mansion" and within the Jaisalmer Fort there are many of these ancient residences built by wealthy merchants which have equisitely carved sandstone facades. The detail was mind blowing!
The reason most tourists come to Jaisalmer is to wander the old town and take an overnight camel safari out into the desert which was our planned intention. However, our safari had to be cancelled due to severe wind storms at the time of our visit. This was really disappointing as we had extensively researched our safari and found a great company called Trotters Independent that had excellent reviews and it was an excursion we were really looking forward to...We'll just have to try another time.
Instead we spent our time in Jaisalmer by wandering the lanes of the city and taking time to engage in discussions with locals. We ate more sand and dust than we'd care to admit due to the unfortunate weather but we still marveled at the feeling of being in such a remote location so vastly different than anything we could imagine.
So was it as they say, Rajasthan's most romantic city? Well, it comes close once you look past at what first appears to be a crumbling grungy city. The locals are friendly and interesting and gazing out over the roof tops of the old city watching the sun set as the Jaisalmer Fort becomes illuminated along the ridge feels pretty awesome and indeed quite romantic.
So was it as they say, Rajasthan's most romantic city? Well, it comes close once you look past at what first appears to be a crumbling grungy city. The locals are friendly and interesting and gazing out over the roof tops of the old city watching the sun set as the Jaisalmer Fort becomes illuminated along the ridge feels pretty awesome and indeed quite romantic.
Photo's of Jaisalmer and Jaisalmer Fort