Jaisalmer Fort and Getting Lost in the Desert

Pictures...

Mike – After a full Christmas Day of buses and trains, we arrived, at dawn, in dusty Jaisalmer. The fort wasn’t as striking and dominating as I’d expected it to be, which was partially because of it’s golden sandstone colour, making it nearly indistinguishable against the desert landscape.

I’ve often read Jaisalmer Fort being described as a large sandcastle, for which, I couldn’t agree more. Built on a hill overlooking the town, it’s surrounded by ninety-nine bastions, which protrude in bulbous, cylindrical fashion from the fort walls. Contained therein are numerous havelis, each intricately decorated by sandstone carvings and belgian glass windows. At the centre and apex of the hill lies the Maharajas Palace, which was interesting to explore, and the audio tour was well worth it.

The top of the Palace offered spectacular views of Jaisalmer and the Thar Desert. The first thing I noticed was the thousands of windmills surrounding the town on all sides. It was really unexpected; renewable energy on such a massive scale. Apparently, according to the audio tour, some of the power generated by the windmills is used by Indian military installations, but most of it powers the floodlights which line the Pakistan border. That left me with mixed feelings.

This was our last stop in Rajahstan, and I’d just like to comment on the havelis before I move onto our experiences in the desert. A haveli, in Rajahstan, is a large manor centered around an open courtyard which was usually gifted to the maharaja’s subjects, and over time, passed down through the family. We were invited into quite a few as the owners were keen to tell us their family’s history. Many had been turned into hotels, which we had the pleasure of staying in. The architecture was exceptionally in tune with the desert environment – frames constructed with teak wood and cow dung (held in moisture, keeping it cool), low doorways (minimize dust, and keep it cool), and Belgian glass (to amplify light as they had no electricity). Many of these features could easily be incorporated into modern households (ex. Southwest USA, Interior Mexico, etc.), albeit a few minor inconveniences which could eventually be overcome. In an environment that requires large outlays for air-conditioning and humidifiers, these havelis provide time-tested solutions which are both practical and cost-saving.

Anyways… The next day we headed into the desert, by camel. Along the way we stopped by several villages, which meant we were immediately flanked by children asking for “school pens” and rupees. We had neither. They were pushy little buggers; feeling our pockets, unzipping our bags – the result of many tourists bearing gifts resulting in a present becoming an expectation, just another example of the territory that goes with being white in India.

The camel trek was awesome though. The landscape was unlike anything Teg or I had ever experienced, and I had a great time learning to manoeuvre my camel. Plus, nothing beats sleeping on a sand dune, nobody else in sight, with the stars as the only anchor in the black, oily darkness of the desert night.

I was given the most flatulent, loud, and obnoxious camel. I think we were destined to be together. You’d hear him a mile away, groaning and whining, fighting with the other camels, and shitting. He was a grumpy ol’ boy, but when he harnessed up, it was all business. He was great.

Besides the extreme groin pain from having never ridden a camel, it was such a fun time. Riding all day, sleeping under the stars, running and tumbling down the sand dunes – definitely one of my fondest memories of India. You can see from the picture how liquid the sand was. The slightest breeze sent dust into your face, forcing you to squint, and there wasn’t a time where your food wasn’t sprinkled with a slight dash of Thar.

The first night we got lost in the dunes coming back from a friend’s camp. Pretty funny story, but Teg can probably tell it better then I can.

Teg- Thanks for leaving me with this tell-tale lol!

Oh man was the camel safari ever fun!! We arranged for a 2-night/3-day camel adventure, annnd that’s all we knew as we set off towards the outskirts of the city to meet our guide and camels. We arrive and there were two men and three camels. Right away I’m thinking, one of these guys must just be here to help saddle them all up and make sure we are good-to-go! Wrong. Minutes later we discover that we are the riders and they are the ‘camel-walkers’; they hold the ‘leashes’ and lead the way! Mike was immediately unhappy with this. Finally, after a couple of hours, they let him get on the ‘experienced camel’ (also the grumpiest) and gave him the reigns. I didn’t feel like pleading so I just stuck to ‘following the leader’.

Just after lunch we are already walking, not riding because our inner-thighs are dead. So so sore from the camels. I’m pretty sure I walked for 6 hours and rode for 2 this first day! By late afternoon, at one of the watering holes we meet this Aussie who is doing a night trip and ‘by chance’, his guide and ours’ get alone nicely so we all walk together till we get to the sand dunes where we’ll set up camp for the night. The Aussie and his guide set up a couple dunes over from us, minutes away, and so the three of us make plans to meet up and hang out after dinner.

After sup, we decide we’ll go over to him instead of him come to us. Our time hanging out with the Aussie was great! A really funny dude, and plus, he had brought his i-pod. Chilling out in the desert under a blanket of stars to some tunes was nothing to complain about! But, as fun as our time with the Aussie was, I regret the choice of going over there lol. By the time we decided to leave and make our way back to our camp to sleep it was pitch black out. Just after eight. We had brought our headlamps, well prepared, or so we thought!hahaha

We got lost pretty quickly en route to our camp. Somehow, ten minutes in, we stumble across the Aussie again! Like reallY!! How did we circle back around to him? OK, we realize this might be tricky but we were happy to be back at the starting point, to know the general direction we needed to go. It wasn’t long before we had gone over a few too many dunes, were actually more or less out of the desert and amongst shrugs and trees that we knew we were in trouble. Forty minutes pass and we are searching for something that will lead us back to where we came. We even tried following stars but found no help. At this point we both had come to the conclusion that we wouldn’t be sleeping at our camp, but instead, on our own in amongst the shrugs. It would be a cold night.

Almost an hour later, we see this faint light far far off and we decide to slowly make our way towards it. Finding anybody seems better than wandering around in the cold by ourselves at this point. Soon enough the light starts to blink, and so Mike does the same with his head lamp, holding it as high as he can. Yes. We finally come close enough to it and see our guides! I hugged them both immediately because I had had little hope that they were even still awake, let alone looking for us!

They lead us back to the camp and right away  we realized just how far off we had gone. Far. How could we have walked right by it?!? The dunes play tricks on you I guess. It was so nice to be back at our camp where we could huddle close to a warm fire.

We were exhausted and didn’t stay up for long, but long enough to hear our guides share their side of the story, maybe 5, 6 times with us. They were pretty proud! Apparently they had gone over to the Aussie looking for us and had to ask him if they could borrow his flashlight so they could search us out. From what they say, they mantracker’d us! They followed our prints in the sand till they could see our lights, off in the distance. We were lucky!

The rest of the safari was great! I figured out how to switch between straddling the camel and sitting ‘female style’ on it mid-ride which made things so much better! I was actually able to ride for most of the day because of this!! We arrived early in the afternoon at what would be our next camp site, and here there were even bigger sand dunes than the day before! Because we knew right away we’d be hanging out close by come night fall – no more late night adventures! – we seized every hour of sunlight possible! Which in turn meant, Mike seized every dune within the vicinity! He was air-born non-stop till sun-down!

The next morning we got up early, quickly had some hard boiled eggs and then jumped on our camels to make our way back to the pick-up point. It was an unreal safari and we both left only wishing to have had more time to extent our stay out in the desert. That and having a warm shower..

Christmas in Udaipur

Pictures from Udaipur

Mike – Sometimes referred to as the “Lake City”, other times as the “White City”, immortalized by the famous king and his horse who fought off the formidable army of Akbar the Great; Udaipur was a city rich with intrigue and beauty. We were lucky to score a newly renovated haveli with a suite overlooking Lake Pichola; views of the Lake Palace on the right, and the City Palace on the left. What a great way to spend Christmas (or Christmas Eve, as it turned out).

Teg and I have long agreed that I am the realist of the relationship, and she the idealist - sometimes easily substituted for the pessimist and the optimist. That was definitely our stance when it came to finding a Christmas dinner. She was of the mind that there would be a “Christmas Miracle” this year, and I tried to stress the simple fact that “this is India”.

It wasn’t long until Teg had half the hotel staff, and what felt like a quarter of Udaipur, searching for a turkey dinner. Things were starting to look quite promising… And, eventually, she found one: Christmas dinner at the City Palace, black tie event, hosted by the King of Udaipur himself, and for a modest sum of 5,000 rupees. Damn, was it ever tempting. Durbar Hall. Turkey. Dancing. Wait. Do we have to buy a whole new outfit? And, what would we do with a cocktail dress and a tuxedo after the dinner? Carry it in our backpacks across the Thar Desert? There were many complications… Eventually, we took the more prudent course, and swallowed our fate: A turkey-less Christmas.

I tell ya. I felt the urge to bag a royal peacock as a turkey substitute and cook it ourselves. But, it wasn’t meant to be.

Christmas was as good as it could’ve been, otherwise, considering the circumstances. Christmas Eve was spent touring around Udaipur, which culminated in a relaxing day at Tiger Lake, soaking up the rays, and getting the holiday drank on. But, it wasn’t Christmas, and deep inside we knew it wouldn’t be. But, instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we pulled up stake, and bee-lined it for Jaisalmer on Christmas morning.

On Christmas Day, year zero, three wise men were walking through the desert. On Christmas Day, 2010, a bearded wise man and his fellow Mary began a journey into the desert. What will they find?…

Teg- OKAY, firstly, Mike has a slightly different opinion of how Christmas day went down. We woke up to it in Udaipur yes, but we were out of our hotel, catching a bus at 8 in the morning with no hope of having a breakfast of any kind. Unless we wanted some Lays chips that is! All those mornings I’d had all over in India thus far, where sunny-side up came out scrambled, was now all I craved lol!

We arrived in Jodhpur two hours later than expected, 4pm that day, (yep, 8 hours on a bus) and so we had a few hours to find a restaurant to eat at and internet to skype at, before heading over to the train station for 10pm so we could catch our train to Jaisalmer. Dinner was okay, we ate close to the train station; both having the ‘chicken dish’. The rice, potatoes and veggies were all lovely but the chicken was unfortunately over-done. Instead of carrying a conversation, we spent more of our mealtime savagely chewing, concentrating on not choking.

But let me backup. Before Christmas morning, our times in Udaipur were AMAZING!! Let me repeat, AMAZING!! I absolutely loved this city! It was just so friendly and every street had its own stories to tell and enticing shops to enter. It was hard to resist not just spending hours wondering from shop to shop!

Mike and I decided to split-up for a few hours the day before Christmas Eve so that we could search for gifts for each other. I had already worked my magic and gotten him his, so instead of shopping I went on a hunt for a turkey dinner. It didn’t take long before I realized that, one, Christmas Eve was celebrated more so than Christmas day (Happy Birthday MuMMA!) and two, it was taking place only at the finest of hotels, I mean, palaces. I had the option of either buying tickets to the Shiv Niwas/Fateh Prakash Palaces’ dinner (5000Rps) or the Lake Palace’s dinner (7500Rps). I would have bought the tickets then and there but I knew I had better run it past Mike, considering half would have to come out of his own pocket eventually. When we met up later that day I enticed him into coming over to the palace to see for himself how amazing it would be.

Mike definitely was amazed by the place, and a chance to meet royalty was a great selling point. Yet in the end, it was the idea of buying some formal wear that really weighed against him and it was hard to convince him once he realized this. We ended up just eating at our hotel, which nevertheless, was actually really good!! I guess it made sense though because our hotel was wonderful and we had (no doubt) the best room there, for roughly $22 a night (which, in India, is considered “splurging” – cmon, it’s Christmas!). Corner-top room with balcony and great views of the fireworks going off on the night of Christmas Eve, it was really was beautiful!! Hotel Udai Niwas was great. The staff were so friendly and helpful (they were in on the turkey search with me! haha).

Though Christmas wasn’t the same as what I’ve been used to, it was great to experience it from another light. You realize it’s not what you have but who you’re with. This was an easy realization. It was Mike and my first together, and though not the proto-typical, I know it will UNDOUBTEBLY be a great memory, one hard to forget!

Chittor

Pictures from Chittor

Mike – We spent one day here as a stop-over en route to Udaipur. There’s really not much to say about the town itself, besides the fort, which was hyped by Lonely Planet as “possibly the best in India”. I really didn’t think so.

It was huge, formidable, and nearly impenetrable. I just didn’t find it as interesting and fun to explore as some of the other forts we’ve been to thus far. It was so big that you needed a rickshaw to get from sight to sight, and because of this, you just don’t get the same exposure and feel for the place as you would on your own two feet. The large groups of Indian tourists didn’t improve the situation.

Anyway, there’s really not much else to say about Chittor.

Teg- Ya, Mike hits the nail on the head. Besides the fort there really wasn’t much else to Chittor. If we were to re-do our journey there, I think we would definitely have made it a quick afternoon stop between Bundi and Udaipur. That being said, I must admit the Fort was massive and well worth a pit-stop.

The entire hill-top was covered with sandstone bricks; towers and walls and temples scattered all over a 5km range. Even just getting there, we were zig-zagging through huge brick walls for what seemed like forever until we got to the entrance gate at the top. Definitely wasn’t complaining about the rickshaw then!haha

However,  as Mike said, having our driver take us from one point to the next, giving us time-lines for how long each stop should take, really sucked. We didn’t even listen to him anyways, just spent as much or as little of time in each section as we liked. When we first arrived, the first ‘section’ we browsed was empty, we were the only ones there and it was great!! At this point we kinda believed the rest of the day would be like this. Our next stop quickly changed our minds as we discovered we were amongst a school of boys and Indian tourists. The parade of people asking for our picture would soon begin.

The two high points of this fort for me was the huge tower and the tank. The tower was something like 9 stories high and it was quite the chore to get up. Not so bad for me, but Mike struggled. That’s because the stair well was made for my height, or smaller. At points I was even crawling up the stairs to safe-guard my head from getting smoked. It was pretty funny watching Mike wiggle and crawl his way up the stairs!

Being at the tank was an interesting experience because it was swarming with people at the bottom of the stairs with their feet in, washing their faces with the water.  I attempted to do the same and was greeted with many open-hands and pleas for donations. Their watery blessing was apparently very expensive. I did donate, but not as much as they would’ve liked. Feeling somewhat uncomfortable, I didn’t linger in the tank for very long.

Mike – Teg has this new fascination with taking pictures of me going through tight places. I think she finds it quite entertaining…

Bundi

Serenity Now.

Mike – Bundi still doesn’t seem real. Challenging all of our pre-constructed notions of busy-busy India, it seemed we had stepped into a realm of supreme relaxation and utter simplicity. It couldn’t of come at a better time. For me, personally, I was running out of steam: India had me bagged. I’ve been sick, for what seems like, the majority of the trip, which led me to have intense cravings for the familiar staples of the Western diet. Most of all, I was getting tired of the daily swarming and outlandish expectations that goes with being a white foreigner in India.

Then, we arrived in Bundi, and everything changed.

In a valley overlooked by ancient fortifications, blue “lego-like” buildings saturate the Bundi town-scape, resembling a town of sky blue painted fingernails. It was most surreal. From sunrise to sunset, different angles of the sun superimposed entirely different perspectives on the town, to the extent that the Bundi at dawn was entirely different then the Bundi at dusk.

Beyond simply “being there”, and soaking up the chilled, layed-back atmosphere, there was a ton to explore. The fort was really cool because we were literally on our own to meander through the vine-infested battlements and fortifications. Wait, let me clarify, we weren’t entirely alone; we were constantly surrounded by hundreds (no exaggeration) of monkeys. It was kind of unsettling, and almost felt like we had stepped into “King Louie’s” lair from Disney’s “The Jungle Book”. Funny enough, Rudyard Kipling lived here for an extended period of time. I’m not sure when he wrote the stories that formed the rubric for the movie, but there are some striking similarities with the fort and the Disney interpretation of his stories.

Scattered amongst the hillsides were the remains of the fort, and these little pagodas (or maybe cenotaphs – not sure), which I’m guessing were built for contemplation or meditation. They were usually on the peak of the hill, and could be quite the hike to get to, but, totally worth it when you arrive. Teg and I spent a whole afternoon just reading and soaking up the rays. In India, you really learn to cherish the time when you can be by yourselves for a little while, a long thirsted silence, far removed from the hustle bustle of modern life. It was great to just sit, knowing that there’s no place you need to be, nothing you need to do, as you sit there, looking below, watching the world go by without you. It was very peaceful.

Teg- Ya. What he said. lol

There’s not much more to say really about Bundi, I’m really quite satisfied with how Mike puts it.

Though, I must give props to the guesthouse we stayed at - Lakeview. Managed by this cute elderly couple, our room was on the top floor so that when we stepped out of it, we were on the rooftop, with great views all around us. The Palace and Fort seemed so close! This guesthouse was located on the edge of a large tank, so having breakfasts metres away from the water was nothing to complain about either!

If we weren’t up on rooftop patios relaxing, having a cold lassi with unbelievable views of the blue city just below us, we were up even higher away from the city, looking down from the hill-top Palace, Fort or pagodas. It was great. I didn’t feel guilty at all about our lazin’ around up on the rooftops because the days adventures’ getting up the hills definitely brought on a sweat. Of course, well worth it!

OKay, I must say, THE MONKEYS!!! This was unbelievable!! At the entrance to the Palace/Fort, I (on a whim) paid 10 rupees for a bamboo stick, which, as I was told would be needed to scare of the monkeys. At the time I just got it cuz I wanted to use it as a walking stick and maybe hit Mike on the legs once or twice with (playfully of course!). Once up at the top at the fort, man was I thankful to have gotten one. There were certain paths that couldn’t be walked without bagging the stick on the ground to clear some room for yourself to pass!