Jaisalmer (Mar 18-19)

We boarded another bus to head 5 hrs further west into the desert to the town of Jaisalmer. What would a town in Rajasthan be without a fort? and so true to form that is the rasion d'etre here. This fort is less impressive in size but more in appearance, looking truly like a sand castle in the sky. Built entirely of local sandstone and with 99 bastions all around the wall, it has a very impressive look.

It was first built in 12th century and over the years this town prospered as it was on the main silk trading route between Arabia and China. Here's a closer look at one corner of the fort from a position up on the wall....

It then fell into decline in the 1500s when shipping by sea began to drain away the business. Nevertheless, the town remains today 50,000 strong with about 25% living up on the hill inside the walls of the fort (which is very tightly packed we might say). There are no motor vehicles in there with alleyways but a few feet wide. Those alleyways are heavily dominated by hotels and souvenir shops these days but still there are active temples and lots of locals with the associated paraphenalia such as cows walking around!

The weather here is well on its way to its summer time maximums of 50 degrees, but right now it's not too terribly bad...perhaps 35 in the day, but very dry and then a pleasant 20 or so overnight so at least at this point in time AC isnt really needed. Also, things are relatively quiet as the main tourism peak season is already on the wane so arranging most things such as accomodation or travel is really easy...just walk in and what you want is usually available. The only real downer is the excessively heavy hassle factor of being stopping you on the streets and making polite conversation, which is always just a lead in for going to their shop. Too bad because it makes you just want to ignore everybody which detracts a lot from the overall experience.

One day was spent walking around inside the fort, viewing the temples, which also include some of the Jain variety with their beautiful carved pillars (this time compared to Ranakpur on a much smaller scale and in sandstone instead of white marble), and of course a palace as well. Some more Jain temple pillars in carved sandstone below.

Many buildings both inside and outside the fort have beautifully carved facades and balconies in the sandstone construction. This makes this town look visually quite appealing as its not the usual cement over brick look of most of the rest of India. Here's a look out over the 'new town' from up in the fort.

To get a sense for this facade-mania here...the photo below is the front facade, of all things, the internet cafe that we've been using. And this is not some isolated case... the majority of buildings in this town have these kinds of elaborately carved sandstone facades!

Guidebooks recommend tourists to stay in hotels outside of the fort walls because the water/sewage drainage system of the fort is not coping with excess drain water (modern plumbing) resulting in the ground eroding away. This was experienced by the collapsing of several of the bastions of the fort wall in the not too distant past.

Our hotel then is outside the fort by 5 minutes walk through lots of narrow streets fillled with traffic and noise of all kinds. The drains seem especially stinky around here for some reason. Upon arriving we started receiving the high pressure sales pitch for the main activity around here which is camel safaris, with the usual lines about once in a lifetime experience in order to sell you on the deluxe tour. These guys were making it very difficult for us to even leave the hotel before signing up which is rather unpleasant to have to deal with. By hesitating and delaying, the price finally came down by about 30% and so we were signed up for the 2 night 3 day package to begin the next day....