Jaisalmer

Set out in Western Rajasthan in the Great Thar Desert and close to the Pakistan border is the city of Jaisalmer. From Jodhpur it is a 5 hour bus drive through the desert, an empty landscape for miles and miles where nothing much grows – where the tallest thing on the horizon is either a camel or water buckets stacked high on the head of a local women as she wanders back from a water well to a small village made up of mud houses with straw roofs. Then suddenly out of the barren scrub Jaisalmer pops up with it’s city fort just standing there like a huge sandcastle in the desert. The sandstone fort perched high over the town dominates the skyline and within the fort are old streets which are a warren of little bazaars selling silks, leather goods and all sorts of other craft work… plus lots of tour touts as most people when in town end up taking a camel trip out to the desert. We skipped the camel ride and just went out to see the sand dunes instead… problem is, having seen the Gobi desert this was never really going to match up and in comparison looked more like Camber Sands!! Was still nice though as we stopped in a small rural village complete with kids after money, pens or anything else we would give them (Shona lost a hairband and lots of coins!) and camel herders, before heading out to the dunes and watching the sun set.
The streets in and around the fort are also full of haveli’s which roughly translates from Hindi to English as house with too many windows! As well as too many windows they have some of the most intrigate latice work and carvings you are likely to see, they are mad buildings and just scattered around town. Alongside the windy small streets runs Jaisalmer’s street sewage system, which is a touch pongy at times and after 850 odd years is now proving to be the possible undoing of this cool old city! The fort is sinking from too much sewage and the monsoon rains and is now on the world’s 100 buildings to watch list… who knew such a list existed, but it does! I don’t think it means you have to watch the fort as it sinks that would be a little wierd, but it is now being watched to make sure it doesn’t get any worse and that measures are taken to stop it disappearing into the ground forever! But hopefully it will be saved as it is a city and setting that is something of pure Eastern promise and very Lawrence of Arabia-esque, time for some woo’ing of my woman I think – with our boudoir of a bedroom set in an old haveli, a hand held walk along the sand dunes at sunset, romantic roof top dinner under the city walls, some sweet nothings being spoke and a couple of cheap 8% Indian lagers – it was straight to sleep and snoring like an Indian on a train!!