Bikaner - Rajasthan
Got into Jaisalmer in the evening to be met with the usual gaggle of touts as the train had originated in Delhi and had a load of tourists on board. It’s worth looking Jaisalmer up on the internet or Google Images because it’s really fascinating. It has the only occupied fort in the world - occupied by householders, hotels, shops and restaurants. It has come under siege on a number of occasions in the 16th century from tribes in the north because it straddled the old silk road. On three of those occasions it failed to survive (once after a seven year siege) and finally the soldiers decided to ride out to certain death and the women and children built a huge bomfire in the square and committed ‘johar’ and jumped into the flames. It’s a big fort too - 3km of battlements.
The inside of the fort is a photographer’s paradise with little lanes and dead ends and beautiful architecture. We went for a short trip to the desert with the local tourist board. Trying to get the whole Lawrence thing - you know, the sweeping vistas, solitude etc., we were dogged by bloody kids and traders wanting to dance and flog cans of Fosters. So we sat amongst the empty water bottles and chip packets and had our moment. I’ll expand when we get back.
The thing that happens at some stage or another - typically after three weeks of trying to communicate with the locals in pidgin English is that you start to talk to each other like it. “You want food?”; “Yes, velly nice food for you”; “OK, we go in”; “Is food good price?”; “Yes, I think food good price”; “You want sex?”; “Yes, you come inside and sit down”. And so it goes. We’ll be lucky to find the right lane to Durban.
Anyway, Jaisalmer, a bit remote but well worth going to. jaisalmer-in-jeopardy.org is also worth a visit. The hotel Palace-Hight (sic) was the last of 5 that we looked at and still had the bloody foam mattress. Lots of Indian jets in the air as the Pak border is only 50 kms. away. Tremendous moonrise in the desert too. They have a government bung shop in Jaisalmer so I had a bung drink and bought a bung cookie. Sonali was mortified.
Next stop is Bikaner, 300 kms further north and yet another night train trip. Sat on the freezing station at 10.30pm. Fortunately, the carriage was nearly empty. This time it was a three tier sleeper andthe trip was freezing. Absolutely bloody freezing and sand kept getting in from somewhere. We had a couple of blamkets from Etihad thank God. Picture shows Evers eagerly anticipating the delights of a night trip across the desert.
4.10am on the freezing Bikaner station. We waited an hour amongst the huddled masses in the waiting room and got a tuktuk to the Palace View. Not bad for R140 for the room and very quiet until an American group arrived this morning.
Sonali hadn’t slept for three nights so she stayed in bed all morning yesterday while I went to the temple with the hundreds of rats. In the afternoon we went to the market where she bought some material and got ripped off as she doesn’t haggle. Except with tuktuk drivers and she’s very good at it.
Today we are going (nearly wrote ‘we go’) to the camel breeding centre.
First thing this morning we booked an overnight coach ticket to Udaipur in the south. Now we really start the homeward journey. It’s another 12 hour trip. Sonali really wanted to see it for its romance. Its a sleeper coach so should be a decent journey.
Bikaner has a fort but nowhere near as spectacular as Jaisalmer’s. I’ll take a trip there tomorrow. There’s also very little English here - all Hindi. I had to get a tuktuk to find this cafe and even he had to ask somebody else.
The next missive will be from Udaipur.