Dusty, sandy, beautiful Jaisalmer

Pakistan or India? I was not quite sure. All around were beautiful robed men in fascinating turbans, with the most enchanting smiles. Jaisalmer is in the North West of India in the state of Rajasthan, about 200km from the Pakistani border. The state was one of the most famous in India, moslty for its beautiful forts. Everyone drove around in these boss Mahindra jeeps and I really wanted to import one back home to Australia, deck it out like a troopie and float around the country. It was in Jaisalmer that I added another destination to the dream list. The Middle East. 

Jaisalmer was like a  real life sandcastle city, you know those ones you would try and create on the beach as a kid? There was a huge fort up on the hill with small houses spreading into the valley below. The fort was stunning, the most beautiful sandstone you ever did see, literally like out of a medievil movie, with the most beautiful little textiles and jewellry stores all around. The fort is a world heritage site and was built in 1156AD by the Rajput ruler Rawal Jaisal. Before the days of the British Raj, the fortress city served as a refuge and way station for caravans and travellers along the Silk Road. Its ramparts also served as the backdrop for many battles in past centuries when the Silk Road still served as one of the main trade routes between East and West.

We stayed at Tokyo Palace Hotel, I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting. The staff are so friendly and kind and the roof top restaurant has the best view of the fort.The rooms make you feel like a real life princess. I would not recommend staying inside the fort gates, only from an eco tourism point of view. The fort is slowly self destructing due to the pressure on the cities ancient drainage system. Staying within the fort is not really  sustainable as increased water consumption has left the fort infrastructure in danger of collapse.  

On our second day we headed out on our camel safari with a bag of hash cookies ready for our ‘magic carpet ride’. I am not super into riding animals for touristic purposes and it makes me cringe a little but i did it. I gathered from the actions of the owners that these camels were loved and looked after in return for bringing small , desert communities an income. I still will never ride an elephant! 

The ‘magic carpet ride’ was not what it was made out to be, unfortunately I did not fly but rather I devleloped quite the sore back side haha. It was still fun none the less! 

We had a beautiful evening running up and down sandunes, watching the sunset and eating delicious food that our guide, Lucky, cooked us. Lucky had never left Jaisalmer before, he simply grew up and then went to camel school, which is what the majority of people in his area do. Camels are their life. I felt really sad that he had not ever experienced another location on this beautiful planet earth, not even within India, but I felt so incredibly humbled that this was enough. This was his life and he did not question it. He lived to love and provide for his family and that was all that mattered to him.