Jaisalmer 27 Jan 2009

27 Jan (2nd day of Lunar New Year)

Jaisalmer - Hotel Royale

As usual breakfast was not served any earlier than 8am despite we still waking at 6am when the rythmic horns from trucks broke the peace of the night. Previous night, we slept at 10+pm right after dinner at the hotel. The dinner is quite unsatisfactory despite being vegetarian, apart from very oily, small portions, prices are on par with the reputable Trio restaurant. Would not recommend eating anything other than breakfast at this hotel.

The morning view of the fort from the rooftop dining area is superb with the morning sunlight reflected off the stones with a warm orange glow. Perfect for pictures.

The entrance of the fort is 5 minutes away. Again warm glowing sunshine bouncing off the walls and bastions.
The golden fort indeed. Jaisalmer is almost entirely dependent on tourism and they are good with tourists so beware of almost anyone chatting you up. "where are you from?" korea..japan..china.. It's difficult to tell where we are from exactly, ignoring these people totally usually works. If you are unaware, it's a question to gauge your "economic power", the type of cameras you carry, and we have a camera each .. Probably look "delicious". We saw a chinese girl surrounded by 6-7 people on the way out of the fort, the male companion was 20 steps ahead so just a harrasment on a young lady I supposed.



Just wandered off in the small narrow alleys within the fort (free entrance). Don't worry about getting lost as they all lead back to the central square where the entrance to the museum was.

The alleys are intermingled with street vendors, free roaming cows and their dung. ...namaste..anyohaseyo...hello...have a look.. Hundreds of stalls selling more or less the same things. The amazing carvings out of sandstones which you discovered as you start wandering among the alleys, and there are several Jain temples within. After Ranakapur, we did not bother with the hassle of removing shoes to enter, you can heard the chanting from outisde. There are "priests" of questionable motive of offering blessings for a donation as we seen in Ranakapur. The main temple requires entry and camera fee. I suppose if you are not visiting Ranakapur, it's a good experience. It seems a very crowded place with tourists probably the feeling created by the narrow alleys.

Only lunch choice is vegetarian within the fort. They all serve pretty much the same, trying to cater to the various tourists groups .. Pasta, korean, chinese, continental ..etc. I had safe choice of masala omelette and basmati fried rice and M had tomato pasta with cheese which looked really yucking to me as it looked very orangy. M wanted something non Indian with less oil, and quite appreciated the change. I enjoyed my self mixed egg fried rice which omelette was shared with M. They are more generous portion than Hotel Royal. The lunch place was the rooftop of some "Sunset View" Restaurant overlooking the town, the desert to the west filled with hundreds of wind turbines. Jaisalmer is 160km from Pakistan border separated by Thar desert, you can see the military presence around getting in and out of Jaisalmer. From the restaurant, you can see fighter jets landing in the west every few minutes.



After lunch, we visited the fort museum 250rs includes camera fee and audio guide. The state of the guide is not as well maintained as Megrangarh and an indication of the quality of the sights in this museum vs Mehrangarh for the same $. It's still worth the visit, 30 stops with 3 on the rooftop which gives a very good view around from the fort built on the triangular Trikuta hilltop. You can see Gadisar lake from here too. We took 3 hours to finish at a very leisurely pace and walked back to hotel to rest before dinner, telling the driver we'll skip Gadisar.

Apparently internet was not working the whole day in jaisalmer. There is a common PC across the reception but as of any such PC, you never know of virus and dangers lurking on it. I accidentally found that for the suite (room 107) we paid the price for travel agents which includes breakfast and our price don't. The price quoted to us originally was double, whew! Anyway breakfast for 2 of us is less than 100rs. The room was indeed very nice - spacious with good fort view. Hot water is a little inconsistent as most places.

We asked for non-veg recommendations. Trio was suggested. It's at Mandir palace about 10min walk through the local markets. We were tore between tandoori chicken or bryiani. We ordered one portion of bryani lamb and chicken (115rs each) and another mixed vegatables. All very tasty! Probably the difference between a proper restaurant and a hotel "kitchen". 2 hours after a very satisfying non-veg dinner at Trio Restaurant (it lives up to its reputation) for 360rs (includes a 7-up which I added some of my rum) it takes credit card even, we went to bed at 10pm+ ... Only disturbed slightly with a fierce dog fight in the middle of the night. We did not feel unsafe walking back to hotel, just beware of cow dung in the not too bright spots. The only thing I don't like is the live village music which started after I took my seat right behind me. It's too close and the noise gave me a headache and I moved right to the end of the restaurant to have a more peaceful dinner after realizing after the first piece of music it was going on for the whole night! I read that the musicians expect a tip as do most in the industry dealing with foreign tourists, I was not appreciative of the noise and damage to my peace. Sorry no tips ... The musicians were all smiles and namaste when we walked by behind them.

Dera Eco - Kichan - Jaisalmer [26 Jan 2009]

6+am I went outisde the tent with my camera and tripod to catch the dawn light. I heard what the french lady (the only other tourist at the camp) described - radio blasting away and waking her the previous morning, some distance away in the west some villagers with newly discovered application of Electricity!

Breakfast at 8am - very "toasted" toast, probably over a clay oven and masala omelette with orange juice, chai and bananas. The camp puppy kept wanting to play with us. M was irritated by the doggy biting her shoes :) I had to distract the puppy and bring it outside to play, but I guess it has more energy than me.

We were packed to go by 8.45am and with Mr Singh's jeep we met our driver back at Harlai at 9am to Kichan for Demoselle cranes watching.



About 45min drive, though the driver seemed unsure about the exact watching place, we spent 5-10min going around Kichan. Finally a turn into a small alley, we saw birds flying above us, and then more cranes! There was a dog blocking the driver's path and he sounded the horn and that scared the birds as we saw many took to the sky.

There was a watching platform above Bird View Guesthouse and our driver communicated with a teenager boy and he invited up to watch. There were some seats and a European lady was watching. Below about 10 meters away, within a fenced compound, there were hundreds of cranes feeding on grains. On and off one or a couple or a small group would take flight and some others would join the others extending their necks picking up the grains. It's pure joy watching them. M went down stairs along the perimeter to an inner area where another big group was feeding. A dog seemed to be guarding the access to the birds, first chasing off a cow and then his wary eyes on M. Our driver "talked" to the dog and asked M to go ahead, "no problem" he said. The european lady then commented "if the distance get too close, it's a problem". Well, M is aiming for a great shot :) The lady begun her wary eyes on M, while I was busy catching the cranes taking off and landing. M is out of my sight and probably 300m away. Next thing I knew the lady was running to M, I guess M had gone too close. The lady must be an experienced biologist or something, looking at her gears and she stayed at the guesthouse, I realized later. M told me the lady said the cranes will get stressed and disturbed if M get too close. M was truly apologetic, she never thought of it that way. At the moment I saw the lady "lecturing" M, I thought about the comment the french lady at Dera Eco made about environment protection needs a lot of money to put in place, especially when people are struggling for basic survival, villagers collecting firewood everyday for warmth at night, without burning or electricity, will someone give them solar panels to generate power from the plentiful sunshine.

Back to the birds, I took some shots, nice but limited by the zoom. With the motor drive, I'm happy with what I captured. As we learned from the teenager boy through our driver, there is a trust that provide the financial resources to feed the birds which visiting population has grown tremendously. I also thought about where these birds fit in the food chain, do they not fit a purpose than migration and feeding.

We donated 200rs to the trust, the driver insisted the teenager boy went to the office for the receipt. From the driver, it was said it takes 1000rs to feed the cranes daily. The teenager even made us some chai which I forgot about paying for or maybe the driver did.

After we have our receipt, about 11am we set off for Jaisalmer. We reached at close to 2pm and went to checked out Shahi Palace and it's related Oasis Haveli, only small rooms are available which is rather really small which we did not take. The fort view fork the terrace is very nice thought. The driver took us around to Green Hotel which rooms do not look very clean and there were flies around. We then looked at Hotel Royal which is about one year old, 5 min walk from the fort entrance. They are supposely working mainly with larger tour groups. We were shown 2500rs heritage room and 3000rs suite. After some bargaining we took the heritage room without breakfast. While we were checking in, the lady manager or boss told us they would give us the suite room at no additonal cost as they have a cancellation. We were more than delighted.


The room was very nice and spacious. There were 3 sort of sitting balconies with one of them in the very big bathroom.

Dera Eco - Osian -- 25 Jan 2009

25 Jan (Lunar New Year eve)
Sunday

- Shahi Guesthouse Jodpur Old City
We made some instant porridge with some baked caschew nuts to eat early at 7am as we want to set off at 8am. (we carry a multi boiler like a big opening hot water boiler which we had carry with us for many trips. It was a little cubersome but we can make hot water whenever there is electricity and some instant noodles or porridge for a quick meal or when we are sick from local food or really sick and need some plain stuff). Packed our stuff to check out of the suite room. It's a very nice room and we got it with no discount (prebooked). I'm sure the price can be lower if it was empty when you arrive in the city. I was rather disappointed Mr Bantu did not offer to pay the tutu that take us out from the alleys to meet with our driver at the clock tower. It was not a big amount 30-40rs but considering we paid the full price for 2 nights, it would be a very nice gesture. Not to mention the previous night dinner rather sucks! Felt like the same food from the day before (it was mentioned the cook was absent) It was not cheap 350rs for 2 vegetarian set. Anyway would not recommend meals here. I would only stay here for the excellent view of the fort, clean rooms and consistent hot showers. (though the shower hose was leaking very badly and spraying water all over, we forgot to mention to the owners)

In the early hours (Indians don't start their day early), there was no traffic around the clock tower, the transfer back to the Innova was non-event.



- Osian
I think about an hour we reached Osian. It does not look very exciting from the street outside. We changed into our flip flops and they went left on the shelves after the entrance. No touts at all, real surprise. M met a family later and we took some pictures together and started to use our Fuji Instax - polaroid-like instant camera. Not sure it was the airport x-ray, the colors all look washed out. They were a big extended family from various parts of India that have come together here at this Osian temple to pray. It was pretty crowded and some vigirous singing and crowd around the inner altar. There was a young girl Isah? That was pushed out of the instant picture her uncle wanted with his 2 sons. Part of the family are jewellers in Jaipur and invited us to call them when we were in Jaipur. We were the only tourists the whole morning and certainly standing out from the crowd. Even as we left, we kept seeing streams of people flowing in, guess it was a popular temple. (We did visit the family when we were in Jaipur later)




Harlai Village, near Phalodi

Our driver met Mr Singh of Dera Eco off the road at a railway crossing to bring us into the camp. We took our car to Harlai Village and Mr Singh took us in his jeep to the camp. It was really windy and quite a bit of sand get onto my face as I was sitting at the back of the vehicle. M was fortunate to be in the passenger seat. 10-15min of bumpy ride into the desert, we saw the tents of the camp. It looked lovely, like a dream - camps in desert like out of nowhere. Mr Singh is a fashionale man, sunglasses with cowboy hat - pretty cool and of course a moustache.




We were served chai. Mr Singh explained to us the workings of the camp, no electricity and they employed people from the nearby villages, workers, camels, building the camp, etc. There was only 1 other guest - a french lady, who decided to stay another night. Earlier in the day a party of 7 europeans had left. They played volley ball in the sand previous day. We were brought to our tent to wash up a little while the staff prepared lunch.

The tent entrance was with a canvas cover and 2 wooden chairs with a table places outside. The space inside was comfortable, 2 small beds with a small table in between and places for luggage and 2 chairs. Pretty much what I had in mind. A separate flap opens to the toilet. A sit down flush system in the desert, a shower area with 2 taps but no hot water? I did not shower for the day, M did after our camel ride at 6+pm and was shivering badly after. I guess only possible to shower when the sun is high up.

Together with the french lady, 3 of us took a short camel ride of about 45min to the sand dunes on individual camel with the camel driver in the back seat. It was not as difficullt as I imagine, you are fine if you just with the motion of the camel. The difficulty is getting on an off the camel. We came across some gazalle deers. The camel stopped at the base of the sand dunes, I was a little disappointed they did not ride on top. Anyway it was a steep climb so probably not that safe. We took some effort to walk up and wow!!The sand extended over the horizon in front of us and the wind was blowing slightly bringing sand onto our face. 3 young girls ran all over from the other side of the dune to M but did not ask for money or anything. Interesting .. Pretty rare, guess tourism has not hit this corner. M used the Fuji Instax and took some pictures and gave them which made them very happy. After which they asked the french lady to do the same on her digital camera :) They must be confused why it cannot. I wanted to take a look at the printed picture and they were so frightened when I tried to get closer. This was where tourism had not arrived and the cast system and male-female difference is very much kept alive. It took another 45min to go back. The camel drivers did not ask anything from us - guess we were too wary of all in the tourism trade. Mr Singh paid one of them and they hanged around chatting among themselves.




We went back to tent to clean up and have a rest. The staff brought tea and we had it outside the tent. Soon it was sunset, the sun dropped at the back of our tent giving the horizon a beautiful purplish pink glow. Gradually it turned very dark, we were given kerosene lamp which can be hung on a stand on front of tent and also a torchlight. It was pitched dark very soon.

There were plenty of stars by dinner time and we walked to the dinner hut with the torchlight. It's a candlelight dinner of course and the food was very good including chicken. We drank the brunello 2003 we brought, though the beverages were all included in the price including kingfisher beer.

After dinner there was music and dance around the campfire which was very useful to keep warm. The villagers who we were told are of snake charmer cast :) Everyone has a cast it seems. The entertainment was pretty good and we were invited to dance a little too. We rest for the night with the millions of stars overhanging above us.



It's very cold night in the desert at the camp off Harlai Village. The sky was like a desert of its own filled with blinking stars ... Thousands and millions of them, no matter which direction you look. I wanted to capture it on the camera with a 2 hour exposure and had set an alarm to wake me to click off the shutter, unfortunately I didn't expect the battery to run flat .. Arghh electronics.

Thers is no electricity at the camp, no hot water, no lights ... We go to bed when the camp fire died out (burning sticks and branches and damaged furniture blown out into the desert previous year) after the villagers finish their performance, they too gathered around a fire of their own for warmth. We finished our bottle of Brunello di Montalcino 2003 around the fire before it died out. -it not the best vintage btw, the weather was too hot in 2003. 2004 is a fantastic vintage on the other hand :)

Jodpur 24 Jan 2009

24 Jan - Saturday

Jodpur - our driver got off today as we decided it's easier to take tuktuk or walk to the fort



- Shahi Guesthouse Jodpur Old City
The view of the fort is great from the guesthouse with the morning sunshine bouncing off the walls of the impressive fort standing across the ridge on top of the blue city. It was still a little chilly this early. I found the helper - Shanker was still asleep. No eggs and vegetarian breakfast - toast & banana chocolate pancakes with our instant no sugar coffee.

Mr Bantu advised to conserve our energy for the fort and take tuktuk instad of walking up the fort - very good advice! It's not a short walk, if we had stayed outside the old city, we would have our driver take us. We only managed to bargain to 50rs which seemed to be the price for foreigners. I think it was still over charged ... Sigh. Same amount to return.

Mehrangarh ticket includes the audio guide which we find to be the best audio guide among the sights. We took our time (3hr) to finish the fort and had lunch at the café at the exit - just ok for a quick lunch. Jodpur was in the former region of the Marwar (I was confused with Udaipur Mewar) and the seat of power for the Rajput Rathore clan. And Mehrangarh was probably the only reason to go to Jodpur, the market in the old city around the clock tower is pretty dull and very dusty, you can finish in 30min. M bargained for a set of bangle for 30rs which is probably the normal price - down from 100rs. Our driver told us foreigner has to bargain down to 30% and for local 30% down.

There is an area known for block printing - Balotra which I only learned later when we visited Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing. I think it is pretty rural and sothwest of Jodpur, if you have a driver and very keen in textile, it looks very interesting. (I bought a book that described the process of one family in the area)Otherwise do visit the museum while in Jaipur, just at the base of Amer fort - hidden in the Amer village within a restored haveli.

We had a little difficulty finding the way back to guesthouse as we thought it was nearer. Anyway if you turn left after the exit to the markets and keep walking straight till you see a green mosque, you will find signs to get to it. Might be even more difficult in the night.

Also dinner sucks! Cook was absent due to some personal emergency and we were served sort of what we suspected leftover from previous night, it looked & tasted so similar. We did not see others having dinner.

India Delhi - Rajasthan Jan-Feb 2009

21 Jan 2009 - Wednesday

Delhi
The flight arrived early 5.50am and we thought the driver had not arrived to pick us as we did not spot the signage among those of the 5 star hotels. It happened that non-passgeners have to wait after the exit. No touts or whatever at that hour, too early I learned later, Indian start their day mostly towards 10am.

We were shown to our car - Toyota Innova, by Mr Rampal Rao (from Rajasthan Four Wheel Drive), our driver for the first day in Delhi. We were given a folder with corporate profile and the cards with drivers detail including phone numbers. Ram advised we go back into the terminal to get phone SIM card as nowhere is open yet and the activation should be quicker. We got 2 cards for about 400rs each with like 30min local talktime. They need the local address - hotel address will do, a passport photo and they took a copy of the passport detail. Can only pay in cash and work perfectly with our older Nokia phones.

We decided against going to saubhag bed&breakfast directly since it was really early and went to Humayun's Tomb. Supposed to open from sunrise, when we reached there it was already bright and 7.05am but they refused to let us in and said open from 7.30am, then at 7.30am they said the ticket man is not here yet, Rampal threatened to bring us to tourism office to file a complaint - well Indian way of working. Anyway the ticket man appeared and we got our "foreigner" tickets which is priced very highly different from Indian tickets. We spent about 2.5hours and went to saubhag bed&breakfast.



Meera Dass - the owner was very nice, it was her home on the lower floor, and she looked after us really well. She made us breakfast at no charge and told us what we could do for the day and gave us some bananas to pack for the sightseeing.

We went to Jama Masjid which was quite a letdown and they collected 200rs for camera fee - there was not much things to shoot. No doubt it is a holy place but the desire to collect exorbitant prices left such a bad taste. We respect people's religion but I find it unjustifiable to collect such a huge fee when there is nothing much to offer, even Turkey blue mosque is free and visibly a lot more exciting. Skip this place if you do not have enough time.

After that we went to Karim for late lunch, we figured it was easier to cross the Masjid square after we came out and they refused to let us in again without paying a camera fee even though I have kept it. Entry is free so they insisted we have a camera in the bag and must pay the fee!! Ridiculous!! Anyway after some haggling, and mentioning Karim, they let us cross. Just took the shoes and hold in our hands. India - never take NO as the answer.



Not too hard to find Karim, directly opposite Gate 3 and on the left side, in one small lane. It was packed despite being 3pm, we had some small portions since dinner is coming up. But it was good! After that we walked along the outside perimeter of the mosque to meet our driver.

We wanted to go the spice market to have a look and was told only accessible by rickshaw as the lanes are too small. We then tried to get hold of one, Rampal after a while came down from the car and tried to help us. One "manager" asked for 200rs!! That is not the price, we were told it was about 50rs. Rampal told us these days nobody do 50rs, do not know how much truth. One thing I observed, they were not keen to obstruct each other business, e.g. driver should not help to get a better deal for us directly, we have to do it ourselves sort of thing. Meera helped when she brings her guests shopping and thus sometimes got into arguments with sellers. We got the rickshaw at 80rs. It was a teenager boy and his skill was good, navigating the small lanes and alleys with hundreds of other rickshaws and cows, humans, dogs, etc. It was quite an amazing experience. By the time we got the spice market we did not really want to get down, the sight and smell along the way was enough to fill our senses. We headed back and gave the boy 100rs as he asked - it spoilt them I know but it was really hard work.

We headed back to B&B to wash up and prepare for dinner. Meera <saubhagbedandbreakfast@ yahoo.com> had her staff prepared a fabulous spread - non vegetarian and the ice-cream with roasted almond is heavenly!! I still missed it. Her son also had dinner with us and we had good conversation. As we were the only guest, we sort of had the second floor all to ourselves including the common area. We used the internet PC for a while and turned in early as our flight next day to Udaipur is at 7am, the driver is coming at 5am! Meera was going to pack us some sandwiches as she was not sure the Kingfisher airline served breakfast and in case of flight delays etc, we will have something to munch. So thoughtful!!