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 :)