Jaisalmer : “सोने दी धरती, चांदी नू आसमान”

Jaisalmer was on my bucket list since 2014, more for the want to see the desert than to visit the city itself. I had always thought my visit to the city will be planned well in advance; given the long 1135 km distance from lucknow. But as fate had it, we embarked on this journey in the most unplanned manner, agreeing on the destination at the 11th hour then finalizing itinerary and making bookings on the way . Well it was our 3^rd anniversary after all, it had to be adventurous.

We reached Jaisalmer in the wee hours of 19^th Feb 2020, in jodhpur-jaisalmer express. Since everything was so last minute on this trip, we forgot packing woolens and ended up literally freezing in the train. (Fact check: It gets really cold in the desert at night.) Baring a few civilians like us the whole coach was filled with BSF jawans. Till then we had no clue we were going so close to India-Pakistan border – “The blissfully ignorant grahasti-mein-busy-married-couple”.

It was still dark when we stepped out of the train at Jaisalmer. While I braced myself against the chilly waves of the early morning breeze and tried to fight off the sleep off my eyes, Gaurav interacted with a few Jawans inquiring about the distance of border and the procedure to visit the border check post.

Jaisalmer station is very small and very neat & clean. Before visiting jaisalmer, I could never imagine myself looking at the tracks of railway and not getting disgusted. As we stepped outside the station, lethargically with our luggage, the soldiers were falling in straight line on the orders of their officer.  Our taxi, an Innova was waiting for us at the gates with placards of our name. We shared it with a family from South.

“सोने दी धरती, चांदी नू आसमान”- you can find this written all over the city of jaisalmer. It was quiet difficult to understand it at those early morning hour, but a view of the city in the sunlight and moonlight makes you comprehend it in its truest sense.

The driver dropped us at our hotel and told us to be ready by 09:00 am for departure to the San Dunes. We had booked a camp at San Dunes for our first day stay at Jaisalmer. The camp we booked at sam dunes also arranged for our morning stay at a Jaisalmer hotel for freshening up and breakfast. Fact Check: While booking camps for san dunes do your research very carefully, we contacted around 8-10 camp sites but just one of them offered us a complementary stay at a hotel in jaisalmer for freshening up on the day of arrival. Distance from jaisalmer city to Sam Sand dunes is about 40 km. Our first destination on the golden land was a really magnificent and underrated piece of architecture, known as Badabagh. It is indeed a photographers paradise, I couldn’t do justice to the place.

Although, Mr.Husband got his “Ek tha Tiger” pose quiet perfect.

Badabagh consist of various cenotaphs constructed by maharajas of jaisalmer in rajasthani style. You can visit the place in the evening to enjoy a glorious sunset or early in the morning for some outstanding photographs. Either way with its yellowish pillars and sandy appearance the location offers you a real welcome to the desert land. (Our driver tried to skip this location saying its nothing just some chatri architecture, we are so glad we didn’t listen to him.)

From here we drove to our next destination, as soon as you leave the city area you see the never ending desert on both sides of the road and you start experiencing the heat inspite of the AC. Our next destination was Tanot Rai Mata Mandir. Yes, the one you saw in the movie Border where Pakistani shelling couldn’t damage the temple during 1971 war. The story is true. It is now developed as a tourist place and victory pillar has been established where the bombs fell. The replica of bombs are on display there. 

 From Tanot Mata Mandir, the 609 border post is the nearest, which you can visit after obtaining the requisite permissions from the authorities. We were lucky to get the same. The drive to the border is approx. 20 km and the road runs in the middle of arid desert, all you can see is some shrubs, abandoned army hideouts and a few camels in the desert. For the 1^st time in my life I saw what actual India-Pakistan border looks like and what no man’s land really is. In the scorching heat of Thar Desert, we were uncomfortable standing outside the comfort of AC car and it was still February. How bravely our soldiers guard our borders throughout the year irrespective of the adverse weather conditions. From there we went to Longewala post. Now Longewala post is designed to give you the feel of border and army life, there are tanks, a museum gallery, café shops and also a set-up for screening a movie on army for tourist, since we were already running behind our schedule due to the visit to border check-post we skipped the movie. There are canteen and cafeteria run by army personnel that serve mouth-watering dishes. We had maggi and choley bhaturey.

From there we drove straight to our camp site. We were welcomed at the camp in a pure Rajasthani style with music, dance, tika and all. At Sand Dunes on one side of the road you can find multiple camping sites, lined up one next to another and at the other side there is vast expanse of the Thar desert. After freshening up we crossed over the road for our camel ride. A cheerful Ali Bhai was waiting for us with his friend Badal (camel). Had we stayed a little longer, I would surely have taken some photography lessons from Ali Bhai, years of helping tourist with photos has made him a pro . During the ride in the Thar Desrt, I swear, I could hear Arabian nights and alif laila theme songs in my head. You can also experience jeep safari in the Thar desert.

Camel safari, desert, sunset view…. all my childhood dreams of Arabian night and Alif Laila came true in those moments. We exploited the opportunity to the fullest, we rolled in the sand and lazed in it. Viewing the sunset is always relaxing, be it in the mountains, on the beach or in the desert. The special part about the desert is that it gives you a large canvass to paint your photographs just like on the beach but without the sound of waves to disturb your stream of thought. Although it was nothing compared to what white desert offered us on photographic fronts but it was still breathtakingly beautiful. (You can read about my blog on white desert experience here https://blabbertour.blogspot.com/2020/07/our-rann-utsav-kutch-adventure.html )  

The night at the camp was a musical bonfire, we were entertained with local folk rajasthani music and bhavai dance by local rajasthani artists. The event culminated in a group dance around the bonfire by all the tourists. Can’t believe even I danced :-P.

If desert in the night is serene, it’s mesmerizing in the early morning. Since we hadn’t gotten enough of it the last night we went again for some more pics, some more sand and some more Arabian Nights feels. 

Our last destination in the Thar desert was a haunted village that goes by the name of Kuldhara, you can find the story on the internet and if you want to find the ghost… Well.. there aren’t any. But again the place is beautifully ruined, it gives you a goofy feeling and some great historical images. We gave a free hand to our creativity in those ruins for making a short horror video… it was fun.

The next whole day we kept for the jaisalmer city. The most beautiful city I have ever seen till date. Bricks are not used in jaislamer, I doubt if there are any brick fields, all the buildings are made of yellow stone and decorated with beautiful carvings. The stone keeps the inside of buildings cool and outside magically beautiful. It’s a tedious task to cut the stones to use it for building purpose. 

While roaming around the lanes of the city we came across several homes where the outside walls were painted as a wedding invitation, with an image of lord Ganesha along with names and dates of married couple, just like a wedding card. On inquiring about it from a local we came to know that it is a tradition in Jaisalmer to post wedding invitations on the outer walls of the home, around 4-7 days prior to the wedding. Since jaisalmer is a small city everyone knows everyone here, this tradition of painting marriage invites run long back when there were no printing press but it has continued to survive till date. This is something I have not seen anywhere in India so far. The person who told us this also invited us to a wedding at his house two days later in order for us to see some more rajasthani traditions. The people in this city are very cordial and helping. 

Jaisalmer is a small city, you can literally visit it on foot, the main attraction is the Jaisalmer fort, probably the only living fort in the country. Its not only a fort, there are shops, restaurants, residential houses inside this fort. Entry to the fort is free. With its narrow lanes, crowded with shops selling handicrafts, cloths and much more, you can easily get lost.  You can buy beautiful torans, wall hangings and bed spreads. There’s a museum inside the fort and also an ancient Jain Temple.

        (View of Jaisalmer fort from hotel window)

(Outer walls of jain temple at jaisalmer fort)

 If you want to collect some souvenirs from your visit to the Golden City, the fort is one of the best places. Besides fort, other attractions of the city are Pattwon ki haveli, Salam Singh ki haveli, Gadi Sagar Lake, it’s all just a few minutes’ walk from the fort. You can enjoy a boat ride at Gadi Sagar Lake and can just relax beside the quiet lake. 

We bid goodbye to the city, with a promise to visit again, next time for a little longer duration.