The overnight train journey was quite rough. We were woken up several time by the super loud train horn, at one point we thought that the train driver had fallen asleep on the horn! Our allocated bunks were really small and then Marc had to change it during the night in order to straighten his legs. The bunks were just next to the door so we had the light on all the night. We got on at midnight and arrived at 6pm with out lots of sleep.
And then we experience the best hotel of Jaisalmer. A tuc-tuc driver was waiting us in front of the door of the train with a sign with our names written on it so we jump into the rickshaw and took us to our new home. The Killa Bhavan hotel was simply amazing, using the wall of the fort. It’s a beautifully restored haveli owned by a French fashion designer with excellent taste, antic wooden furniture, plumps silk cushions, wall hanging carpet, windows sits balcony etc. Our room was in a bastion on the fort wall so the room is round with a window on the town and on the palace.
We fell asleep for a couple of hours before having a nice breakfast on the windows seat. We decided after our nice rest to go for a little walk around the fort. The fort is stunning, it is a grand building of pinkish yellow sandstone sitting on top of a small hill that rises directly our of the desert. The little winding cobbled roads take you past many wonderfully detailed, carved havelis and many people still live inside its walls. As we were walking around , people had started to gather in the main square of the fort just outside the place gates. A local guy, holding a reed instrument a bit like an oboe told us (without using English) that the maharaja was coming at 5pm and there would be a festival with music and a procession of the maharaja on a horse to the lake. It was about 4 o’clock so we decided to hang around to see the maharaja of Jaisalmer! As we waited more and more people came. A large band of drummers arrived and started to entertain people with fast paced (and frenzied at times!) bangra- type drumming. Camels dressed in fabulous colours and mirrors arrived. Horses decked in a similar manner also arrived. The boy scouts and the bagpipers came. Many women holding small children dressed in their finest sari’s appeared as well as plenty of tourists and regular people. After a long wait the maharaja turned up fashionably late in his shiny silver jeep at 6pm and went into the palace. We waited again to see him come out in full glory to start the procession to the lake. Just before the maharaja came out, the brought an almost lifesize doll/statue of a women dressed a colourful sari. This idol was placed on the head of a lady who’s job it was to carry it, she was (fortunately!) also helped by 4 guys. Next the maharaja came and we was made to sit on a very excited fine white horse that kept pawing the ground looking like it was about to go into a battle frenzy! The maharaja did not look very comfortable on this horse at all! He had one hand on the reigns and one hand grabbing the horse’s main trying to stay on its back as it danced sideways or refused to walk at all. With the maharaja installed, the full procession took off down the street and we ran back to our room for a fantastic view of the procession leaving the fort walls. Atter all the excitement had passed we decided to go out to a nice restaurant for dinner. We went down into a main square in the town center to a restaurant called Saffron, the same place that Marc’s dad had stayed when he visited Jaisalmer in October. It was a beautiful old house with a nice courtyard with a fountain inside. We had a delicious and extremely filling dinner outside to the sound of some Rajasthani music. As we finished dinner one of the small boys from the drumming group got Marc up to dance some kind of Man’s rajasthani dance! It was excellent, and Jacqui was wishing that she had the camera. After we returned to the hotel, we went up to the lovely rooftop garden and sat (sorry lay!) on a comfy seat and looked at the stars and the bats flying far above. Then it was time for 18 degree air con and a good nights sleep :D
The next day we had a lie-in in this beautiful hotel, the staff brought us the breakfast on the lovely veranda. Afterwards, we walked to the lake trough the town below the fort. The town is built with the same sandstone as the fort which gives the impression that the town is part of the desert. Arriving to the artificial lake we were not surprised to see it almost empty. They were a couple of temples in the water and few other one should be surrounded by the lake. Around the lake we could see sandstone building and a kind of amphitheatre along the side of the lake. We sat for a while on the steps of the amphitheatre to appreciate the view of the fort rising out of the desert and at this moment an entire Indian family (at least 10 people) rented a couple of pedalos to go around the only temple in the water, they seemed to really enjoy that moment.
We asked to the hotel for a place to by some jewellery and instead of recommending a shop they recommended to go to a family business run inside a haveli. We followed the recommendation and went by tuc-tuc in the back streets of the town. The shop is in a typical Jaisalmer haveli with lots of carving on the balcony and around the windows. We went inside and followed the stairs down to the basement to arrive in the “caverne d’Alibaba” for any women on this earth. The room was sizable with jewellery was dripping from the wall, piles of antique silver on a coffee table and lots of other ornaments all around the room. We looked on walls to see the jewellery collection and after while the tradesman came and offer to show us his collection the day after, we schedule a 3 hours appointment for the next morning (but t see the entire collection you need to have 3 full days at least). Afterwards we were quite interest to see the French fashion designer’s shop (the owner of the hotel), so we went through the narrow streets to the Gandhi chowk (main square) where the killa shop (that we renamed the killa credit card shop) was.
We spent a good few hours going through everything inside, from multicoloured scarves to silk curtains. We saw many beautiful items that we could imagine sell for plenty of money back in france. We saw a lovely curtain in gold and blue that we just couldn’t leave behind (even though we have no idea what to do with it!). After burning the credit card we got a neat discount on our purchases since we were staying in the affiliated hotel. A French lady came in (that we had previously seen in the jewelry shop also) and she said to us, “When you come here you’re going to spend all your money, but you will look very pretty afterwards!”.
After a hard day’s shopping we retired to the hotel for afternoon tea on the veranda (our favourite spot). To make the most of the nice surroundings we decided to have dinner at the hotel that evening. Only was option was on the menu: vegetarian Rajasthani thali several little dishes of different veg curries, chapatti bread, rice and dessert. MIAM MIAM. Although Marc is an enthusiastic carnivore, he was watering at the mouth over these vegetables. It was the best thali (and probably the best food) we had eaten in India so far. The desert was to die for, it was a carrot halva (a mix of grated carrot cooked in milk with cashew nuts and cardamom). All this was finished by the lovely surroundings; we were eating, alone by candlelight, on the rooftop garden which was the top of a bastion of the fort. Oh Yes. We went to bed early so that we could get up and go for our three hour jewellery session at 9.30am.
We were up and out the hotel right on time the next morning and started our second jewellery session with a cup of strong masala tea. On the white floor cushions he emptied heavy bag upon heavy bag of silver bangles, bracelets in Victorian English style, earrings, necklaces of precious and semi precious stones, tribal jewellery and anklets. It was truly astonishing. He also explained to us that jewellery was an integral part of local custom. At least three basic pieces, a head piece for the forehead, a necklace and a nose piece with a chain to the ear, are needed as part of the dowry for marriage, otherwise- no marriage! When a match for marriage is made, astrologers are consulted to check that a good match has been made. He will also tell the people their birthstone, and people will only wear those stones and no other since an incorrect stone will not offer them “protection”.
The tradesman also told us that in September there is a very auspicious day for getting married and many, many tribes people pass through Jaisalmer and come to his shop to buy wedding jewellery for this occasion. All the collection is laid out on cushions for all of September and each family is given half an hour to make their selection. He will be open long hours each day selling and trading with the people. He said it is an exhausting time and after its all finished they close the shop for one month to have a rest.
After burning some MORE cash (killa hotel, killa shop and killa jewellery!) we went back to the fort to visit the palace. For the first time we took an audio guide (it was free hehe!!). The fort was built in the 11century, it’s the second oldest in Rajasthan after Chittor. The site of the fort was founded by a Maharaja walking in the desert, Shiva appeared to him and threw the top of a hill a disc and a spring appeared, then Shiva told the Maharaja that one of his descendents was going to be the Maharaja of this place. A few centuries later the prophecy was realised, a fort was built on the top of the hill and his grandson became the Maharaja of Jaisalmer. As the fort is in the desert, it was built to maximize water, there is a complex drainage system in order to lose as little water as possible. Rain and waste water was collected by the drains and were stored in a huge water tank in the basement of the fort. Unfortunately over the years the fort has been badly damaged and increasing tourism does not help. Water damage is a real problem because now in Jaisalmer it is everywhere, in every house, in every hotel, in every restaurant etc. and the fort was not built to accommodate that much water. In the old days women used to walk miles to fetch a pot of water that would last them for 1 day for cooking, washing and bathing. This is quite different to the volume of waste water from hotels and restaurants. A few organisations have started to address the problem and the government has just started to get involved. The fort is a place with a lot of history many wars, many coronations of Maharajas, love stories, degradation and renewal.
Jaisalmer witnessed three Jauhars (mass suicide by burning) instead of being conquered they chose to commit mass suicide. The women would put on their finest clothes and walk into the fire as the men rode out for their last battle until death.
The palace itself was a beautifully carved from pinky yellow stone. It was very cool inside despite the desert heat. It had several highly decorated rooms with paintings, tiles, window seats and small balconies.
We were a little sad to be leaving Jaisalmer as we really enjoyed staying in this romantic town but we were looking forward to meeting Michele in Jaipur the next day. So we jumped on the train to Jaipur in the early evening, it was a bit of a painful journey because we didn’t get any food until 11pm and it was 12 midnight by the time we got to bed and we had to wake up at 4am to get off at Jaipur.
