"Jaisalmer - The most touristic place of the touristic Rajasthan!"
Written on : 12-March-2016
Visted During : December 2014
Some more Information
Avoid summers and core winters in Jaisalmer. While booking safari, book with some good organizers. My suggession is go for the ones who take you to some sand dunes other than Sam dunes. Do not miss to visit Gadisar lake during early morning. Gadisar lake is serene during mornings. No need to worry about stay in Jaisalmer. There are plenty of Havelis and Lodges.
My Experience and Opinion
Sand earns money..!!! Yes... Be it is the Dubai sand or our Indian ones. Call it lifestyle change or people have more money or for whatever reason, people have started investing on memories by travelling. I see a positive change. (Except that the places are getting spoiled due to lack of responsibility amongst tourists.)
North India Trip - 2014
For the first time I was travelling beyond Mumbai. It was always a dream to travel North India. Thanks to the Company shut down during Christmas which let me plan this. (I was doing my Internship in Philips Limited during those days).
Jaisalmer City
After a really bad experience of travelling in Bus from Udaipur to Jaisalmer in biting cold, I was here in the city which I was longing to visit. For me the main destination was the Sand dunes. But I did not know Jaisalmer had lot more to offer. I usually dont study a lot about the places I visit since I feel it spoils the real feel. I decide to enjoy whatever the place offers to me. I just check for the number of days required and keep an open trip with flexible plan. Same was the case with Jaisalmer. I just planned that I would be staying for 2 days in Jaisalmer.I reached Jaisalmer at around 8.00am and checked in to Tokyo Palace Hotel. As the day proceeded, the place was getting warmer and then turned out to be Hot. But, nothing could stop me from wandering alone in the streets of Jaisalmer. At first look, every building here looks like some old palace. The hotels are built such that they resemble palaces. (In fact, it is the same in all touristic places of Rajasthan)
All most all the major tourist spots of Jaisalmer are at a walk able distance. Unless you are so lazy to walk even a mile, do not take auto or hire a touring taxis which are offered by Hotels for around 300 bucks per head.
Jaisalmer city is a pretty decent one. If you are expecting that it would be very backward, you are wrong! It is pretty developed and there are hundreds of Hotels. Probably in the city, every 2nd building is a Lodge. Hotels are pretty cheap here unless you look for hifi ones.
Jaisalmer fort
One of the main attractions is the fort and the fort area is so large that it is hard to know if you have covered completely. I initially refrained from taking a guide but later felt without a guide I would have missed seeing a major chunk of it. There are plenty of local guides who take you around the fort for around 150-200 rupees. The Jain temple, the museum, and the entire fort area would easily take around 2 Hrs to visit even if you race. The fort has temples, museum, at least 50 shops, a few restaurants, Lodges and now you can imagine how big the area is. The architecture of Jain temple in the fort is something to be witnessed and to capture it in your camera. You have to buy a ticket of Rs 50 as entry charge for Jain temple. There is a view point in the fort from where you see the Golden City of Jaisalmer (Check photos section) and the horizon you see is our Country's border shared with Pakistan.
I started at around 11am and I had to go back to Hotel by 3 pm to join the Safari Trip and by then I had to cover as many places as possible. Completed the havelis and the Palace quickly and raced back to the hotel where the Jeep was waiting to head towards safari destination. Got some friends in safari since I was travelling alone. That's the advantage of travelling alone. You tend to speak to strangers and make some friends!
Rest of Jaisalmer City
There are several other places in Jaisalmer to witness the Rajasthani culture and the architecture. There are a couple of Hawelis which are within the city. I visited Patwon ki Haveli and I just loved wandering the in streets of Jaisalmer. Had some street food, spoke to random people, asked them to click my photo. Overall it was a wonderful experience.
Deset Safari and Folk Night
Desert safari is the major attraction of Jaisalmer and the most unique one in entire Rajasthan. But the whole arrangement is very much touristic, lot of crowd during season. But somethings are wonderful inspite of things around it. The hotel where I stayed arranged for safari in a non touristic desert (Yet atleast 150-200 people were there and in Sam dunes which is the touristic one, thousands of people will be there.) From Jaisalmer city, the safari location is around 35-40 kms away. The organizers had arranged for a vehicle which was included in the package. The provate sand dune was around 2-3 kms prior to Sam dunes. From there, it was 2+ Kms of Camel ride to the sand dunes and actually not a pleasure to ride camel.. Only the 'take off' and 'landing' is exciting and if you are suffering from backpain dont even think of taking it. Its a different experience to see the breeze setting back the sand into the wave kind of pattern inspite of people walking over and disturbing the uniformity. Shows how nature can set things the way it want. The sunset over there was nice one to experience. Got a few nice photos and next was the resort where some Rajasthani folk program and a buffet was arranged. And these much was a package for ~1600 INR. An option of staying back in the Desert that night was available for extra 1000 or 1200 INR but I opted to go back to the hotel.
The folk dance is not that great if you are looking for a cultural excellence. It is just a time pass with a couple of girls dancing to some folk songs and some guys performing simple 'stunts'. For people who drink and like to take some hookah, there are facilities here. The dinner buffet was a decent one with Rajasthani dishes.
Gadisar Lake
Visited Gadisar lake next day early in the morning and got some photos. A normal lake but looks very serene early in the morning. The structures around the lake adds to the beauty and the History of the lake is something to be heard about. There is a huge arch built by some prostitute of the then king and even today the King's family does not come to the lake via that arch since they believe it to be an insult..!!! Oh yeah.. There are many such stories you hear about when you are in Rajasthan since it has got a huge history.
Bye Bye Jaisalmer
From Jaisalmer I headed to Jodhpur. Jaisalmer to Jodhpur is around 4-5 hours of journey. Jodhpur is one more excellent place in Rajasthan and is definitely a must visit.
Photos
Camel Safari. Cannot miss this one!
View in one of the private sand dunes
Rajasthani Folk Dance - Kalbelia!
Folk night in Jaisalmer
View from Jaisalmer Fort - No doubt the city is called golden city
View of a street from one of the Hawelis
A private Desert near Sam Desert of Jaisalmers
Gadisar Lake - A very serene place!
The Most Important asset while travelling - Google Maps
