We had a long and day of major tourism in Jaisalmer. This is not a short post. There are even more pictures up on Flickr.
Ana found a lizard in the bathroom first thing in the morning. Hot water was still not a feature of this otherwise fancy-seeming hotel. We had hoped that they turned the hot water on between certain hours of the day, but that did not appear to be the case here.
The dominant feature of Jaisalmer is the large golden fort on the hill at the center of the city. We went there first to beat the crowds. Note the beautiful clear sky, which was a lovely change from smog and haze.
As a fort constructed to defend against actual enemies, there were many long and winding gates heading up into the inner areas. Some of those gates were choked with people and motorcycles but this one was clear.
This post commemorates the fact that this fort is roughly speaking four times older than the United States of America and I believe has been kept by the same dynasty the entire time, the current head of which still shows up and sits in his throne from time to time. Perspective on timescales a bit there.
Elaborate stonework - for when you want decorative screens and tens of thousands of person-hours of labor is affordable. These were for the women to sit behind, because it was improper for them to be seen.
Silver throne and associated chairs in the in-fort museum. Still used for coronations of dynastic leaders as needed.
This timeline posted in the fort museum traces the lineage of the dynasty back to the god Krishna, which may be a touch optimistic. However, most of this dynasty is historical fact and goes back a long way. As with the fort in Bikaner, it helps to chose the winning side in decisive conflicts.
One view from the top of the fort. They were policing the camera 'pay us to take pictures' rule strictly, but we'd already paid so not a problem for us. The wind up here was pleasant and the air was pretty fresh for what we'd been breathing in other cities.
A Jain temple also inside the fort walls. The Jains were and are a smaller religion in India but they seemed to be good at making friends with the rulers of provinces.
The Jains are all for asceticism, non-violence towards all life (including bacteria), and REALLY ornate carvings.
Full tourist mode. I embraced the fact that I was a tourist, no point in pretending otherwise here.
We took a break at a rooftop cafe and I had another Coke that seemed better than US Coke. Great view of the fort from our table.
After the break, went looking for more fancy stonework havelis in the city and browsed some local tourist markets.
Pretty sure it took a long time to carve this out of stone.
That's right, our Toyota Innova is the ride for those who can afford to ride in style.
Looking down into a small market from the top of a building with more markets inside.
Got a pretty good picture of the fort as our friends unsuccessfully posed for a picture.
And a mediocre picture of the fort while we posed more successfully.
Then it was time for lunch and I got french fries ('finger potatoes') because OK I was starting to get tired of Indian food all the time and I was still a little queasy from the anti-malarials. I was exceptionally pleased with the finger potatoes.
Unfortunately, we'd already bought all the blankets we needed. After lunch we headed back to the hotel prior to our next tourist outing.
The light was finally right to take pictures showing that the hotel was kind of fancy aside from not having heat or hot water. Note the view of the fort to the left. The fort was lit up at night in a fairly fancy and viewable way.
Individual little 'castles' at the hotel, ours in the center.
The next event was camel riding in the dunes! We headed out to the starting point.
No shortage of camels looking for passengers but our driver was looking for a specific camel dude to entrust us to.
Getting up and down is a big distance on the camel - when it stands up you translate vertically about seven feet so hang on. One of our friends was not thrilled about the idea of riding camels but it turned out to be not so bad.
Camels and dunes...check. Was only about a five-minute ride.
Our guide (dude in the yellow vest) was supposed to wait for us where we left him, but as we wandered further into the dunes for a better look he totally took other passengers down the hill. We shot this with the big telephoto lens so he was probably not aware that we saw his treachery.
Lovely sunset though, and the temperature was perfect. Really enjoyed just waiting and watching and shooting some pictures from time to time. Also nobody tried to sell us anything. The guide did eventually come back and we got rides down the dunes and back to the car as the light faded and the moon came out.
Dinner at the hotel again, again with the funny Christmas decorations placed over a scrawny bush. We discovered 'chili chicken' on this evening, which is probably not authentic but was delicious. Kind of like a spicier and more garlic-y General Tso's. We ate the whole plate on this occasion and then ordered more of it later in the trip. Our friend shared his usual dead-eyed please-don't-take-pictures-of-me face as well, but we were entirely used to that and not dissuaded in the least. It wasn't quite as cold as the previous night, and they said they had the hot water going after our driver gave them a hard time about it, but that was a lie. It was still freezing. Filth was preferable.
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