Rajasthan - Part 3 Jaisalmer

Caught the 5:00am train from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer...promptly at 6:30am. This time we were in second class A/C which means just the four of us in one open compartment.

Arrived in Jaisalmer at noon and we were met at the train station by Pleasant Haveli staff. This little haveli has character and is run by two super nice guys. It is in a pretty run down, smelly part of town and the rooms are basic. By this time I felt like we were on a backpacking trip! This is a picture of our neighbour across the street feeding her cows. The guys standing on their rooftop are flying kites - a common site throughout Rajasthan.

There's something quirky about Jaisalmer. It's the town furthest west and in the desert. It's not easy to get too, but it was packed with tourists - the lure of the camel trek. It is small and easy to walk about, with tons of little shops. Jaisalmer's Fort is still lived in but is really just a big mall of tourist shops. There is garbage all over and cows and camels and other animals. The fort is crumbling and really is in despair.

The quirky thing is the lure of the shops. Suddenly Alanna had to have a baggy pair of pants that all the tourists wear. Both she and I spent a good half hour (or more) trying on embroidered leather sandals. There are shops full of camel leather goods and before I knew it Michael, Craig and Alanna were all walking around with Indiana Jones hats.

The haggling in Jaisalmer is something else and rather frustrating. So much so that there were many times we just walked away because the prices were so inflated. Glass lanterns are popular all over Rajasthan and one day we asked a shop keeper how much they were. He said 2200 Rp. The next day when we went back and someone else was working and he said they were 3500. So again, even though we really liked them we just walked.

The best things we bought were two Indian blankets/shawls for 200 Rp each ($5Can). We brought these for our camel ride - we weren't sure how cold it would get in the desert once the sun set (more about that on the next blog). They also came in handy for our evening "beer on the rooftop."