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Ghoomar - Rajasthani Folk. |
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27th Jan, 2004
This is undoubtedly an amazing place to visit! We reached Jaisalmer on the morning of 27th and checked-in to a hotel. A jeep was arranged for visiting all the tourist spots there. We visited the various Havelis and forts. The Jaisalmer Fort is an amazing creation – the sandstone gives it a rustic bright look thereby creating an ambience of roughness and dryness – the one for which this desert-land is know for. From the top of the Fort, the whole city of Jaisalmer is visible. Though not a vast city, the sight is fabulous.
We visited the five Havelis of the Maharaja. They are seven floors tall and have a cryptic darkness within. There are mysterious passages to walk though and narrow secret steps to climb.
We then visited a Haveli of the Darbar. It has decorations in the form of flowers made of sandstone. The interesting thing of these decorations is that they are removable! The stones are just screwed into the walls and are detachable easily. Due to lack of water, the walls are built of sandstone fastened to each other by iron rods. Interesting!
I met a person who was in charge of the maintenance of the Haveli. He seemed to be a frustrated man. He was not happy with the Indian possession of Jaisalmer and wanted it to be under Pakistan. He was reasoning out that Nehru wanted Jaisalmer to come under the Indian territory because it would be difficult for the Pakis to cross the desert and enter into India. However, I remember that the guard of the Umaid Bhavan Palace in Jodhpur had told me that during the 1971 war, Pak was successful in bombing even up to Jodhpur, thereby crossing over Jaisalmer.
In the afternoon, we proceeded towards the Royal Cenatophs and the places where some archeological excavations were going on. We also had a look of the giant wind mills erected along the way to the desert.
By around 4pm, we started moving towards the sand dunes on the desert. We met two foreign tourists – Mr.Peter from England and Mr.Massalimoss from Italy. Peter is a software engineer and Massalimoss is a historian-archeologist.
The desert safari was a truly amazing experience. Unforgettable! I thoroughly enjoyed the camel ride. I reached the sunset point in midst the sand dunes by around 5:10pm. Since there was sufficient time left for sunset, I decided to go on the camel for further distance. I have now learnt how to ride a camel! :D Its so trained that you pull the left rope and it goes left , you pull the right rope and it goes right, you pull both and it stops and you rotate the rope and it runs. I went a long way till the army helipad. Also saw some bunkers of the 1971 war. The person, Albak Khan, who owned the camel, was telling me details about the desert life and his village. He came from a village called Sum, which is 40km from the border. His only earnings are from the tourists who come for camel rides. His camel on which I was riding is only 8 years old. It’s going to participate in the camel race during the Desert Festival held now. Camels usually are able to work till 20years of age, after which they are taken and abandoned in the Rann. Later I returned back to the sunset point and had a lovely view of the sunset on the desert. Though the view is not as marvelous as the sunset on the oceans at Kanyakumari, but it did make an exotic sight!
We then returned back to our hotel. In the night, we went out with the two European tourists for dinner. We had a splendid time out there. I ordered for some Chinese Manchurian and Tibetian Tappo and Spinach-Garlic soup. We spoke a lot about the Indian and European cultures. Massalimos told me that Indian beedis are very famous in Rome and they are very expensive there. Peter had a lot to tell about the culture in England – the social structure, marriage, lifestyle, etc. He is 41 years old and has been staying with his girl friend (who is from Warsaw in Poland) for the past 15 years. Yet, they haven’t married. They would marry only if they decide to have a child. He had visited more than 50 countries and loved traveling. We later exchanged visiting cards and also had a snap clicked of us.
It was late night 12:30am when I returned back to hotel room. We had a lovely day in Jaisalmer!
I guess many of you have seen the desert pics that I have sent to you people. Aren’t they fabulous? :D
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