The Golden City of Sandcastles and Camels

Jaisalmer

14.10.2010 - 17.10.2010 37 °C

The weekend just been was my first weekend away from Jaipur. Mark, Jenny and I took an overnight train to Jaisalmer "The Golden City". Jaisalmer is a small city which is shadowed by its magnificent fort, which basically looks like a gigantic sandcastle, It's so great! Also it's a living fort so within the walls are quaint little streets with shops, restaurants, cows and temples and it's all a bit smelly due to no real draingage and lots of cow shit!

We arrived Friday and spent the afternoon wandering around the fort and the Fort Palace, and also did a tour throguh the Salim Singh Ki Haveli - a Mansion from back in the day. On Saturday we headed back to the fort and explored the Jain Temples - a series of 7 temples dedicated to jainism. They were so fasicnating - inside and out were carved with such intricate detailing.

At 2pm we set off in a jeep with a few others and headed out to the desert for an overnight camel safari. After an hours drive, we each got a camel - mine was Raju and he was very cute - and set off for a 2 1/2 hour ride to the sand dunes. Time to relax, drink masala tea and take photos before our campfire dinner of rice, dal and chapati. The sunset over the dunes was beautiful and we watched all the stars appear as we camped out 'al fresco'. Very early start on sun morn for breakfast before starting the second camel adventure - by this time we were all aching so this 2 1/2 hours seemed much longer. After that it was back to Jaisalmer to freshen up before catching another overnight train back to Jaipur in time for school.

Overall a wonderful weekend, I loved Jaisalmer.
xoxox