On the road again – going deeper into the sand dunes of the Thar Desert, which is inhabited by camels, blackbuck and Indian gazelle, peacocks, Indian wild ass, lots of spiffy shaggy goats, and not too many people. The people you do encounter were very rugged folks – not much fat in Rajasthan.
People living in the barrens build round yurt like houses of piled up stones. The roofs are a thatch like material. In the South you see use of coconut palm woven roofs, but in Rajasthan there are no palms. The trees that grow here must have very deep tap roots in order to maintain life. Also, due the lack of trees in the region, manure is harvested, dried, and used for cooking fuel and a source of heat. And a recent article in the Times of India alluded to using dried manure to cook with as a major source of asthma in young women. All along the highways were structures and plots plastered with drying manure. Given the size of the dung beetles we encountered in the desert, I wondered what the attrition rate of poop to beetles was.
We stopped at a nice hotel for lunch and a break (remember, for the most part, hotels in India are restaurants). And who should we run into but the Heihns, who were en route to Jaisalmer,
grandma in tow. In fact, we discovered that they would be at our hotel on the last night of the trip. The two travelling families did not collaborate on itineraries - it was just serendipity musing. Jess was ecstatic to be able to play with Preston after having been on tour with mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa for 15 days.
We checked into The Fort Rajwada, and went in search of libations to cool the thirst - turns out that Oct 2 is Gandhi's birthday and a dry day for Indians. However, they did not apply the law to foreigners, and we did find a cool beer. All the while Jess went on pigeon patrol in the pool and did a respectable job of keeping the fouling fowl at bay.
Our rooms were adjacent, but not adjoining. During the evening, grandma came over to see if our A/C was working, which is was, indicating that theirs was not working. I went over to review the situation; indeed it was not working. Two different hotel folks had attempted in vain to repair the A/C. I called the front desk and in a serious voice wanting some service. The guy came, and agreed it was not working. (Same guy that told grandma to wait 15 min and it will cool down.) He called the engineer and disappeared. After 10 minutes of rendering in the room, I fetched a flashlight from our luggage, and headed for the roof where the compressors were. I found the guy, two engineers, and a bottle of refrigerant messing with the compressor. I gave him 5 min or it was time to get a new room. In the meantime, the local travel agent called to see how everything was going, and I casually filled him in on the situation. Needless to say, within 10 minutes grandma and grandpa were headed to a new room with a host of apologies about the inconvenience. Their new room was a suite with two baths and three showers, and the two A/C units cooled grandma down rather quickly.
While the room issues were being diagnosed and resolved, Alli had decided to synch her work email, which should have been a 10 minute process. Needless to say, 90 frustrating minutes later, and lacking much needed nourishment, Alli was defeated by the gods of technology. I guess when visiting a 15th century environment, you should not expect 21st century pleasures, nor should you attempt to keep ahead of the email work backlog that inevitably accrues during ones out of office experiences.
Day 15: 03 Oct’09 - Jaisalmer
This yellow Granite City is located deep in the heart of the Thar Desert, and is famous as the ‘Jewel of the desert’ or ‘the Golden city of India’. A Rajput king, Rawal Jaisal, established the city of Jaisalmer in 1156 A.D. Jaisalmer is popular for its old glorious fort.
We toured the Jaisalmer Fort, which is a living fort as families have been living in the same structures for hundreds of years. The fort has narrow passageways that are kept surprisingly clean, and the local vendors are not too bothersome. The fort is way cool, although the day was very hot. In an attempt to provide a cool down, our guide took us to The Garh Jaisal Haveli Hotel for a break. We were allowed into a room for viewing and to use the loo. The room reminded Alli and I of Florence Italy, and it came with its own bats in the space between the inner window and the outer window. Someday, we hope to return to the hotel and spend a couple of nights in the Jaisalmer fort.
Within the walls of the fort were some very old Jain temples that were interesting to visit as examples of extreme stone carving. The temples were built out of sandstone - the local rock, and were shaped like a bit of a maze with the central structure rising out through the roof to the sky. There was nothing left uncarved, and some of the carvings were very small and intricate. Also, a number of private family dwellings in and outside of the fort were of the haveli style - some quite large and intricate. The street facing side of the dwelling was ornately carved sandstone - in some cases, an entire window set was caved from a single block of stone. Very cool to see, and very difficult to replicate in Lego.
That night we went for a sunset ship of the desert cruise, and
discovered that Alli’s inner camel came out – Alli of the Thar rode into the setting sun. Go west, following the beetles of dung that inhabit the desert and you will find, well, the party. There are lots of residency hotels in the western desert where you can go live in a tent. And each night there is a caravan of camels that take the tourists out into the dunes for the sunset over Pakistan. We rented one camel, for Jess and Preston, and two camel carts for the adults, which to begin with were skeptical of riding a camel. Alli tried for a bit and found it to be very enjoyable as you can tell by her enthusiasm.
The dunes were alive with people who wanted to relieve you of your burden of wealth. Many tried to sell us a soft drink. Larrie got out the video camera to record the scene and a troupe of local Rajput women apparated and started to dance and sing. Justice Brandeis said we have the "right to be let alone", which is what was expected of being in a desert. Such for the wants of the ego.
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