Jaisalmer Long Haul Blues: Saturday, November 28th!

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. -Jimi Hendrix, musician, singer, and songwriter (27 Nov 1942-1970)

Hi Donna Maria and Heraldo! Trust you are both well. Just dashing this off as we have been here since day before yesterday but didn't have time to send many messages. The attached album shows our visit to Ranakpur, after leaving Mount Abu, (First two shots are of hotel there with magnificent rug), and then driving to Jodhpur. 

[Just 2 because I left my memory card at home and my internal memory was
full! Enjoy, Aart]

This is a wonderful city as well and I hope to be able to send account of time here in next day or so. Had a bit of a disturbing night as fire-alarm kept going on and off from 2:30 am until 4:40 am. Poor Lady Darjeeling was not amused as she couldn't get back to sleep. Did so about 5:00 am and is now doing some heavy duty wind tunnel experiments. Must away as I need to shower and pack. We are off at 9:00 am for a longish drive of 7 hours or so to Jaisalmer, our next two-overnighter stop. Fondestos from Sleeping Beauty to you both. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Beautiful and Peaceful Just a short answer (I can never wrote like you ...). Good to hear from you read your stories. The Jain Temple is simply stunning! Beautiful shots. We are of to Hawaii Tuesday, among other activities, I will perform on the beach for a wedding! Cheers for Patriandi, kisses for Darjeeling

With respect to the sunset camel ride, it was, perhaps, the highlight of our stay in Jaisalmer. Our guide, Naresh, was terrific. His explications were informative without being pedantic. Aside from not boating on the artificial lake we had seen, more or less, more impressive examples of this, (Udaipur), and the fort, (Jodhpur), and Jain temples, (Ranakpur/Mount Abu), so while it was still interesting, of course, to see these sites in Jaisalmer, we were not bowled over. Found the city within the fort to be extremely dirty and the majority of stalls/stores/hawkers selling tawdry/tacky wares. The vegetable market wasn’t nearly as extensive as ones we’d seen elsewhere but I suppose that is to be expected, given the limited ability of the surrounding countryside to grow as much, water being the key factor in this desert area.

Given what I’ve said, [We were already a tad disappointed about city.], as well as our mild misgivings about taking a camel ride, to begin with, we were more than surprised to find that we were all absolutely delighted with our time on the ships of the desert. I don’t think we ever stopped laughing at one thing or another or at each other or the other tourists, whether astride camels or on camel-drawn carts, a sleigh-ride on sand!  Mounting and dismounting were the trickiest but once aboard and aloft, (Quite a sensation when the majestic beast stands or sits. Felt almost like a Rajashtani puppet being jerked this way and that!), we enjoyed the swaying rhythm of the camels’ gait. Loved watching the padded hoofs of the camel in front as we climbed or descended the dunes near the end of the ride.

Our drovers were lovely, friendly, helpful, solicitous men. [The one leading the camels ridden by Lady Dar and Lynne left them unattended, at one point, for a short time, to relieve himself, raising his skirts and squatting, a short way off the track, but they managed quite well as their steeds simply followed the camel ahead.] After we found our own “private” dune, they sat on the side of the dune, smoking and chatting quietly, the camels ruminating placidly. I took the opportunity to examine their teeth and took care not to get too, too close as the large uppers and lowers looked pretty capable of inflicting a very nasty bite! Even managed a wonderful close-up of a ding beetle which one of the guides picked up and held while I snapped away.

Ironically, the sunset was not as spectacular at the one we witnessed the previous evening, partially obscured, as it was, by low cloud cover. Not that we minded at all, so enchanted by the hundreds of other camels that dotted the surrounding dunes, silhouetted like some Arabian Nights magic lantern show. In fact, we could hardly believe how many other tourists there were, although we never felt crowded or crushed. Everyone had more than enough desert heaven so we drank in the Rudolph Valentino/Lawrence of Arabia moments to our hearts’ content.

Just before the barely visible sun sank below the horizon, we asked our drovers to take us back to the waiting van, [Near the almost barrack-like tent cities which line the highway for kilometres here, places, apparently where many tourists wish to stay overnight to get the “real” desert experience!], the return route much shorter. By this time we were used to riding so I, for one, was a tad disappointed that the ride was over almost before it had begun. Nevertheless, most enjoyable and entertaining. We thanked and tipped our drovers and then Ashok drove us back to Jaisalmer, about 40 km.

Your camel ride video will be live at: https://youtu.be/cOSJ6_JtzsM

En route to the city, we chatted with Naresh about is family, (arranged marriage), and his work. He has been guiding for the last eight years or so. When the season for guiding is over he returns to his village, with his family, (mother, father, wife, four year old daughter), for three or four months, an enforced holiday, of sorts, as there is no, or very, very little opportunity for other work, in Jaisalmer, during the heat of the summer or the monsoon season. We dropped him off, close to his house, thanking and tipping him for his excellent guiding, and then returned to the hotel.

Thanked Ashok for all his chauffeuring and told him we would be ready to leave at 8:00 am, on the dot! Back to our rooms to shower all the desert sand off our feet and then we reconvened, in our room, for drinks before dinner. Tasty meal in the restaurant there but back to our rooms before 10:00 pm as everyone was sleepy after the “punishing” camel ride. Goodnight to the Lighthalls and then I packed as much as I could before brushing and flossing. Tried to upload one of the videos I’d taken of camel ride but ran out of magabytes so had to abort the ransfer. Too sleepy to go to desk and ask for more time. Hope to mount it on YouTube when in Bikaner so stay tuned. Lady Dar was asleep by the time I was ready for bed and I only read a few chapters before I turned out the lights, falling asleep thinking about the mini-roller-coaster camel ride!