After my excellent experience in Salawas, I was interested to see what the desert city of Jaisalmer held in store for me. Most visit Jaisalmer, as a staging post for a camel trip in the desert, but after a long memorable trip in Australia and subsequent treks by camel in the Sahara and the Gobi, I wasn’t interested. However this ancient desert city with its famous and unique sandstone fort rising out of the arid surroundings was a different matter all together. Plus some creature comforts like fruit juice, coffee and eggs were also on the menu.


The two Chhotaram Prajapats, both senior and junior drove me the 20 kms to Jodhpur station for my midnight train . That was really appreciated and it was very kind and I said goodbye to them there. The midnight express for the five and a half journey to Jaisalmer was packed and there were four foreign travellers on board in various carriages. Two nice sisters from Argentina had a last minute ticket only in the public seated areas and probably had a sleepless night. For me I was in 3rd class sleeper, with some locals, eight people to a berth. No one was particularly talkative at that time of night and everyone went straight to sleep, to be up for the 5.25am arrival.


I was staying at the Mud Mirror Guesthouse inside the old Fort. This was a backpacker guesthouse in the walls of the fort overlooking the sand brick city, and was pretty basic. It was though good value and Lala (the manger - not named after a Teletubbie he informed me) was very friendly and a huge BJP supporter.


The tuk tuk journey up to the fort at 5.30 was memorable. We entered the washed cobbled streets of the fort and the startlingly atmospheric deserted sandstone ancient buildings were lit up with orange tinted streetlights. It was an early time to arrive and when I went onto the rooftop restaurant of the guesthouse for breakfast I found all the staff up there asleep on outside beds.


Later I went out to explore and found a thriving village inside this unique structure . The streets were sometimes just the width of one or two cows at best, and the walkways were made with large stones. Old Havelis constructed in the local sandstone towered above these alleyways. Beautifully carved, these Haveli’s carvings survived well preserved thanks to the arid desert environment. Yet apart from the tourist boutiques and shops, the fort retained a local feel, with many carrying on with their business, religious activity and chores. Schools, temples, washrooms and loose cattle shared space with souvenir shops, travel agents, guesthouses and restaurants. It was great town to explore and the even better at 5.00-6.00 am on the following mornings as the streets were empty of tourists and those locals who were reliant on them.


It was on one of these morning whilst photographing the town, that I passed a solitary cow on a narrow street at 5.30. Not an unusual occurrence in itself, it was just that whilst I as passing the animal it lowered its head and head butted me with its (little) horns. Winded, I managed to stay upright and luckily the cow did not follow through with another attack. This act of aggression was noticed by a man cleaning his Haveli, who ran to my aid and pushed the psychotic cow away. Never again will I look at a harmless cow in the same way again - as I still have the bruises to show for the attack.


Outside the fort at the end of a winding access road through several dramatic gates, was the old town . This winding narrow part of the city also had fabulous old bazaars, tailors, fruit sellers, hairdressers and the odd souvenir shop. Of course there was plenty of wandering cows and bulls plus other livestock (now I was much more weary). Rubbish (curiously absent in the fort) was back to prolific quantities in the old city. Nevertheless this old city was atmospheric as well, with an interesting street market and many food stalls at the end.  


Surprisingly, I encountered relatively few tourists. Groups arrived by bus throughout the day, but there were few staying in and around the fort. Over lunch though I did met two backpackers from England. Joe and Rachael who had arrived in India ten days before. We got on well and had a great natter in an a wind cooled restaurant in the fort walls where they were staying. They introduced me to their guesthouse manager/guide called Rampat, a young man from a desert village who was organising their Camel safari, and who had a big interest in good street food . Joe was in the food business in the UK so we soon ambled off with Rampat to the street market to feast on Aloe Tikki, Chili Pakorat and Pani Puri. These were not quite up to the standard of Salawas, but enjoyable nevertheless.


Another early morning amble around the fort was excellent and trouble free, plus I took some nice photos. I followed this with a leisurely breakfast and then an excellent coffee at the Italian Cafe - no less. I was finding the local shop owners pushy, but not overbearing which made this city all more enjoyable. I would also meet some nice and interesting locals, not connected with the tourist business. Kammel was a retired army officer in his 70s who had lived and worked all over India, but was from Jaisalmer and we had a long conversation about the country. Lala was also interesting on the subject of politics and the up and coming election (although his views were very pro BJP - the Hindu nationalist party). I also met a Mr Khan a local Muslim working as a caretaker in a neighbouring 400 year old Haveli. It is unusual to find a Muslim working inside the fort, but he was very friendly, made me a chai and showed me the Haveli in which he worked. He was also reasonably open in discussing his life as a Muslim in this part of India (difficult being so close to the Pakistan border).


On a further jaunt through the narrow streets I meet a Rajasthani woman called, Bobby. Bobby was not your typically subordinate Rajasthani woman. She had set up a charity, supporting neglected and abused village women, and was selling their handicrafts in Jaisalmer to the tourists, returning the money directly to these women. She explained to me that “no Rajasthani woman enjoys even a small degree of independence compared to women in many other states in India. And this is completely different to what rights women enjoy in most of the developed world.”  She went on to tell me over a cup of chai, about her charity, the work she does, the women she supports and what has happened to her since she set up this business. She detailed how she is ostracized by her own family and the family of her husband, who have declared her charity is “mens work” and “no place for a woman”. She explained how she is shunned and actively campaigned against by all the shop owners and business owners (all men) within the fort, “because I am a women”  She also detailed the discrimination that she has faced, the mental and physical abuse directed against herself and her women by men in Rajasthan and beyond. It was very interesting, harrowing and illuminating. We went on to discuss the recent violence perpetuated against women in India, the reaction of the politicians and lawyers plus the continuing calls for her to stop this work, and revert to being a “normal women”. She then introduced me to her three year old daughter and husband, Shiva, who admitted at the beginning to being some what perplexed by the women he had married (in an arranged marriage), but has supported her and recently stood up for her against family and business threats. This support was quite obviously invaluable to Bobby.


Bobby also explained that two years ago she had acquired support from a charity in Barcelona, to build a school in rural Western Rajasthan, where she will educate the children of her women in all subjects, hopefully with volunteer teachers from Europe and America. It was an inspirational meeting and I purchased a large piece of embroidery from her. I also introduced her to Joe and Rachael.


Later on I met my first Naga man. I am travelling onwards to Nagaland in the far north east of India over the next two months, and was very keen to strike up a conversation with this man. He did not look Indian, actually far from it and although he looked to me more like a Thai or Malaysian. I have since read that the origins of the Naga people may well be Sumatra. They all speak excellent English, are Baptists and fought with the English and Indian forces against the Japanese at the Battle of Kohima in 1944. They are famous for being headhunters up until the mid 1980s. He was very engaging when I established that he was not a tourist and grave me some great tips for my forthcoming visit.


I also met in that afternoon, Mr Parekh, owner of the “Light of the East” crystal and mineral shop in the winding streets. I initially entered just for a look, but Mr Parekh was a fountain of knowledge about all things stone & crystal, plus (strangely) cinema and we had a long interesting conversation over several cups of chai and two days. His hobby from a young age, was collecting stones and crystals, and his shop was full of them. Originally from Bengal, where he had rowed for university in the 1960s, his hobby had developed into a fully fledged business with now two shops, the other in Ladakh. I had never seen anything like this from the cut stones for jewelry right up to little thin bowls and cups made from stones sourced from throughout India and the World.


It was a complete labour of love, which now employed his whole extended family and an army of local stone cutters. He was exporting to London & New York amongst others. Behind his desk was a large photograph of Omar Sherif. “He is a customer and he gave me this as he said I resembled him.”  He also had a large photo of Satyajit Ray, the famous Indian film director and the father of Indian film, who filmed his 1974 film ‘Sonar Kellar’ aka Golden Fortress in Jaisalmer and “the streets outside my shop. We became friends and I urge you to meet his son when you are next in Kolkata.”  He was fascinating.


The next morning, early before I left Jaisalmer, I took a tuk tuk down to the Gadi Sagar lake on Lala’s recommendation to see the birds. Lala assured me there were “large numbers” and you will see the Hindu tradition of the temple guardians feeding the birds early in the morning at site termed the “parabdis”. This seemed a good opportunity to see what the tradition was, what was fed to the birds and what type of birds there actually were.


Gadi Sagar was on the outskirts of the new town, and the entrance was a rather nice looking gate that lead to a ghat and several tourist pleasure boats moored at the lake harbour. When I arrived at 6.00am the area was waking up. Many people were still asleep on their outside beds and the sparrows were certainly swarming in the trees. I walked around the gate and out along the lake shore, but saw no birds. The lake had some floating temples which were small but quite nice, nothing on Dungarpur. Around the other side of the lake, the mud flats (pretty dry in this climate) were silent and all I encountered was children, begging. I carried on until I spied some movement in the distance with a congregation of birds settling on a floating temple. Eventually behind the back of the temple a man emerged with a bag of seed and sprayed it all over a small piece of land at the waters edge. The closer I got, the more disappointed I became, when I realised that he was only feeding the pigeons. “Pigeons are holy” Lala later explained, after noticing my disappointment. The sunrise was at least impressive.


Jaisalmer and the Fort, was indeed exceptional and memorable and I left on the local train to Bikaner, thinking this run of great places to stay and memorable guesthouses could not continue......