India Part 3: Jaisalmer and Jophur

Currently we are in the desert state of Rajasthan. Rajasthan is located in the west of India and borders Pakistan. Due to it's location many trade routes used to run through it. That means that it used to be wealthy and many cool forts were built.

These days Rajasthan is actually one of the poorer Indian states, with tourism as it's major industries. It's a pretty big stop on any India trip. We have been here for a week and have been to 3 cities (we are currently in the city of Udaipur).

It should be noted that it is currently summer here in India. So it should come as no surprise that most people don't like going to a desert in the middle of the summer and we're here during the off season. This has actually worked in our favor.

Sure it's damn hot during the day, but there are much less tourists. Also, even the touts take a vacation in the summer so the hassle has been reduced.

This blog will cover our shenanigans in the cities of Jaisalmer & Jophur.

Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer is located in the very west of India. It took us a 20 hour train ride from Delhi to get there. However, it was totally worth it. We arrived May 16th and left the night of May 18.

Basically, Jaisalmer consists of a giant sand stone fort which with a small city surrounding it. 25% of the 50000 people in Jaisalmer still live inside the fort.

Our hotel we stayed at was a former mansion located within the fort. The building is 500 years old and it feels like it. Walking through it's dark corridors (and smashing head on it's low door frames) is like a stepping back in time (or the many desert themed video games I've played).

The only down side to our hotel was it lacked a/c. That meant that from noon to 4, it was going to be too hot to move.

Desert Camel Safari

The "thing" to do in Jaialmer is desert camel safari. So us, in our lust for experiences, decided that we must do a camel safari and May 17 was the day to do it.

The safari started with a 30 minute jeep ride into the desert. The group consisted of us 3 Canadians, 2 South Americans, 2 French and 3 Koreans (that we had met and hung out with the day before). There was also 4 guides.

By 9:30 we were on our camels and riding into the desert. We each had our own camel and mine quickly reminded me of a fact I learned in Egypt. Namely, I don't much like camels.

Actually it was amazing how much personality each camel had. For example, Kiran's kept running to the to the front of the pack, then stopping to eat. It would then eat until the guide caught up and told it to keep moving. Compare this to Richards camel which seemed more concerned with sniffing other camels asses than food.

Personally my camel was all about randomly biting other camels. This meant I had to keep jerking my camels head to stop him from biting the other camels.

It should be noted that the desert was not made up of sand dunes. It was actually rocky and filled with cacti and other desert plants. It's main property is that it was so damn dry.

We rode the camels in the desert until about noon, where we stopped in an oasis. Unfortunately this oasis was not the palm tree and pool of water I expected. Instead it was an area with a couple of trees and some grass. Cartoons have lied to me yet again.

We were at the oasis from noon to 4. The idea is to avoid the high heat of the day by hiding in the shade and eating a light lunch. Most people took this time to take a nap. Instead of taking a nap, I discovered that my sun screen attracts desert wasps.

Well, I didn't immediately realize that my sun screen was attracting the wasps. I was too busy frantically running and swatting at the swarm of wasps attacking me.

My first hour at the oasis can be summarized as follows:
1) I get attacked by swarm of wasps
2) I run and hide in the smoke of our guides cooking fire
3) The smoke scares the wasps away
4) I get tired of breathing smoke and think the wasps are gone. I leave the camp fire.
5) Repeat steps 1-5

On a hunch I covered myself with Richard's sunscreen. Within a minute the wasps left me alone and I was able to finally nap. Due to some miracle I was able to avoid being stung.

After 4 the day had started to cool down and we rode our camels for another 1.5 hours. During this time we made a stop in a small village. In the village a dude was able to sell us a cold Pepsi. Talk about cornering the market.

That night we stopped at a sand dunes. These were the first sand dunes we saw that day and they looked like a stereotypical desert. We ate our dinner and slept at the sand dunes.

Now I want to stress this: sure, sleeping in the middle of sand dunes sounds like a comfortable romantic experience, but trust me it's not.

There is no way you can understand the sheer amount of sand one must face if you sleep in the desert. You are completely covered. Of our dinner I'd say 5% of it was potato and the other 95% was sand. Of the air you breath, I'd say it was 100% sand.

If you made the poor decision and slept without a scarf covering your mouth, you were going to be ingesting your body weight in sand that night. The worst part was the morning when I woke up and my eyes were covered in sand. However, since every other part of me was covered in sand I couldn't clean my eyes. At that moment I was defeated as a man.

Well the sand part sucked, but sleeping out in the desert was actually a real cool experience. The sunset was beautiful and the dunes were glorious to glaze at. It was also interesting to see the desert life. Namely the 100's of scarabs running all over the sand.

We were sitting around the camp fire about to go to bed when we saw a scorpion. I tell you, seeing a scorpion among the sand then going and sleeping in the sand, adds an extra level of spice to the night.

That morning we took a 2 hour camel ride back to the jeep and went home. The second we went home the slow process of cleaning began. I think I'm still cleaning sand out of my ear.

Jophur

The night of May 18th we jumped on a night train to the city of Jophur. Jophur is another city with an awesome desert fort and is often known as the blue city. We were in Jophur May 19-20.

In Jaisalmer fort is more a place where people lived. The Jophur fort is more of a palace and is located on forebding cliff over looking the city. The walls in Jophur fort are also bigger and there was no way it was ever going to be conquered.

We spent our first day walking around Jophur and doing some light shopping. I also had my first lassi, which is a sweet, tasty yogurt drink. I give it 2 Vance thumbs up.

The second day we hit the Jophur fort. The audio guide was awesome and the fort amazing. It does a good job invoking the imagination of a desert warrior culture. The fort also puts one in the mood for some D&D.

The reason that Jophur is refereed to as "the blue city" is that a large percentage of of the houses are painted blue. The view from the fort of this blue city was absolutely sublime.

OK that's enough blog for today. Next one will finish up our adventures in Rajasthan.

Next time: Udaipur and Jaipur