Ended up getting a private bus to Jaisalmer from Jodhpur. Not a great idea, the private bus stand cost more to get to, and when I went to buy a ticket the guy working there was doing opium behind the counter….not confidence inspiring, The bus itself was crowded and my seat was above the wheel arch meaning a lack of leg room. Once we were out of the city the countryside became more and more sparse until we were in semi desert. After 5 hours we got to Jaisalmer and I met a man about a hotel that I had organised to look at back in Jodhpur, so as to get a free ride into town from the bus station.
Ended up in the back of a jeep with an English girl who was going to the same place. The rooms themselves were nice and the owner offered me a cheap price for the room…said I would think about it and had a drink in the roof restaurant with the English girl…It didn’t take long for the owner to start hassling us about a camel safari….I made it pretty clear that I was planning to stay in town for a few days before booking anything…he seemed put out, then he started coming on to the girl very aggressively and seemed to get annoyed when I talked to her…..she wasn’t having any of his advances and when she was out of the room for a minute the guy told me that he had another room I could look at next door , I agreed to have a look but as soon as I was out of the building I was handed my luggage and basically told to fuck off….”what about the room you showed me for 150 rupees?” I asked….what room?” came the reply, “this is impossible the room doesn’t exist!”
I got pissed off at this, not so much for being kicked out of the hotel ( I had pretty much decided I didn’t want to stay there more than a night by this point) but because they had wasted half an hour of my time. Ended up shouting at the luggage lackey who show me out….In fairness he did apologise straight away. ( I ran into the English girl the next day and said it was pretty clear why the dude had got rid of me, she had ended up staying elsewhere too). This dude was one of the sleaziest people I had me so far in India…however I was soon to meet the coolest hotel manager in India at the rather strangely titled “Hotel Swastika” down the road…… ( historical note the Swastika is originally an Indian symbol meaning peace and representing the universe, The mirror image of the Indian Swastika was adopted by Hitler as the Nazi party symbol in the 1930’s and the image has since got a bad wrap , its really common to see Swastikas on signs all over India)
After checking a few places who had cheap rooms but seemed just as likely to try pressure me into their Camel safari I met an middle age guy called Adi who ran the hotel swastika, instantly seemed like a trust worthy character as he was chilled and didn’t mention camel safaris. Ended up paying a bit extra to get a clean and quiet room there, the perfect place to recover fully from whatever had been making me ill in Jodhpur.
That night I went up into town and found a restaurant to eat in, when the food came it was exceptional. Had an egg curry and a dhal fry that were easily as good as those in the “cinnamon tree” ( Cardiff curry house ) for a fraction of the price about 3 pounds in total. Seeing that I was running out of Jappatis the waiter asked if I wanted some more, I told him I had no more money on me and he insisted on throwing in a couple for free…when my bill came they had also given me a 20 percent discount ( I guess they thought I must be really struggling for money ) …awesome really kind of them, would go back again on many occasions to eat over the next week and every time they would give me a further discount to get me to come back….No complaints there the food was awesome….like the way this “backshish” thing works…..That evening I would spend some time exploring the city fort ( a quarter of the city population still lives inside) and then go to the government Bhang Lassie shop for a pre bed drink….slept like a log that night for the first time in 2 weeks…
Next day I went back up to the fort to do some more exploring, was chilling by a pretty impressive viewpoint and recording some local musicians, when I heard someone call my name…it was Tom the guitarist I had met In jodhpur who was sitting in a rooftop restaurant across the way. Joined him for a bit and ended up hanging out for the rest of the week and booking a camel safari together through the hotel swastika….
The next couple of days were very relaxed spent the daytime wandering in the fort and by the chilled lake ( see photos), and the evenings eating out before hitting the lassie shop. All the hotels in town locked up at 11pm so spent most of the nights messing around with the music apps on my I-pod. Jaisalmer is a really cool town, quiet and picturesque after a few days of chilling out made a full recovery to health.
The day before the camel safari met another English guy in the hotel called Steve and went on a tour of some local Jain temples along with Tom ( who was now also staying in the Swastika). The temples were pretty cool always think the design on Jain temples is the more interesting than Hindu or Moslem ones ( See wiki under Jainism if you don’t know who Jain was ). That evening ate and then went to a place called the artists lodge to see some local Rajiput musicians playing, was pretty cool but felt a bit awkward when I was pulled up onto the dance floor by the locals to join in some dancing…hmm haven’t got the Hindi dance style down at all….., gonna have to improve if im gonna make it big in Bollywood!
The camel safari was booked over 2 days, with an evening sleeping under the stars in between at the Sam sand dunes. The original party consisted of myself and the other 2 brits from the swastika. We were later joined by an Australian couple….After hearing so much about the camel treks and then seeing how many tourists there were in Jaisalmer doing them I had mixed anticipations on the trek. Had heard some pretty bad reviews in town. ….
We got a jeep for about half an hour and then met our guide and 3 camels by the road side…..strapped the equipment onto the back of the saddles ( including Toms guitar for proper campfire sing-along) and then mounted up….Camels truly are strange creatures… they walk with an real up and down motion causing much irritation to the inexperienced rider in the leg/thigh/groin area…..we walked for about 2 hours through the desert scrub and then stopped for lunch…by this time my groin was feeling pretty painful… ate a meal prepared by our guides and then sat around for another 2 hours until the heat of the day had subsided….after another hour of trekking we reached the sand dunes where we would camp for the night….fairplay there weren’t too many other tourists around, but there were plenty of tourist hustlers there even though….we ended up buying a cold beer off a “Kingfisher Walla” ( felt a really British thing to do, and it kind of ruined the illusion of the dunes, but hell it was hot out ) . Also paid a family of locals a small fee to record them playing and singing a traditional song….was beginning to build up a fairly decent audio scrapbook by this point.
After sunset we ate and sat round the campfire for the evening drinking whisky and playing guitar…the local guides only wanted to hear Bob Marley esp. Buffalo Soldier……luckily I remembered a few Marley songs from my revision session in Turkey earlier in the year, and managed to work out a makeshift version of Buffalo soldier on the spot that seemed to go down well with the audience….
By 9pm all of our party were in bed apart from me. I was determined to keep the fire going and play music under the stars ( that were impressive btw but no better than those you can see in rural Britain in summer). After gathering some wood ( dry bits of bush ) and trying to coax the fire back to life with no success ( really hard to get air into a fire built on sand ) I gave up and went to bed on a set of blankets laid on the sand. After a few minutes our camp was over run by a herd of goats…hilarious… I was asleep by the time they left…
Next thing I knew it was 4am and really cold….the moon had risen and the dunes were silent and illuminated brightly in moonlight giving them a real lunar feel. Got up to use the toilet and then wandered around for a bit on the moonlit sand A very surreal feeling possibly the highlight of the whole trek for me. The next morning we warmed up and rode for another 2 hours through landscape similar to southern Spain. At 11.30 stopped for lunch and then got a jeep back to town not long after, as the other guys had a train to catch to Delhi.
I think about a day and a half was enough time to spend on a camel and about all the chaffing and groin stretching I was up for…the dunes themselves weren’t that impressive and the stars weren’t as mind blowing as I had heard ( probably needed to be further from civilisation and on a moonless night to really get the best view)…however it was great to get into the countryside for a few days and cheap enough for the trip. My lasting feeling about the camel trek though was that I should have done one when I was in Sinai in the proper desert…
That afternoon said goodbye to my travelling companions for the week ( after copying all the e-book lonely planets I would need for the rest of the trip from Steve’s computer…thanks man !). This was actually the longest I had hung out with anyone since I started travelling in May so felt a bit strange afterwards, although I was looking forward to meeting some new faces ( hopefully female ) in the coming days. That night did the regular Jaislamer evening routine. ( fort view till sunset, then food and lassie shop before hotel lock in at 11pm) Had an early night as was starting to get a cold……. oh well at least I felt healthy for more than a day in a row this time………
Overall loved being in Jaisalmer even if the camel trek didn’t live up to expectations, was an awesome place to hangout for a week with some interesting company and helpful locals, and the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in in India!, Despite the somewhat off putting name the staff at Hotel Swastika were totally straight with you and non invasive, but happy to be of service upon request, would totally recommend anyone on a budget to stay there ( also check out Monica restaurant the place with the great curry)…… Was also cool to have access to a guitar again, need to pick up my own soon ,……... Next and final stop in Rajasthan, the lake city of Udaipur………
Did it not feel a bit unsafe staying at the Hotel Swastika, what with you being Jewish and all that?
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