Jaisalmer 2.2.10-6.2.10
The early morning start was the worst yet….up at 3.45am for a train scheduled to depart at 5.20am. However, after asking a range of people from chai sellers to station staff we found out that there was a 2 hour delay. It was not the most salubrious of locations to wait, as we watched rats of a range of sizes scamper up and down the track. The train had come from Delhi, so, as we boarded, the carriage was in darkness with curtains drawn. Our bunks had lost their neatly folded and bagged bed linen so we made do without. It was time to get up after all! The rodent population also accompanied us on the train; thankfully a tiny and much cuter version of the species!

Six hours later we arrived in Jaisalmer in bright sunshine and were met by a row of hopeful hotel touts. Our hotel provided a jeep so we escsped them and within 10 minutes we were drinking our complimentary masala chai on the rooftop terrace with its stunning view of the enormous fairy-tale fort.
Prior to arriving we had read that Jaisalmer was a city in crisis due to overcrowding in the fort where many residents live and travellers stay, water shortages, poor sanitation and the fact that the fort itself was slowly sinking into the desert. For all these reasons we decided to be good ethical travellers and stay outside the amazing fort and initially we saw no evidence of Jaisalmer's problems. Then we were shown a number of rooms in our hotel with only double beds so we were escorted to an annexe only fifty metres away. As we walked down the narrow lane it was immediately apparent that the locals could learn a thing of two from the Romans! The smell was overwhelming as the open sewers stagnated and Jo began to gag. Once in the annexe building we were shown the perfect room on the top floor with its own terrace and views of the fort and best of all it was odour free!

Once we began to explore we grew very fond of the town, we met friendly storekeepers who gave us free matches when we didn't have the correct change and were given the local price for limes (now why would we need those?!) at the market. The wine store was opened up just for us on a 'dry' day so we could pay an inflated price for the accompaniment to the limes. Each restaurant we visited served up mouth watering food and we struggled to squeeze into our freshly laundered clothes (dry in less than an hour on our roof terrace).
Culture? It is there in abundance; firstly the fort itself which is over six hundred years old and like everything in Jaisalmer is made of sandstone. You can get lost down narrow alleys, browse in tiny shops and get a snapshot of what life is like for the locals who live inside the ancient fortified city. We visited havelis built for merchants and a group of Jain temples all covered with detailed and exquisite carving. The whole Jaislamer experience is impossible to capture with a mere camera, it has to be experienced in person.

Almost all travellers to this desert city embark on a camel safari but we decided to give this a miss to allow ourselves precious time on our balcony with our G&T's gazing at the mesmerising illuminated fort.