Jaisalmer is located at the far Western border of India in the Thar desert. It was founded by Rao Jaisal in 1155 to replace his weak capital Lodurva. It was strategically located on one of the major Asian trade routes and the Rajput and Jain leaders of the city made a fortune with taxes on the goods that entered their city. Jaisalmer is also home to the world's only inhabited medieval fort where many families reside in homes that have been passed on from one generation to the next for over 800 years.
We arrived un Jaisalmer late at night and slowly made our way to the old fort which is where we wanted to stay. We found a hotel that had been recommended to us by a friend we had met while in Alleppey. The price was good and the room was clean so we left our bags and headed up to the rooftop restaurant. The view was breathtaking but the service was terrible! When we finally returned to our room, it was around midnight and we were exhausted but loud music was playing outside. We waited a while hoping that it would stop so that we could get some sleep but the music continued to play at top volume. We found the hotel manager to find out at what time the music would stop, but he informed us that it would play all night because there was a wedding reception just outside our window. Exasperated, Marco set out to find us a new room and returned with the good news that he found a quiet little hotel on the other side of the fort. We packed up and left the noisy hotel.
The next day, we met up with a couple we had befriended in Auroville and searched for the best place to do a camel safari. We found one that satisfied us all and decided to leave the very next morning. The rest of the day was spent looking for desert appropriate clothing and the supplies for the trip. We met the next morning at the agency and left in a jeep to meet the camels that we would spend the next three days with. Upon arrival, Marco was instantly in love with the camels and spent most of the morning petting them, talking to them and taking pictures or videos of them. We ate breakfast, which consisted of hard boiled eggs, home made pita-like bread called chapatti and a bit of fruit. Then we climbed on the camels and set out into the desert. The Thar desert isn't like the Sahara where you would find sand dune after sand dune. It has more bushes and some animals with a few sand dunes here and there. We rode the camels until about eleven, then stopped for lunch and to rest because it gets too hot to do anything in the afternoon. Around three, after lunch and a nap, we got back on the camels and rode for another two and a half hours before stopping to set up camp for the night. Setting up camp consisted of finding a spot to put our roll-out bed and collecting enough fire wood for the evening. Then, the group of guides who accompanied us prepared a supper of rice, dhal (a lentil based soup), chapatti and cooked vegetables. We ate and then talked around the campfire until we ran out of wood. The night was very cold and we had to sleep with pants, a long sleeved shirt and our scarves wrapped around our heads. The night sky in the desert was beautiful and the stars were brighter than I have ever seen them. We spent three days and two nights in the desert and followed the same schedule everyday. It was a wonderful experience but our legs were extremely sore at the end of the three days! Camels are not the most comfortable mode of transportation
My camel's name was Johnny and he was the biggest one of the group. Johnny did not listen to me at all, he pretty much did what he wanted to do or what the guides told him to do, but never what I asked of him! If I wanted him to go faster, he would walk slower or the opposite would happen. Marco's camel was named Lala and he lived to run fast! Marco even lost control on the first day but he still loved his Lala and gave him all the attention a camel could want!
Once we returned to Jaisalmer, we arranged to leave the next morning to make our way farther north to Amritsar where the golden temple is located.