Talking about sand dunes, talking about grandeur architecture...Dubai is not the only place. India has last civil inhabitant town of India to Pakistan border called as Jaisalmer.
This place was on my bucket list and especially when my parents came back from Dubai bragging about that place, it added to my desperacy to visit Jaisalmer.
Jaisalmer has everything:
1. colorful market with Bandhani and Block printed clothes for shopping
2. Sand dunes, camel rides and Dune bashing
3. Grand Suryagarh fort- which is available for stay as well. These days people are also having their destination weddings. Its huge to walk and I was pretty tired.
4. Roof top cafe to have a view of golden city
5. Small streets to walk around, wide roads to have an amazing road trip on bike, Thar or your self driven car
6. hostels, guesthouses and homestays for cheap but a rusty memorable experience
7. Camping and tent stays with traditional Tika ceremony to welcome the guests: Rajasthanis are very welcoming when it comes to guests. truly believes in "Padharo marey des"
8. Cultural folk dances, traditional Daal baati churma ( which is my favorite ), loaded with pure ghee locally made
9. The temperature: Sunny and hot during the day that I switched on AC, while used hot water and jackets at night
10. Indo- Pak border to understand Indian history, and develop respect for the Indian Soldiers
The overnight bus ride was a never ending one from Delhi to Jaisalmer. It is 773 Kms approx. Stoppages in between increases the time to reach the destination but the excitement keeps us going. But I decided to reach the dues first, which is further 50kms.
There are various camping places at the Dunes area, with tents, cultural programmes and everything traditionally Rajasthani. The actual sand dunes is further half hour ride on the jeep.
Point of caution: everything is quite far one place to other :P
next day I wanted to go visit Longewala, since thats the last point of access to Pakistan border from Rajasthan. The history dates back to year 1971 to the battle of Longewala where Indian had and edge above and captured the troops of Pakistan. It is quite fascinating to experince it all s closely, where I had just seen in the "Border" movie. This place is 60 kms from the camping area.
I chose to visit Kuldhara village also. It is known to be haunted place, even though I couldnt feel any such horror vibes.. frankly saying. Yes, it is an abandoned due to water shortage and deaths that happened, van be called jinxed for once though. But you can skip going to this place.
And the finally moving towards Jaisalmer which is 35 kms.
The roads are beautiful with Thar desert all around you. Enjoying the route and taking the each sandy breath in, and not to forget ensuring to drink lot of water, we kept moving on.
Jaisalmer at night, has its own charm. Its not a night- life place,but one can cherish the well-lit up streets and golden view of the town from high rises.
Having the whole next day for jaisalmer city tour, with forts, mahal, doing small street walks, Gadi sagar lake, lots of shopping and chilling at cafe. One can choose to do certain things over other.
leaving overnight for Delhi by bus which was quite tiring, was the final journey of this trip. And of course there was no excitement to go back home, but I kept looking at my phone with pictures clicked and memories created for life at this beautiful town near the border.
