Great trip to Jaisalmer, the golden city

After the lovely blue city of Jodhpur, we were looking forward to the golden city of Jaisalmer. We were getting there by bus which would take 5 hours across the Thar Desert.

Women sitting in the shade in the Thar Desert

Unfortunately, we had to wait for quite some time before the bus arrived, and the waiting place was very scruffy with no services, and it was very hot. The bus, when it arrived 40 minutes late, was just as scruffy!

We and two others were the only white faces on the bus, which made for interesting conversation. But as we travelled onwards in that cluttered old bus, it became far too hot to talk much.

We stopped at every village on the way, which added about an hour to the trip! 

A village bus stop in the Thar Desert

But although it was hot and tiring, it was also very interesting because we got to see the villages along the route, and the way Thar Desert people dress, and their houses etc.

It seemed an incredibly dry area, but there were many crops and they all looked healthy.

We arrived at Jaisalmer in 39 degree heat, and it went up to 42 degrees later. Far too hot for us Kiwis!

We got to our hotel, the Royal Haveli, which was a very ornate building constructed of beautiful golden sandstone.

Marg outside our Jaisalmer hotel, the Royal Havali

Jaisalmer, one of the royal cities of Rajasthan state, is known as the Golden City because of the yellow sandstone used for its buildings.

It is a walled city and its crowning feature is the Jaisalmer Fort. We'd seen it from the bus on our way in, and it looked so big and imposing. Nestled on a rise, it towers over the surrounding desert. 

Jaisalmer Fort (UNESCO)

This Fort is one of the oldest in Rajasthan, having stood for over 800 years. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It has been partially restored and now accommodates houses, shops, a palace, and several ornate Jain temples within its impressive walls. Nearly a fourth of the 78,000 people in Jaisalmer live inside the Fort.

The Fort could be seen from our hotel, so the next morning we walked there to sight-see. Once in the Fort, our first stop was the Maharaja’s Palace.

The Palace in the Jaisalmer Fort (UNESCO)

This is an ornate series of golden sandstone buildings, with museum pieces displayed in some of the rooms.

Leaving there, we spent a lot of time wandering around the tiny narrow streets and lanes of the Fort. Fortunately, the narrow size created shade which helped us survive the extreme heat.

Some of the little lanes took us to viewing spots on the massive walls so we were able to view the rest of the city from a variety of places. 

After a while, we stopped for a delicious cold coffee with ice-cream at a very small, but quaint café/bookshop. Revived we continued on.

Street inside Jaisalmer Fort (UNESCO)

Leaving the coffee shop, we almost bumped into a cow; they roam freely in the streets here.

Walking around, we admired the attractive, ornately carved golden sandstone buildings throughout the Fort. The whole place is quite beautiful.

On the downside though, we have never encountered so many touts in one place at any one time, as in those narrow wee streets. It was very hard to ignore them and we got rather tired of saying "No thank you"!

At one point, while walking down an interesting but very narrow street, we had up to five touts yelling at us at the same time, vying for attention. Then as we moved on, the next five started and so on, down the street. The street was so narrow that they were just about touching us, and we'd had enough of it.

Narrow Jaisalmer street full of touts

Leigh stopped, put her hands up and addressed all the touts in the street (all men). She told them that she just wanted to walk from one end of the street to the other to admire their shops, and that if she wanted to buy anything, she would let them know.

We don't know if they understood her English, as many in India don't speak it. However, everyone went quiet and we managed to get to the other end without being hassled again.

Until we turned the corner, where the hassling continued – blimey, how tiring it was!

The market in the old city outside the Fort

The next day, we explored the narrow streets outside the Fort. They were not as touristy but very busy and interesting. We really liked the fruit and veg market because of the lovely fresh produce sold there.

Jaisalmer’s golden buildings and the intricacy of the carvings in the sandstone were amazing to see. We enjoyed our break here and were ready to move to Jaipur for a night, before catching a train to the Ranthambore National Park and a tiger safari. 

The above blog is part of our 2-month tour of India. The first blog on this tour is called "Off to Delhi"