Thar Desert

Morning was spent with schooling, the kids have asked to continue home schooling in Australia but for the parents it’s terrible 😂.

We were picked up in a jeep in the afternoon to head for our desert safari. First stop was Kuldhara, a ghost village. Our driver said you can shout out to ghosts (Please Bhooth come ) so you can see them, as per him he has seen many.

 

Next stop was a lake where we saw women transport water on their heads but we were back in the jeep pretty quick due to a woman constantly asking us for money .

We arrived at our tent which is very much glamping. Then on to the camels for our sunset at the dunes . 

I am not a fan of camel rides as I feel I am going to fall off any moment. I had Aanya in front of me and she absolutely loved it. Jeevan fell off on the way back as his camel got up before he got on, reinforcing my fear of falling but it became the highlight of the day for the kids.

The sunset was beautiful, we saw antelopes and beetles too. The kids rolled off the dunes ,did handstands and piggybacks to keep themselves occupied.

At dinner we had local music, dancing and jokes to keep us entertained. My favourite bit was the music made by wooden sticks and we had to keep up by clapping. Kids loved the dancing with fire on the ladies head.

Last night in Rajasthan. I didn’t know, Jaisalmer pretty much closes for tourists at the end of March so we are lucky we got there. It’s been a beautiful trip, the best of people and such a variety of things to do and see .  

 

 

Jaisalmer

We spent our whole day with our guide Lalu-ji , it was meant to be a 3 hour tour but as neither of us had any other plans we ended up much longer together .

We started by hearing about the 900 year old fort, it’s the only living fort in India. 3000 people live in it including Lalu-ji and he is the 44th generation living in his house. The kids loved hearing him call the old kings robbers and about the silk route that made Jaisalmer rich .

As we walked into the fort we were welcomed by a 75 year old man playing music on two flutes, it was amazing to watch and listen. The fort is made so well with interlocking blocks, it has withstood the earthquakes but got damaged in the rain recently (thanks to climate change).

 My favourite part of the fort was seeing the wedding invites on people’s walls. Instead of sending invites they paint it on the walls inviting everyone. They just add the dates and names of the other children as their weddings come up. 

Our guides wedding invite from 2005 (along with his three sisters) is still up on his house. I love his background story too - he learnt German and got a job in a German bank in Bangalore, but after a month there he was homesick and returned to Jaisalmer. He helped a friend out by taking some German tourists around town, received a great tip and realised that this was the job he enjoyed and 23 years later he continues to do it. His grandfather was an astrologer and had predicted at birth he would have the gift of the gab and use it for work. He thought his grandfather got it wrong when he got his banker job but he was right all along. 

We had chai and samosa breaks along the way and then headed to the newer part of town (300-400 year old). 

We saw the beautiful havelis, the more balconies the richer the status and the five built here first, have so many balconies . They are so intricately designed that when one of them was being sold no one wanted to buy it as they were worried no one would marry their sons as the wives would have to do too much cleaning ! 

We then went inside the old prime minister’s house where the seventh generation family still lives. They now have a shop in there to earn a revenue, for the first time I saw things made of camel bones, gorgeous pieces. 

We finished with dinner at our hotel. The rooftop had just the right vibe. Live music, fireworks and the fort lit up. Perfect ending to the day .

 

Jodhpur and travel to Jaisalmer

 

The morning started with Google maps boggling our minds and nearly getting our car stuck in a very narrow street. Luckily managed to get out thanks to the locals and then headed to the fort in an auto instead .

First order of the day was the zip lines over the Mehrangarh fort. Aanya was too short for it so there were quite a few tears (she had been eating heaps in the last few days to grow taller). Savik and I went on all 6 of them and it was such a great experience going over the lakes and fort walls . 

We managed to convince the kids to see the rest of the fort as they feel they have seen a lot of forts. This one had some very glamorous rooms and palanquins. We then headed to the Royal temple, received blessings and then finished with Jodhpur .

Headed to Jaisalmer and we stopped for lunch along the way. The dhaba had photos of when Salman Khan (taken from their CCTV) stopped for lunch there and slept on the khatti. The kids then started striking Salman and Shah Rukh Khan poses, their Bollywood knowledge has definitely increased. 

The landscape started changing and we left the mountains behind with the Thar desert taking over. Suddenly we started seeing so many camels roaming and spotted deer again, much bigger ones this time.

We reached Jaisalmer and said goodbye to Shamsu-ji, our driver for the last 3 days. We spent the evening at the Gadisar lake watching the laser and light show. The kids finally got to make a video on the spinning wheel and then ride a horse names Kajal. 

After the show the whole area became so deserted as there was a mass exodus of the tourists. We were the only ones who hung around and had dinner there so had the whole place to ourselves . 

Jaisalmer seems to be a much smaller and slower paced town than then ones we have visited. Looking forward to seeing more tomorrow .