March 3

Today we rounded up and had breakfast of fried eggs and toast; fruit salad; and porridge with fruit. All the fruit was apples and bananas. After breakfast, we turned in a big load of laundry to be done, 19 pieces, costing 475 Rupees ($6). Our hand washables we had done we dry and packed away. Our room does not have any dressers or cabinets, rather just a bed and two tiny end tables. There is room for a dresser… Anyway, the common areas are all around and the views from them make up for the inconveniences. 

Around one pm, we went out thinking we would have time for a plate of momos. But we choose the wrong restaurant. They were working on takeout orders still after 40 minutes. All we had was my Coke. Jeff paid for that and we had to leave. Because we had to get to our desert safari place by two. We grabbed, on the way, a lunch of champions: three little bags of chips/things, and Jeff got a fresh pineapple juice. We arrived on time, but… had to wait for the other couple! (Could have waited for the momas, probably not, but was frustrating.) The on-time factor (or lack thereof) in India can be very, very frustrating. Anyway, they arrived and we were under way in an AC sedan, not the back of a bouncy Jeep. This is better for our aging anatomies!

As we head out of Jaisalmer, it gives way from the city to the semi desert. There is still some grass, but it is sparse; some cactus plants now dot the landscape; and more shrub type bushes rather than trees. There is sand, but it is mostly the sandstone rock (the material used for the construction of the fort and most building faces in Jaisalmer) that is visible. Also noticed there are still free-range cows, but these are more gaunt (seeing ribs) due to scarcity of food. Of course, now we see more camels – some free-range, but most are tethered. Housing, that has become rare to non-existent, is of the sandstone bricks.

We arrive at our first place of the tour, Kuldhara. It is an ancient abandoned, 'overnight' village with a folklore legend involving this abandonment. It might have been due to atoricities of a leader of the Jaisalmer state; maybe due to an earthquake; or maybe (most likely, we think) due to lack of water. Whatever the reason, many locals believe it to be haunted. All that remains is a few reconstructed buildings, one being a temple. The rest is brick piled foundations scattered out in a grid- like pattern of a city. The village was cleared out in the 19th Century, so there was paved “roads” that we meandered about. Since we were given 30 to 45 minutes to explore, we took advantage of it. Hardly anyone else wondered away from the few reconstructed buildings. It is always a thing for me to image what each building was and any activity was happening. It helps make it real. We rounded up and moved on.

Our next site of interest was a lake! Ruth Natural Lake is like a small oasis. As soon as we arrived there were a handful of locals who hit us up for a donation. Once you got past this you could go down to the pond-lake. I did not see any animals around it, so I don't know how drinkable it was, but it has a small platform of steps that were built leading down into it – like a dock. Maybe locals use this as washing place and /or for water gathering. Anyway, it was flanked by trees – made for a nice picture. We went back to the car dodging the locals, which in some ways is a shame. 

Now we went to Khaba Fort, which Google maps shows as closed. We saw why, the place is reconstructed and still being reconstructed as we went in. We saw one man breaking bricks with a sledge-type hammer to the right size; another man using an angle-grinder to make circular carvings; and others laying stone for a part of the roof. If it had not been for watching them this would have just been a gawker site. It made for interest, even though the fort is totally reconstructed. We four load back up and move on.

We came to Desert National Park. It is now that we see sand dunes and think desert. I don't think of it as a national park though. I'll explain. We are on the road: one side of the road is the dune area and the other side is like a mini Las Vegas. It is resort camp after resort camp for all to experience desert “living” from just partaking of supper and a show, like we are doing; or spending the night in set up tent-like structures, under the desert stars. Anyway, we opted to not do the camel ride- been there, done that. The other couple in our tour group is doing a camel ride so we had two hours to just sit. So we were let out and walked a bit onto the sand dune and just sat enjoying seeing the camels with tourists getting their adventure, or families with kids clambering around in the sand. As the sun was going down, so did the temperature. It was cool enough we both had our jackets on and zipped up. I had a scarf on, one for protection from some wind blown sand, the other for heat insulation. We watched sunset, and I was able to call my mom from this setting.

We were picked up and taken a little way to our resort/camp area, Garh Rajputana Desert Camp. We were let out and upon entering we were greeted with a drum welcome, and 'blessed(?)' with a red dot on our foreheads by a costumed local. We were one of the first let out and were just meandered a bit. As it filled in with some more people, a snack of fried chopped, breaded veggies and hot tea. Then the show started. It was four people – two men and two women. The men played drums, and a box accordian of sorts with one singing. The women were the dancers in bright sequined costume and sometimes did some beat addition to the music when they did not dance. Supper was served buffet style during this time. We had a mixed veg. curry; dal; some type of paneer curry (I think??); rice; roti; and a fried-breaded, not sweet coffee cake. It was pretty good. The show ended with mostly the men dancing to popular music. We found the other couple, they were ready to leave as we were, and found our driver. We loaded up and that ended our desert “safari” (more an  excursion, which we were okay with). 

We arrived back into Jaisalmer and to our hostel by 10:30 pm. We were able to catch the end of services from back home and see some church family. Bed by 11:30. Fun day!!