Jodhpur and Jaisalmer (Rajasthan, Part 1)

It was time for my biannual long vacation to home. So Mom, dad and I also planned for a short trip to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. Rajasthan, a state in northwest of India is a dream destination both for domestic and international travellers. The state is famous for its Rajputana history, various forts and ofcourse the famous Thar Desert. It takes atleast a week if you want to cover the important places of Rajasthan which includes Jaipur, Udaipur, Chittor, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Mount Abu. All the places are well connected via road and rail. Infact there are some luxury trains running covering all these places with royal treatment for its passengers, may be some day I will also be in a position to afford it.

Place: Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India

Time: 29^th Mar to 2^nd Apr, 2010

With: Mom and Dad

We board a train to Jodhpur from Old Delhi Station. It’s an overnight journey and we reached next morning. All these places in Rajasthan are very famous tourist destinations and you can find lots of visitors across the year. We hired an auto outside the station for our all day city tour. We checked in a hotel, got fresh and started for Jodhpur Sightseeing. Our first stop was Umaid Bhawan Palace, this is the last great palace built in India (completed in 1944). Half of this palace is used by the royal family of Jodhpur and rest of it has been converted to a 5 star hotel and museum. Tourists are allowed to visit only the museum. The speciality of the museum was a clock museum with more than hundreds clocks from across the world.

Next we went for the major attraction of Jodhhpur, Mehrangarh Fort. The fort is more than 550 years old and the city Jodhpur was built around it. The main highlights of the forts are Moti Mahal, Sheesh Mahal, Phool Mahal and various small museums showcasing weapons, ornaments, utensils and so on. Jodhpur is also known as blue city because most of its houses are painted in Blue to protect from strong sunrays. From the top of the fort you can see a mesmerizing view of the city. The fort also has a restaurant which serves Rajasthani Thali with Gatte ka saag. Post lunch we went to Jaswant Thada the royal cenotaphs.

It was a bad time to visit Rajasthan because hot weather made us tired. We went back to hotel to take some rest. We had our train to Jaisalmer that evening. Through the hotel we contacted a hotel in Jaisalmer who promised to provide a pickup service from the station as we were supposed to reach very early in the morning.

The hotel in Jaisalmer was decent and they arranged cab for our city tour and also for Thar Desert trip in the evening. The city Jaisalmer is all about its fort also known as Sonar Kila (it’s made up of yellow sand stone) and Thar Desert. If you are interested in buying some souvenir for your friends it’s best to buy it from Jodhpur. Jaisalmer Fort is the only live fort in India, there are more than 5000 people still staying inside the fort. Most of the houses in Jaisalmer are in haveli style with jharokhas.  It gives the entire city a very ethnic look.

We hired a guide for Jaisalmer Fort and he took us through various lanes insides the fort. A very famous movie Sonar Kella by Satyajit Ray was shot here, which made the fort even more famous. The fort has a museum and a beautiful Jain Temple. The rock carvings inside the temple are really splendid. Next we visited some havelis and come back to hotel.

In the evening we started for our Thar Desert trip (my first visit to a desert). We reached near the desert some time before the sunset and took camels to reach the desert. Ahhh now camel ride is a real scary thing to do especially if you are sitting at the back seat. I somehow luckily reached the desert safely while my mom was laughing on me sitting infront of me. But I loved every bit of the desert; all you can see is sand, sand and sand. With the sunset it made a perfect landscape. Post sunset we came back (this time thank God, by car). We went to a camp where cultural night was organised for tourist, which includes Rajasthani dance and songs (Kesariya Balam Padhoro Mare Desh...). We had dinner with dal bati churma and other Rajasthani delicacies. If you wish you can also stay in those tents for the night (not exactly very safe for families). We came back to hotel.

Next day we had our train in the evening and morning we had nothing to do. And mind you Jaisalmer is very hot even in March end. Mom got extremely bored and we went to visit a fossil park. OMG what a disastrous plan it was. There was nothing other than tree fossils which are thousands of years old and did make any sense to me. The driver dropped us in the Station and we board the train to Delhi. For a change this time no office but home sweet home. 

Click here for more photos (By Dad and me)