This city has grown, but in many ways, it is the same, chill place we remember from 1997..... With an Indian flair of course. Nothing in India can be as calm as, say Luang Prabang, but Jaisalmer has that certain magical feeling that makes travellers who have intentions of coming for a couple of days, end up staying for three months. It happens all the time - we've met a few already. In many ways, it is still India - the cacophony of noise, the activity, the almost alien customs - you just can't put your finger on it.... But it's there. Beth and I woke up this morning and had this moment where we shared the same look - we were so glad we made the effort to come back to the Golden City.
There was no rush this morning. I think we ended up having breakfast at around 10:00. Then, we got lost.
It's actually pretty tough to get lost in Jaisalmer - like Jodhour, there's an outer city, a ring road that goes around the walls of the old city, the inner city that rises towards the Center, the Fort walls at the top of the hill, then the huge Fort area inside those walls. Our hotel is just inside the inner city wall, at the bottom of the hill. We took off on foot, winding our way through an Indiana Jones movie, heading towards the top of the hill.
Every little alley we looked down has tons of character - five hundred year old buildings, cobbled streets and people taking a breath from the activity of the Main Street.
It truly is the Golden City - almost every building, wall, fence and decorative treatment in the city is made out of golden sandstone. The place was built to last.
Beth has been mocking me for taking pictures of chillis throughout Asia, so I had Abby take this one :-).
The streets meandered upwards - hairpin turns, suddenly narrowing, then widening again. Motorbikes and Tuk tuks squeezed in among the pedestrians with short, sharp honks to let them know they had a second to squeeze to the side.
There were almost as many cows as people.... and these cows looked like they'd lived like royalty.
There were quite a few small, impromptu markets with a colourful mix of fruits and vegetables... and people. So far, the people here have been very friendly, though in a more reserved way than say, Sri Lanka. We were getting a lot of smiles and greetings, and the shop owners were friendly but not pushy at all.
Beth and I were in a bit of a shopping mood. We checked one place that had a nice marble vase, but the owner seemed a little disinterested and wasn't budging from his price. Was that a strategy.... Hmmm. We turned our attention to metal. There were a few stores that sold everything stainless steel and copper. We were in the local area of the city where they didn't deal with tourists very much, so after establishing a baseline price and finding out that all of the metal items, regardless of shape or design, were sold by weight, we bought a bunch of copper serving dishes and stainless steel bowls for food prep.
We just wandered and wandered. The kids were entranced by the city - it really is quite different than anything they'd seen and you could see it in their reactions to everything. We had some fun interactions with store owners and ended up buying scarves and some small souvenirs. We hadn't even ventured into the walls of the Fort area where the main tourist shops are, but we didn't care.
It was lunch time - two o'clock? Man, things have changed. Not so long ago, if the clock had struck a minute after twelve and we didn't have food on the table there would be hell to pay :-). We ended up ordering lunch back at the hotel, which has the coolest rooftop restaurant and chill area. There are little niches around the outer wall that are perfect for naps, blogging and.... I think Minecraft as well.
The North Indian cuisine is so good. I'm loving the thalis, which are essentially plates with three or four curries, some rice and naan. Ashraf, the hotel owner, clearly has done enough international travelling where he's learned the little things that make for a successful hotel operation. Having chai at every opportunity also helps boost the satisfaction level - the whole family is thoroughly addicted to chai after just over one week in India.
We left the kids to their own devices.... Ha, I just realized how ironic that old expression is in the modern age... and headed back out to the city on our own.... On our own! That was a nice treat. Beth and I don't get enough time together, so moments like those are very appreciated.
We headed back to a tailor we'd chatted with in the morning and dropped off the girls bags to add more patches. Beth also needed a small repair to her backpack. We got lots of smiles and head waggles.
We noticed this customer taking a keen interest in children's clothing.... Which was hilarious.
Beth and I went back to the "vase guy" and he presented us with the same price. Usually at this point I'm prepared to say, ok, let's pull the trigger. My "money over time spent haggling" tolerance ratio is quite low. Beth prefers at least a bit of back and forth, and doesn't usually react well if the guy doesn't discount. There are many selling and buying strategies we've picked up on our various travels - this guy was playing the "this price is already so low so I cannot discount it any further" gambit, and I felt like he was not going to budge. Sure enough, we walked out for the second time empty handed and I chuckled to myself trying to play out how it was going to feel when we inevitably came back to buy it for the same price.
We had a nice couple of hours, just the two of us, in the streets of Jaisalmer but it was time to return to our hotel, Mystic Jaisalmer.
The kids are now fully patched up. The bags are starting to generate a lot of conversation from interested observers, so that's another great gateway to some nice cultural interactions.
Our little chai girls were upstairs, chilling out by the camel mural that Ashraf had encouraged one of his recent visitors to paint on the wall. He actually asked the girls if they'd like to do some paintings.... I thought to myself "I hope you mean it because they will be like dogs with a bone on that suggestion!".
Late afternoon, we walked outside the city gates to check out the lake. It was quite full after the 36 hours of rain they'd had the day before we'd arrived. It was nice to just hang out there as the sun dropped down behind us.
There was a family picture request, which, if there are females in the group, we usually honour (we've been getting a few requests from young men to take pictures, which we always politely decline). These kids were 10, 13 and 18!
Next door to the hotel is a huge house with a large yard that is used as a recycling business. I watched for a while, seeing people drop off huge bags of plastic, paper or glass, get weighed and receive a small payment. The boy working to sort the drop offs into some logical division works from early morning to late night as his mother/boss overlooks. The whole recycling thing reminds me of how enterprising these people can be. I recall Pranav telling us how much money is generated by the recycling slums, though the proceeds always seemed to float to the one guy at the top making all the money.
We sat in the niches, watching the sun completely set behind the nearby Fort and listening to the life of the city.
Dinner was great - I can't see too many reasons to eat elsewhere in Jaisalmer based on four delicious meals in a row. It doesn't hurt that they have really cold, delicious Kingfisher on hand.
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