Jaisalmer Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

Ganesh Ganesh meets me at the airport. Ganesh looks disconcertingly like my friend Alex - they could be different colored versions of the same person! And Ganesh has the same lingering, calm way about him. I'm completely weirded out and spend the the next few days trying in vain not to stare; totally reversing the notion that it's the Indians who gawp at the blondes. Mona & Dipan En-route from Delhi to Jaipur in a banged out jeep: I share the journey with Mona and Dipan, who are Calif...

We spent the day walking to the Fort in Jaisalmer.  It is a very neat and ancient fort that people still live and work in.  There is some controversy over it though as people believe that noone should be living there so that it can be preserved (lonely planet is one group that belives this and they have signs protesting them inside the fort). We saw another Jaisalmer temple and went shopping for a bit.  We also saw the local lake which, although probably very beautiful in the ...

We set off in the early morning hours to meet our camel guide in the desert.  During the ride there, I pictured Lawrence of Arabia and dreamed of Arabian Nights.  We reached the meeting point and I caught sight of our camels, all geared up and ready to go.  I was paired up with Kaloo, the smallest camel of the lot and as it turned out, also the rebel.  He had his own idea about where to go and just how fast he thought he needed to get there.  At first I was diggi...

4/22/2007New Video - scroll to the bottom photo section and the last entry should be a video I finally uploaded of two nomadic desert girls "entertaining" us with their ummm singing...pretty funny (you can't see much but you can hear it all)Before heading out of Jodhpur in the morning, we strolled through the old city, past the Clock Tower to the place that Nandu recommended as having the best special lassi’s in all of Jodhpur, a tiny little place where the only English spoken was “Two La...

Today was a tour of Jaisalmer Fort built in 1156 by the Rajput ruler Jaisala and reinforced by subsequent rulers.   It was walking distance from our hotel so we all wandered over to a meeting point just outside the Fort walls, where we were going to meet our tour guide.  There was plenty going on outside the walls even before we got in! We stood outside a market while our guide explained to us that only women sell at this market as the stalls are not mobile! The usual cow...

Came into Jaisalmer today.  This place is one of the reasons I decided on Rajasthan.  The desert fort rises high out of the city to keep watch over all that’s around.  It’s also India’s only living fort, meaning there are 10,000 people still living inside the darned thing.  The hotel is very nice; it has a pool, restaurant, and huge rooms.  Small problem with Jaisalmer though…It rains only about eight days a year here.  Today’s one of them.  No poo...

I had heard from friends and read numerous books about India, but it didn’t matter, nothing could possibly prepare me for this country. It was a surreal feeling leaving my world of normality, to then step in a place that only existed in my faint imagination. An imagination that I was now breathing. An imagination that had connected with me so strongly that I was sure to return and re-live that first experience.

Delhi, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, the Thar desert, Pushkar, Udaipur, Ajanta, Ellora, Mandu, Khajuraho, Orchha, Rishikesh, Manali and Dharamsala.

Here are some interesting snippets from the Indian newspapers. China There was comment that Chinese generally mistrust India.  There are two apparent reasons: Chinese children are taught in their school history lessons that India was aggressive in how they secured the lands (Tibet-like areas in the North East) near China.  They aren't taught about Tibet in a very different perspective though. Chinese have an inferiority-complex when they view themselves against Indians. ...

It has been 6 intense weeks in India now.  And I can honestly say that I love and I hate India.  Everyone wants something from me and noone will leave me alone.  From the second I get off the bus or train, they want me to stay in their hotel, eat in their restaurant, shop in their store, drive in their taxi, buy their jewelry....and they won't take no for an answer.  in many cases, they are flagrantly rude to me when I say no.   Some people&nb...

Friday 7/27/07 Well, despite my efforts to not drink water, I have to pee. I've been dreading this moment. I can't take my bags with me and I don't want to leave them here. So I switch positions a lot over the next 2 hours. Now the snoring man is awake. I ask him if he will watch my bags when I got to the restroom. Nothing too important is in them, but I'd feel violated if anyone took anything. I find the RR and of course, it's a "squatter".  And it's disgusting!  Thank God there's...

My 6th trip in India and this time with my whole family. We went to Rajasthan in all the most important places except Udaipur...

After a lovely thali lunch at the hotel - made up of 4 little pots, 2 with veg curries and one with rice and one with raita yoghurt, completed with chapati - I was nice and full and ready for a night in the desert on the camel safari.  We lugged our bags down to the main square and climbed into jeeps which drove us out for one hour into the desert.  Not exactly a sand dune desert - more deserted land with only some grazing animals and limited greenery.  Very arid.  Our cam...

a quick trip to Delhi,Agra,Rajasthan shorted by the usual strikers of Air France.

Went off to the wonders of India and my familia.