Our hotel, Mystic Jaisalmer, is located near the fort, in a tourist area.
First trip to India, January 2015
Day 4, January 12
Jaisalmer
First trip to India, January 2015
Itinerary
I couldn’t manage to look out the window. I woke up because Volchiy was quietly calling me from somewhere nearby.
-Uhuuun, wake up. We’ve already arrived
-Arrived how?
-I didn’t believe it myself. But we’re almost there already.
It was surprising, because we were supposed to arrive around 11 a.m. — could I really have slept that soundly?
Volchiy said that when he woke up, he first checked the navigator and saw that we were entering Jaisalmer, and then looked out the window and saw the desert and caravans and was very surprised.
While we were stuffing the sleeping bag away and putting on our shoes, the train stopped.
The station was flooded with bright sunlight. Hooray, it was finally warm! After cool Delhi, it was very pleasant to plunge into the enveloping warmth of Jaisalmer. We decided to walk to the hotel; it was one and a half kilometers from the railway station.
We walked along wide roads, even with a pedestrian path.
We were taken to the rooftop terrace, from where there was a beautiful view of the fort — this is a popular feature among local hotels, rooftop restaurants. We were given free tea. It was very nice on the terrace, sunny, warm, we settled down on the mattresses scattered on the floor there and didn’t notice how a couple of hours passed. I was reading a magazine, and Volchy was looking at something on his phone.
Later we decided to go for a walk into town. We found the entrance to the fort, but decided to leave the fort for later.
I was very hungry. Since morning we had only been drinking tea, and although it had milk and seemed nutritious, we still wanted to eat. We went out to the main bazaar; there were many stalls selling everything except food. They sold beautiful leather bags, tunics, vegetables, fruits. Somewhere they were roasting peanuts, somewhere they were brewing tea.
We moved a little away from the center and went into some little restaurant. Indians were watching TV; overall it was quite decent, with clean tables and a menu. The menu had thali — we wanted to order one for two, but the Indian was stubborn: “Only order one thali each” — and wouldn’t budge… We had to leave the restaurant.
We went into a little eatery to drink tea with biscuits — when there’s nothing better, even a crayfish is fish…
On the way back home we also bought bananas and oranges. And at the sweets shop, four balls — Indian pastries. We later ate the pastries with tea in the room. It’s good to carry a kettle with you. I liked the pastries, but Volchy didn’t much. The balls are like dough soaked in honey.
In the evening we sat on the terrace, the setting sun beautifully illuminated the fort; Jaisalmer is called the Golden City for good reason…
We had dinner with Indian flatbreads and rice, delicious.