Day 6, January 14

The fort is very beautiful. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it seems to me that it is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. Maybe it was some special atmosphere, or just a good mood that influenced my impression of Jaisalmer Fort, but that’s how it seemed to me there. The quaint sandstone houses with beautiful carvings and little balconies, the narrow streets, the shops selling all sorts of things — everything created a kind of festive atmosphere. We wandered around, saw the city from the fort walls. We drank tea with biscuits (which has already become our traditional way of having a snack). The fort turned out to be smaller than we thought; at a completely leisurely pace we walked through all the little alleys and were almost not tired at all, and there was still plenty of time left.

So we went to see the most beautiful building in Jaisalmer, Patwa Haveli. It is a typical building for this region, with very beautiful carved walls and little balconies. It is hard to believe that all of this is made of stone....

On the way to another haveli, Salim Singh Haveli, I saw something appetizing being fried in oil in a large pan. We went closer to take a look. An Indian man was sitting nearby, looking very pleasant, and asked:
-What would you like?
-I don’t know, I smile. - Could you tell me what these pastries are filled with?
-These ones are with chili peppers, these ones are with beans – he points to the bowls with pastries.
-And what about the ones that are frying?
-Those are samosas, pastries with masala.
We decided to wait for the samosas, not really understanding what they were. Soon the cook fished out the samosas and dumped them into a bowl, and a crowd of Indians immediately gathered around, like bees to honey. We bought two samosas (for only 30 rupees, 7 UAH) and rushed home. The samosa came with some kind of red sauce.
At home we were glad we had decided to eat at home after all, washed our hands properly with soap, and laid out the samosas. They were still hot. The samosas turned out to be very tasty, though very spicy; tears came to my eyes while I was eating mine. Inside the pastry there was plenty of filling — a mixture of potatoes with peas or lentils. After eating our fill and getting thoroughly thirsty, we drank homemade black tea and went to see another haveli, which we had missed because of the samosas.
Salim Singh Haveli turned out not to be as imposing and impressive as Patwa Haveli; after wandering around the street a bit, we bought some bananas and went home to rest.
For dinner we ordered two flatbreads at a restaurant and ate them with the leftover sauce they had given us with the samosas. The sauce turned out to be very tasty, sweet and spicy.