Jaisalmer in the far west of Rajasthan was established in 1156 on the camel train routes between India and central Asia. The city accumulated great wealth, the legacy of which can still be seen today in the few remaining haveli (mansions) built by successful merchants, carved from sandstone and wood.But otherwise, modern-day Jaisalmer retains little of its former wealth and opulence. Its streets are dirty, covered with baked-on cow manure, grime and litter. Like the other sizeable Rajasthani cities, Jaisalmer was originally located within the walls of an impressive fort containing the Maharaja’s palace. And Jaisalmer’s golden sandcastle-like stone fort is certainly impressive. It’s also perhaps the world’s only existing living fort, with more than a thousand people residing inside, these days catering mainly to the tourist trade.
We came to Jaisalmer on an overnight train from Jodhpur and poked our noses out when the desert heat wasn’t too fierce to inspect the Fort and the former palace and Jain temples within. We took an auto-rickshaw to see a few of the city’s haveli and to admire their magnificent, intricately-carved facades. Late Wednesday afternoon we shared a car with a German visitor and his guide to the village of Sam in the Great Thar Desert about 40 km from Jaisalmer. Manfred first came to India 31 years ago, fell in love with the country, and has returned every year since for several weeks during the German winter. At Sam we hired camels and headed out over the dunes towards Pakistan not far over the horizon. But we got only as far as the sunset before turning our ships of the desert and retracing our steps back to Jaisalmer.
On Thursday we took an overnight train to Jaipur, Rajasthan’s capital. Compared with the other Rajasthani cities we’d seen, Jaipur seemed to have little to recommend it. But we did take an early morning auto-rickshaw to see the imposing Amber Fort about 13 km out of town. By now we’d had our fill of forts and Maharajas’ palaces, and with some different sights in mind, we boarded an afternoon bus on Saturday, eventually leaving colourful Rajasthan behind us.
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