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space.gif (52 bytes) Jaisalmer

January 1-2, 1999

In Jaisalmer, we spent our time taking care of priorities. Number 1 - we showered. The deep tans we thought we had acquired were 1\4 dirt, 1\4 sandy residue, 1\4 color, and 1\4 smoke from the fires we had spent so much time huddled around. Number 2 - eat, anything that wasn't bread, jam, potato massala, lentil, or rice. The food in Jaisalmer was poor, but on the up-side, at the 8th July restaurant we were offered a choice of low-grade food. At night we went to the Om restaurant (another sad recommendation of the Lonely Planet) for thali meals that were bland and took about two hours to prepare. The food in Jaisalmer was, unfortunately, on par with many of the other places we tried in Rajastan, but we found that the street food was delicious. For the rest of the stay in Rajastan, we dined on samosas (potato and veggies stuffed in dough and fried), pakoda (pieces of potato, cauliflower, and chilies deep fried), kachori (lentil stuffed in dough and deep friend with hot sauce and curd over the top), and chole patties (potato cakes served in grape leaves with a vegetables, and a masala hot sauce on top). Jeff is still paying for his indulgence in the street food. This brings us to point number 3. Because we had already spent half of the time we had allotted for India (1 month of 2), had visited only one quarter the cities we had planned to see, and were tired of the sub-par food, we made an executive decision. We were going to head south, to Mumbai (Bombay), as soon as possible. There we would utilize the cheap e-mail, and book tickets to the southern tip of India (hopefully). The first hurdle, we would soon discover, would be getting out of Jaisalmer.

Soon after arriving in Jaisalmer on the evening of January 1, we headed to the train station with the intention of buying tickets to Jodhpur. After an hour's wait, in a five person line, we were one person back from the ticket window when an act of India struck before our eyes - the power went out. Down went the computers, any chance of us booking a ticket that day went the way of the condor.

At 9 am the next morning we had to decide whether to check out, in hopes of getting on the night train, or stay another night at our crummy hotel. There are two trains that leave Jaisalmer everyday: a 7 am mail train that we had already missed, and a 10:30 pm passenger train. Doubtful that we would be on the 10:30 train, we checked out of our hotel anyway, and walked back to the station, waited in line again, and finally we were awarded four waiting list tickets (which we had to pay full price for). We were told to come back for confirmation of seats at 6:30 pm that evening.

In between the trips to the railway station we got to explore the wonderful structures of the city. Jaisalmer is a desert fortress located in the middle of the Thar desert only miles from Pakistan. It's a small city surrounding an ancient fort, which is perched high atop the 80 meter high Ttrikuta hill, and was built in 1156. We saw many beautiful Havelis, which are mansions built by the wealthy businessmen at the turn of the century. They are decorated inside with intricately painted murals. The major themes expressed are mythology, history, folktales and eroticism. We also visited the Raja's Castle in the center of the "golden city." Jaisalmer is called this because the building are all built with the plentiful, local, golden sandstone which virtually glows during the sunset. We wandered through a maze of narrow streets, and got shaves from a local barber for thirty cents.

At 6:30 we returned to the station for the third time. We were confronted by the very common Indian phrase, "Not Possible" and were told to come back at 9:30. After some coaxing, haggling and waiting, we were able to confirm three sleepers for the four of us. We grabbed a bite to eat, picked up our bags, and returned to the Jaisalmer railway station for our fourth and final trip in a day and a half. A little good old fashioned American bitchin' and moaning got us a fourth sleeper, and however uncomfortably, we slept from 10:30 pm to 5:30 am. Shazaam! We were in Jodpur.