“Moments at The Golden City”-Jaisalmer

Region:- Rajasthan.

Route:- Delhi - Jaisalmer - Kuldhara Village - Sam Dunes - Delhi.

This time it was a chance to be with royal heritage .And the journey begins on 31^st January, 2014, we departed from Delhi to Jaisalmer by Delhi Jaisalmer Express from Old Delhi railway station at 17:30 hrs.We were all set to enjoy the 15 hours long train journey to Jaisalmer, the largest district of Rajasthan, which is well known as “The Golden City”. It is a part of the Indian Thar desert. We arrived there at around 12:30 hrs next day. From Jaisalmer Railway station we headed towards our Hotel the bookings were done before hand.

Day 1: We all had taken some time to relax and refresh ourselves. Now it was the time to explore “the Golden City” .We hired a jeep for this and started the tour.

It all began with Patwa Havelis, built in 19^th century with yellow stone with marvellous and fine carvings in it. It’s a well planned construction made and I was amazed by the techniques that were used to control the temperature inside the havelis, which makes the temperature inside the havelis much cooler as compared to the temperature outside.  Climbing on to the top of the haveli, its terrace, there you could see the whole city; you can even have a nice view of the outer structure of the fort. We took our next drive towards Gadi Sagar Lake, which is a man made reservoir in order to meet the demand of water in ancient time. Tilon Ki Pol is a two storied entrance gate to the lake.

Finally we were on our way to the only living fort of the world situated on Trikuta hill. The wall of the fort is made of block of stones which are placed in vertically and horizontally alternatively to make it stick to each other without the help of any binding agent (cement as used now). The fort is bounded with three walls. The first surrounded wall supports the Trikuta hill. The second wall takes the shape of a snake surrounding all around the fort and the last wall was made as a safety wall during wars, used by the soldiers to pour hot oil or water and massive block on their enemies. And surprisingly you will still find some blocks lying at the top. The families residing inside the fort are mainly Rajputs and Brahmins.

As the sun goes down, the colour of the fort seems to be golden in colour. So, it was named as “Sonar Killa” which means Golden Fort. After exploring the fort, we decided to go for an evening tea with lots of snack to munch on to compensate the lunch that we had skipped J . So, we decided to take it in, in a Roof-top Tibetan Restaurant. ‘’ Amazing weather and tasty food ’’.

Day 2: The next day we were all set to go to real treasure in Jaisalmer, the desert. We hired a vehicle for Sam dunes and also decided to visit Kuldhara village on our way.  It’s an add on destination for the Jaisalmer tourist. An entry fee of 10 rupees per person was charged.

               Kuldhara Village is a 400 year’s old abandoned Paliwal Brahmins village, which is about 15 kms away from the city. The story that is still believed by the people about Kuldhara was that the ruler at that point of time wanted to marry the daughter of the chief of Kuldhara. The Chief had no option other than accepting the proposal.  So, they decided to leave the village. Within 24 hours all the villagers left for good from Kuldhara. There were 84 villages of this community nearby .It is also believed that the Kuldhara land is cursed  that if any one try to settle down  in the land will face dead.

The scenario of Kuldhara Village, once you enter you will see the broken walls, empty structures and temples. There are only two house one of the chief and other of is executive, along with a temple, which are maintained even now.

After spending some moments at the village we headed towards Sam dunes. The roads were well maintained, it’s a smooth sail towards our destination. We arrived at our camp site “Royal Desert Camps”. 

We had done the pre-bookings. We were offered Swiss Tents for our stay. We dropped in our luggage in our tents and then rushed for our camel safari, as it was time nearing to sun set at the dunes, which was the main attraction.  Started the desert ride on the camel back, all excited!! Paid extra tips for a safari to an isolated place, as the places nearby are crowded with tourist and to experience a camel race in the dunes.

Took a Break just for to say “cheese’’ & to capture some wonderful moments spend out there.

As the sun went down we returned to the camp site. The camp owners has organised a cultural program for the guests, it was fun & relaxing!!! .

Day 3: The next day we started our journey back to Jaisalmer city, taking all the memories along. After an hour or so we decided to grab on some Rajasthani lunch at “The Jaisal Treat”.

Awesome food, service & ambience that we had in “The Jaisal Treat”. We had our return train tickets back to Delhi the same day, so we rested for some time and got ready to go back to our normal life routine with loads of memories.

Thank you Jaisalmer! Thank you friends!!! For the wonderful trip....