Jaisalmer:

December 24th, 2004 - December 27th, 2004

Greetings to all and a Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating...

We arrived in Jaisalmer by train. We went straight to bed when we reached our room! That was nice for a couple of hours until Indian Air Force jets started roaring overhead. They were so close to the ground things were shaking. See, Jaisalmer is in the desert in Western Rajasthan, about 100 km from the Pakistani border so there is a large military presence. We watched planes for a bit and slept some more!

We surfaced in the evening and made our way to town. It is a small city and quite friendly. Because it is isolated from much of India it has that feeling of being on an Island - especially in terms of the friendliness of the people.

The whole city is golden colour to match the amazing fort that sits above it - the nicest fort we have seen to this point. We made our way through town and up the winding roads of the fort to the top where we found a great restaurant (Surya is the name) where we sat on cushions overlooking the whole town. It was quite cold, but as proud Canadians, we took the one table on the tiny balcony with the amazing view. The food was tradition Indian and quite tasty - the host was fantastic and made the night a ton of fun. It was Christmas Eve, but there was nothing real special going on.

On the walk home we ventured into some stores and got a few articles of clothing. The shopkeepers were really passive and quite nice to be around here. Once returning home, we were again startled by noise - this time it was fireworks for Xmas Eve. Although, it sure sounded like bombs at first!

Christmas Day was normal - except for every Indian coming up to us and saying "Happy Christmas". It was pretty funny. I should mention, trying to explain we don't celebrate Christmas just drew further confusion!

We toured the local man-made lake and the fort with a guide. The fort is made with no mortar to hold the bricks in place. It also has four hidden gates, winding up the hill. Pretty neat as mentioned.

We toured some local havelis (houses of the upper class). We were leaving one of them and some guy starts yelling at Jess "Hey ma'am, I know you from Jodhpur in the train station." It was pretty funny. You see, everyone knows everyone around here. It is crazy. Somehow, they are all related. Even when we tried to buy some clothes at one place and they didn't have it, they took us to another place ("his brother") who turned out to be a guy who we had been taken to earlier by our guide. And of course, all the people remember us - especially when we say we will be back later and then don't return.

After the tour we indulged in some comfort food - sandwiches and chocolate pie - at a nice Internet cafe we have found. We chilled out in the 'sleepy little town', enjoying all the atmosphere, before returning to our place to get ready for a sunset trip.

We took a sunset jeep 'safari' to the town of Khuri, which is about 50 km from the border with Pakistan. Despite previous recommendations from friends about the niceness of the place, it was anything but. Well, the scenery was nice, but there were so many people and so many touts.

We wanted to walk up the 80m high dunes to watch the sunset, but we were constantly harassed on our walk by people wanting us to take a camel for outrageous prices. It only took 10 minutes to walk to the top, but they wanted near $10 for the camel ride (which is like the cost of two full meals)! Once at the top, young kids with bags of chips and bottles of beer try and sell it to you - all while you are trying to enjoy the sunset.

The kids wanted 50 rupees for a bag of chips that is usually 10 rupees. And they wanted 400 rupees for a 60 rupee bottle of beer! It was sick. And then groups of musicians would surround tourists and start playing and not let them get up and leave - then they would demand money. We managed to slide away to a more secluded part of the dunes - but were still harassed by the kids. They kept saying to us, "Why no business." I tried to explain I wasn't paying 50 rupees for chips I could buy for 10 rupees, but they didn't understand.

This leads to a big problem developing in India. Our guide during the day was a Brahmin (a local religious leader). He actually got mad at a merchant in the fort for selling a book the day before for 400 rupees to one person then selling the same book for 150 rupees to local Indian tourist.

The point our guide was trying to get across was that people here want to make a quick buck and get rich. However, he was trying to tell them to be fair and honest and they would do better in the long run. It is sad, because in the small village near Khuri, kids were coming up to us and all they could say was "Photo... 10 rupees" ... it is quite sad how the ugly face of consumerism has formed here.

On that note, I shall wrap this up. Hope everyone is well during the holiday season.

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