Jaiselmer: Palace and haveli..

Today was a day of sight seeing. We woke up early morning to click the sunrise which was not very photogenic.. so after looking around for sometime, i went back to sleep.

i woke up after 2 hours.. the others were already awake and the camel-wallas were busy finding their camels who wondered away at night.. Normally the breakfast is also prepared in the desert itself by the camel-wallas but we decided to return to our guesthouse and have breakfast after washing up.
the desert lines..

abbe camera idhar hai..

ready for take-off..

registan mein khila phul..

again the torturous camel ride.. in fact now i seemed to be getting used to the pain..

Then we left for Jaiselmer. Thanks to Deepak’s contacts, we got a room in a government guesthouse in Jaiselmer where we dumped our stuff. First stop was Jaiselmer fort. The fort remains open throughout the day but the Jain temples inside it close at 1pm. It was almost 1 so we took an auto till the top. The Rajput forts are usually situated on top a hill and have a steep winding road till the palace. The auto was climbing on the first gear with the engine generating all the torque it possibly could. I was thinking that if even once this guy breaks, he wouldn’t be able to climb again. And being India, there were loads of people on the road. But that's nothing which constant honking and hitting a few cant take care of. We rushed to the Jain temple just in time to see its gates close. The temple next to it was still open. It was dedicated to Rishabdevji/Chandraprabhu..

the carving inside was lovely..

the statue of Rishabdevji..

shucks, this one came out blurred..

the statues inside the main temple as seen through a window..

We took a guide for the rest of the fort. At first we thought we could manage it ourselves but when we couldn’t even find the entry of the fort ourselves, we thought taking a guide would be a better option. It was almost like a whole city inside the fort. The guide told us that almost 4000 people still live inside it.
the markets..



He took us around the fort.

we saw the weapons and the thrones..

abbe camera wahan nahi yahan hai..

sun blasting through the high walls..

the balconies..

overlooking the city..



the reason for the place being called Jaiselmer..

the rulers of Jaiselmer..

family tree..

jharokhas..

sculptures..



The best part was the roof. We could see the whole city from there.

from my "wide angle" lens..

the fort walls..

the three musketeers..

maharaja sunil singh..

mata..

the puppet shop outside the fort..

the view from outside..

By the time the tour ended we were very very hungry. All the locals recommended a restaurant called Desert Bite. It was a 10 minutes walk from the fort and the walking aggravated the hunger further. After reaching there we all started ordering everything. We ordered Rajasthani, Mughlai and even a chilly paneer. But the food dint disappoint us. The best was the Gatte ki sabji. Then we went back to the guesthouse to rest a bit. Viraj, Sunil, Vaibhav and I played cards. The game was court-piece which Vaibhav and I won 23-4 (this is just to rub salt on Viraj and Sunil’s wounds). At around sunset Sunil, Deepak and I left for Patwa-ki-haveli..

The auto took us through the narrow streets of the town, jumping over open drains and narrowly missing people. I could see the sun setting and was cursing myself for not leaving a bit early. When we reached the haveli, it was almost dark. Thank God I had a tripod (still some pics have blur). We hired a guide who took us around the haveli.
the work on the walls..


the temple of the haveli..

the sitting room..

the locks..

the bedroom..

the dressing room..

nice roof..

paintings on the wall..





a really old camera..

jab tripod hai to teeno araamse baithke photo kyun na khichwaye..

the turban collection..

and the royal perfumes..

the games room..



From the roof you get excellent view of the fort.

I would recommend reaching there just before the sunset.
closer look..

that was the end of the tour..
on the way out, the litup havelis..

Outside the haveli there are stalls of Rajasthani handicrafts. We bought calenders with Rajasthani paintings which we later noticed said “printed in Delhi”.
view from near the stalls..

Then we roamed around the market looking for a good place to sit and relax.. a view of the fort at night..

We had to catch the train for Jodhpur at 11:15pm. We sat in the bar near Hotel Raj Nivas and enjoyed a few drinks.

Then we took an auto, picked up Vaibhav, Viraj and our stuff from the guesthouse and reached the station. we had RAC tickets for the sleeper coach which meant we would be sitting as we froze in the cold throughout the night. In the train we got our RAC tickets confirmed. So now we would alteast be able to sleep as we froze. but my sleeping bag saved me and i slept peacefully and comfortably. Little did I know that this would be the last good night’s sleep I would be getting for many days to come..
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