It’s a beautiful
year when you end your January and begin your February in Kashmir to enter into
March from the beautiful deserts of Rajasthan. Travel is beautiful, spiritual
and addictive.
Upon returning
from Kashmir early January, I realized that March begins with a fabulous
travel opportunity with a long weekend at its beginning. There was going to be
a Holi weekend and thus a perfect time to paint a new travel canvas. It took me
about 5 minutes to decide that after touching the extreme North of the
country just a few days back, I will now go and touch the extreme West,
Jaisalmer and Longewala.
I cannot really
call it an impromptu thought, for Jaisalmer was on my bucket list for a long
time. But once I realized of this long weekend, in the five minutes I was
prepping up for the trip. My initial thought was to drive down to Jaisalmer
from Ahmedabad, which is an approximate distance of 500 Kms. The road as I
understand is beautiful and one can easily drive down to Jaisalmer from Ahmedabad.
I decided to put up a post on Facebook & Travello inviting interested backpackers to join in if they wish to, however didn’t find anyone willing to
travel at that time. I thus dropped my plan to drive down and rather decided to
take a bus.
Driving solo all
night drains out a lot of energy and makes me tired the next day. I rather
decided to preserve the energy by taking some rest on the bus and making the
most of it while in Jaisalmer. This is when I realized that the road
connectivity between Ahmedabad and Jaisalmer is also pretty limited. There were
very limited options available on redbus.com as well. Finally, I adopted the
old fashion method of visiting a few travel agents and managed to book myself
on a Rajasthan based (probably) travel company's bus. (Thar Travels) about 10
days in advance to my travel.
Unknown
destinations and solo trips are definitely exciting, but the thought once
materialized always makes me nervous, for you are alone soaring into the
unknown. But it is always a good idea to experience the unknown rather than
being afraid of it.
I boarded this
bus – an AC sleeper (mind you, not a Volvo) from Ahmedabad on the Thursday
night, a day before Holi after work. When one travels it amazing to see how
diverse our country is. I was observing my fellow passengers as we were waiting
to board the bus. The men in their loose white shirts and white Pajamas with a
turban on their heads and big silver earrings and women in colorful sarees and
huge ornaments made of white metal showcased the traditional Rajasthani style
of attire.
The bus left
Ahmedabad at 10:00 PM. Though not from a prominent travel agency the bus
was pretty much comfortable to get a
fair sleep. I have long learned from my three years in Gujarat that one cannot
always expect clean restaurants and good food on the highways here. Unlike some
highways, these states don’t have MacDonald’s and Pizza Huts. Rather once you
leave Ahmedabad and travel further west there are no major cities that one
comes across, thus luxurious restaurants are out of question. It’s best to pack
dry snacks for these journeys. At about 1:00 AM the bus stopped at a filthy
food joint for about 20 mins to reach Jaisalmer at 9:00 AM – about an hour and
half past its scheduled arrival time.
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I arrived into
Jaisalmer on the Holi day. The bus stand was just near the fort, and I was to go
to the Swan Hostel as the place was referred to me by a friend. I decided to
walk rather than take an auto to start exploring the city. I turned my GPS on
and started walking. As I entered into the town, I could easily see that the
city was closed for the festival. On the streets I could see kids playing Holi,
throwing colors and splashing water at each other. As I walked into the small
lanes of the city kids started following me with colorful intentions. They were
a little curious and scared as I walked with a big rucksack on my back. Some
brave hearts were trying to ask me ’which country’, which country’. I decided
to act alien and kept walking, in an attempt to escape the situation.
An even braver kid then decided to splash water on me using his splash gun (pichkari), and as I tried to avoid him, someone scolded him asking him not to trouble the tourists. The kinds withdrew. As I walked out of the small alley and stepped onto the big road three men fully smeared in colors were passing by and stopped seeing me walking on the road absolutely uncolored. They decided to stop and then there was no escaping as they put colors on me head to toe. This continued to happen at every corner after that as locals as well as tourists were playing Holi. By the time I reached the hostel I was completely immersed in colors.
I reached the
hostel, dusted off the color and washed my face (No shower – no no no) and came
down to the lobby to plan my day. It was clear that the town was close for the
festival and there was no point staying back in Jaisalmer. One of my plans was
to rent a Bullet and ride down to Longewala about 120 Kms. from Jaisalmer where
the famous battle of Longewala was fought in 1971. As I came down to the lobby
to explore the possibility of getting a Bike, I met Shivam – another solo
traveler who was exploring the same possibility. He immediately offered me to
tag along and said there was another couple who was travelling and if I wanted,
I can join them all and thus I met Ankit and Rachna. This is the beauty of Solo
Trips – you may go solo, but you don’t come back solo’ and thus the four of us
became great buddies from the moment we met.
We had breakfast
at the beautiful rooftop restaurant at Swan hostel. Rachna in the meanwhile had
planned to go to Sam Sand Dunes – a must visit when in Jaisalmer. Post
breakfast we headed to the Sahara Dessert Safari office through whom we booked
over dessert Safari. There are several other who organize such safaris but our
experience with Sahara Dessert Safari was reasonably good. It is advised that
one books these Safaris through trussed organizers who have established offices
around the fort area. It is advisable to negotiate as well. Generally, you would
get a good deal in INR 2k per person, which involves transportation (Jaisalmer
to Jaisalmer- generally in a Jeep or an open 4x4 vehicle), desert safari in an
open gypsy, Camel Safari, stay in a tent (individual tent if you are travelling
alone) and meals.
While we were waiting for our transportation to
go to the dunes near the fort area, we tried our hands on the local delicacy (or
the one that is rather more popular in the Sindh region in Pakistan) known as
Dal Pakwan.
On our way to the dunes we stopped at the Kuldhara village. It’s an abandoned village basically in ruins believed to be abandoned in the 19th century. The exact reason though not known, there are several beliefs behind it being abandoned. Over the years it has also developed a reputation of being a haunted village and as we Indians love to tell and listen to stories, there are several stories told locally about the paranormal activities in this village. Not sure about the paranormal activities, the village in the daytime looks good and shows ruins of beautiful 13th century architecture. A beautiful place to take pictures and a location worth using for rustic theme photography folios. (Please seek local permission from tourism department) After spending about an hour at the village we moved further to reach the sand dunes.
Water which is an (apparently) easily available resource for us in the cities is an extremely scarce resource in this part of the country and needs to be used very carefully.
After a quick shower, we were taken out in an open Mahindra Thar on a Sundown desert Safari. This is a mind-blowing experience, as the vehicle takes a small road out to the dunes and then runs wild into the dunes. Extremely well-trained drivers drive you through the dunes at a high-speed giving you an adventurous experience of the dunes. Watch a short video here –
The safari
stopped in between the desert after about 20 mins at a strategic place from
where we could enjoy the sun set. The place was pretty crowded and
commercialized (though not exuberantly expensive like many other tourist
places). We settled ourselves on one of the dunes to experience the desert
sunset. While we were enjoying our time taking pictures, sipping on the tea the
sun was almost touching the horizon on the verge of setting in. The evening was
pretty cloudy and dusty and the sunset was kind of a quick one into the defused
clouds. Though we enjoyed the experience it was not a contending one majorly
due to the weather. After spending some more time in the desert, we moved back
to the camp site to enjoy the night.
As
we arrived at the camp site we were invited for to join in for a folk evening.
A stage was set in the center of the huge camp site and local singers presented
Rajasthani folk music. Not the best of the artists, but they did the best they
could.
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(We also enjoyed
a beautiful moon rise over the camp site. Enjoy a few pics as the artists
performed and moon rises right behind them)
We decided to
take a walk into the desert after the event and walked deep into the dunes in
the moon light. I think these are the experiences one should travel for. It was
a blissful experience to sit in the middle of the desert with three new friends
and share our experiences of travel. If there was anything that connected all
four of us together there in that moon light was our passion for travel, apart
from that we didn’t know anything else about anyone of us. We were truly at
that moment travelers of life meeting each other momentarily in this eternal
travel in a deserted Thar desert.
After a long
chat session we moved back to the camp site for dinner. The chat session
continued for a while after dinner and we moved back to our tents to call it a
day.
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Our
day 2 began at 5:30 in the morning as we were to leave at 6 AM for our Camel
safari back into the dunes and enjoy the desert Sunrise. Two camels namely
‘Chunnu’ and ‘Hritik Roshan’ (whom we rechristened as ‘Duggu’) lazily came to
the camping site and quietly waited for us to board them. The both appeared to
be juveniles (and they were, as we confirmed with their care takers). We
boarded the camels and they began their guided walk into the desert. After
about 15 minutes we arrived at a spot in the desert from where we would see the
Sun Rise. ‘Chunnu’ and ‘Duggu’ sat down as we alighted down to see the sun
rise. Though this place was again a bit crowded I must say it was a pleasant
morning and a beautiful sunrise. We made a lot of images of the sunrise while
‘Chunnu’ and ‘Duggu’ were our models.
(Hritik Roshan aka our Duggu in his 'Suraj ko main nigal gaya' pose)
I am an animal
lover and generally not in favor of riding over them for fun. I shared this
thought with the others and turned out that they were not very comfortable with
that either and we decided to ask the camels to be taken back while we will
walk our way to the camp. We spent some more time in the dunes and came back to
the camp for breakfast.
We were to check
out post breakfast and I and Shivam had planned to rent bikes and ride to
Longewala while Rachna and Ankit were to leave from Jaisalmer the same evening.
However they were pretty excited to know our plan. They excused themselves and
went into their tents to come back after ten minutes declaring that they had
cancelled their tickets and will be coming with us to Longewala.
We reached
Jaisalmer at about 11 AM, immediately explored our options to fond good bikes
and hired two Royal Enfield’s 350 all set for Longewala. You can hire bikes
from outside the fort. Generally the rent is INR 800 for a day, but the moment
you declare you are going to Longewala they will charge you more. We were
running short on time and hired two bikes for INR 1200.00 each. The bike guys
generally advise you to tank up the bikes, however that is not required. We
filled about 9 Ltrs. of petrol. You may also be told that there are no petrol
pumps after Jaisalmer, which is not true. You will find a few petrol pumps in
Ramgargh, about 55kms. before Tanot, which is basically our first stop.
We left from
Jaisalmer at 12:00 noon and rode straight till Ramgarh which is about 70 Kms.
This drive is pretty much through the dry runn. We took a tea break at Ramgarh
and started our journey further to Tanot (the famous Tanot Mata Temple shown in
the film border which stood its guard during both 1965 & 1971 Indo-Pak wars).
The road from
Ramgarh to Tanot is a beautiful two lane road made and maintained by BRO and
run through the Thar Desert. It’s a blissful ride as one rides through the
extremely well maintained roads and the sight of the desert on all four sides
is nothing less than divine. Watch a small video of our drive on this road here
–
We reached Tanot
Mata Temple which is maintained since 1965 by the Border Security Force. It is
believed that the deity worshiped here has protected our land from enemies in
supernatural ways. In the 1965 war Pakistani army targeted the temple and
dropped over 3000 bombs in the temple area, however not one exploded. The area
was again targeted in 1971 and it is believed that the war tactics of the
enemies failed as Tanot Mata stood guard with the Army and our land. It is a
place of immense faith for the Army and BSF soldiers who also consider the sand
in the temple area to be sacred. The temple is surrounded by huge sand dunes
and sand hills on all four sides. Unexploded bomb shells are displayed in the
temple which are said to be fired by the Pakistani army on the temple premises
during the war.
We
humbly offered our prayers at the temple praying to Tanot Mata to always stand
by our soldiers and protect our country from our enemies.
We then drove
down to our next destination – Longewala. Longewala is about 40 Kms. from
Tanot. Ramgarh – Tanot & Longewala
form a triangle. After a 40 kms. of desert drive we arrived at the Longewala
war site. The war site is merely 15 Kms. from the international border and is
developed as a tourist awareness site by the Border Security Force. A company
of 120 soldiers of the Indian Army’s 23rd battalion, Punjab Regiment
under the commandment of Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri fought a war against 2000
Pakistani soldiers who opened attack at the war site during the night hours of
04th Dec, 1971 and showed exceptional war skills and defeated the
enemy along with the Indian Air Force who arrived in the morning. They were
given a choice to withdraw if they wish to, however the brave soldiers stayed
back and fought the war to victory forcing the enemy to withdraw (Rather run
away)
The
war site is developed to give visitors a feel of how the war was fought. Two
Pakistani tanks out of those captured during the 1971 war are kept here on
display. The site gives us a feel of how the war must have been fought and
makes us realize what a heroic decision it was by Major Chandpuri and his team
to stay put and not withdraw. A small film is shown at this site which is
basically a mix of a documentary and some visuals from the movie ‘Border’. The
documentary shows that had the Indian Army moved back allowing the enemy to
enter in Pakistan had probably taken over important cities like Ramgarh and
Jaisalmer in 1971 gaining an easy access into other parts of the country. It
was this terrain from the international border to Longewala which was tough due
to the sand dunes and sand hills where the enemy could be stopped. Once in
Ramgargh we would have lost the natural protection available in the form of the
desert making it difficult to control the war – not to mention the much higher
magnitude of loss to life and property.
We came across
many familiar names at the small war museum here. Names which we have mostly
heard in the 1997 Bollywood film – Border (A film based on the 1971 war )
making us feel proud about these brave sons of the mother land.
We had plans to
go closer to the border area (Border Pillar 609) which requires permission from
the Border Security Force. We were denied of the permission by a BSF officer
who told us that the area these days is extremely sensitive. The word uttered
by BSF is the law there – all in a right way and we decided not to explore the
possibility any further or insist on the permission (not that there was a
choice of insisting).
It
was close to 06:00 PM now and we had a good 108 Kms distance to go back on the
lonely desert road. We started our ride back to Ramgarh. Just 12 Kms before
Ramgarh we took an impromptu stop over to see the sunset on the desert road,
which turned out to be the best sunset we had ever seen in our lives. Please
enjoy the image here –
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After enjoying
the sunset we started our journey back to Jaisalmer with a pit stop in Ramgarh.
It took us a little longer than 3 hours to reach Jaisalmer as we rode a little
slower in the dark desert road. By far this has been one of my best experiences
of the few road trips I have had.
Upon reaching
Jaisalmer we had a quick dinner at a beautiful joint facing the fort (which later became super famous as some parts of the film Parmanu were shot here) and bid
farewell to Ankit and Rachna who were to leave for Delhi the same night.
We checked in
into a small hotel to spend a few hours at night as we had plans to see the
fort the next day. Generally Jaisalmer fort will be the first place to visit
once you reach Jaisalmer, however we were visiting it the last, just before
leaving Jaisalmer.
Jaisalmer
fort is a stunning architecture and is perhaps one of the very few forts which
have got people living in it. An entire colony is based inside the fort with
houses, restaurants, shops etc. In
fact the city of Jaisalmer was based in the fort only - in the olden days. As
population started increasing people started dwelling outside of the fort which
is now known to be the Jaisalmer city. The fort is made up of yellow sandstone
and thus has a beautiful and distinctive yellow color, which in the morning and
evening hours looks stunningly golden, rightfully being known as the golden
fort. This yellow color is also used to paint most of the construction in the
city to hold its reputation of the Golden city. The color strongly matches with
the desert sand around the city.
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| (Entrance to the Jaisalmer Fort) |
We further walked a little more into the fort before Shivam left for Jodhpur, leaving me to spend some time by myself in the city. I decided to see the Patwon ki Haweli . It is more of a tourist attraction and yet again the architecture is marvelous. The net-work in the stone (traditionally known as ‘Jali’) is truly worth seeing as one wonders as to how talented the carvers must have been to create such creations. Enjoy a few pictures of the Haveli –
I then took a
walk in the city market. Though not a great fan of buying stuff from these
highly commercialized tourists markets, I did buy some stoles and Afghani
lowers from a local shop. By the time I reached the hotel, lunch time was over,
thus had to move out again for lunch which turned out to be a good decision as
I came across a place where I had traditional Rajasthani Thali. It was a good lunch with Kersangri, Gutte ki
Subji, Ghewar and other Rajasthani items. A perfect way to finish the trip.
I walked back to
the hotel to leave for my bus to Ahmedabad.
That one thing
that prominently one notices while travelling in India is its uncleanliness and
Jaisalmer was no exception. The old city is extremely filthy and apparently
lacks washrooms as people use streets and road side gutters to relieve
themselves. Even inside the fort where most tourists visit is not well kept.
One can smell filth everywhere which doesn’t give a great feeling. Local
authorities, locals as well as tourists need to be more responsible in
maintaining cleanliness in our cities.
Alas that is one
bad thing amongst a hundred good, but Jaisalmer is truly a great place to visit
and one must visit it at least once.
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