Tuesday, October 31 Halloween...not in Santa Barbara, Jaisalmer in Rajasthan

A Jaisalmer hotel owner woke me up on the train to Jaisalmer, and I went to talk to Luke, Tara, Snehal, and Nikhil in 3AC, along with all the other Westerners. It’s weird I’m not in Santa Barbara getting drunk and dressing up for Halloween; the biggest and craziest party of the year. Instead, I’m in the middle of the Thar Desert in India. The terrain all the way to Jaisalmer was deserted (multiple meanings) dry scrubland, with no water or towns anywhere for miles. Then, all of a sudden, a yellow sandstone cubist mass of buildings emerged from the desert. As we got off the train in Jaisalmer, there were touts lined up at the exit, all holding up signs for hotels, and accosting every white person, asking them for hotel, camel safari, etc. During my whole time in India, I have never seen it this bad for touts. Competition was cutthroat, and we were able to get a hotel for 200Rs for two days, plus free taxis. We drove out of the station and had to pay a “station exit tax” of 50 Rs, probably just for the touts to pocket. We drove through the tiny town to our hotel, which had a rooftop view of the city. Jaisalmer itself is a single fort, which looks like a fairy-tale sandcastle above the yellow brick sandstone city, and the desert that surrounds it. It epitomizes desert splendor and ancient trade routes. Founded in the 12th century, Jaisalmer lies at the east-west axis of the Central Asian camel and train trade routes. This brought the town exquisite wealth, and can be seen in the nearby havelis, or mansions, with quintessentially Rajasthani ornate wooden windows and balconies. The fort itself was besieged many times, including one time for eight years. The development of ocean shipping, and the partition cutting off Pakistan, led to Jaisalmer’s decline, except now for the military and tourism. We spent the afternoon negotiating for a camel safari. The man quoted us at 10,000 Rs (2,000 Rs a person), which is a ridiculously huge profit margin. We went to another hotel, where they told us the exact same safari (all-inclusive) would cost 5,000 Rs (1,000 Rs per person), which was more reasonable. We finally got our hotel owner to bring down the price to 5,000. Then he asked who told us he would give us the safari for 5,000 at the other hotel [so he could go beat him up?]. We spent the rest of the day wandering through the touristy market in Jaisalmer. This town is so small that you can walk virtually anywhere. The buildings are all yellow brick sandstone. Shops with trinkets and Rajasthani fabrics, travel agencies, and restaurants lined the small streets, as well as cows and women selling anklets and vegetables. It was really touristy, with just about as many foreigners as Jaisalmeris. The town itself is dominated by the rising fort, which is a city within itself. 60,000 people (mostly running guesthouses, restaurants, and shops) live within the walls. You have to walk up curving pathways, designed for fortification. It has a square, and ornate carved balconies embellish the sandstone walls. There was a maze of tiny cobblestone paths leading from shop to shop. It was pretty cool, actually. The views of the yellow city and desert below were really good, too. We took a taxi to Gadi Sagar lake, where we rented a paddleboat to watch the sunset over the fort. We paddled around a while, and Tara and I paddled us under the archway of a sunken pavillion. We didn’t make it the first time. After that, we went to a puppet show, which was only Indians and really informal. There was a drummer and a kid wailing, for music, and only one puppeteer. It was hilarious, but not very good. We then went to a restaurant in the fort for dessert.