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India Day 8 - Jaisalmer

Added: December 20, 2008

Tags: India animals city lake photos temple
Saturday 8th November we woke up rather tired. We could hear life on streets for most of the night and it was really hot in our room because we closed windows as anti mosquito precaution (we had seen some in the evening). As I opened balcony a fresh cool air went inside. Well, we probably made mistake...

A group of tourists stopped in from of our hotel, directly below me and their guide explained something to them. After some time another bunch of tourists repeated the same ritual so it could not be coincidence. Mental note - I need to take photo from outside regardless of crammed space.

Hotel owner asked when our train is running - at 16:00. "You can leave your luggage here and return at about 2pm. Then you can refresh yourself shortly in your room before you leave." Thank you very much, we really appreciate this possibility :-) This would never happen in normal hotel with normal hotel manager...

Afternoon

We continued by exploring town. Our idea was to visit a few Havelis - traditional houses. We took rickshaw, haggled price (insufficiently) and went for it. The first Haveli we have seen only from outside, because driver told us it is not very interesting and people there are not very nice. I guess it means they do not pay commission. It was Salam Singh Ki Haveli, photos are not special, so I am not showing any.

Patwon Ki Haveli

This one was beautiful, several levels high, beautiful decoration from outside and even better from inside. Only part of haveli is accessible for tourists as it is private house.

I just hate when you need to pass through shop on your way out. They know very well that most of visitors will not buy anything, but because they will never return, it is OK to kill their good impression by forcing them to go through it.

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Fort from distance - it is possible to see how big it is.
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Nathmal Ji Ki Haveli

Our driver promised us that we will like this haveli and that it is government owned (I do not remember what he wanted to say by that, probably it is cheaper or something). So we went inside and apart from shop we could see nothing. A second later some tourist who bought something in shop wanted to go upstairs to see haveli, but was disallowed. So he left with words "You can keep your money. It was some kind of rip-off as also out tour to 3 havelis was, as we could see only one from inside...

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Gadsisar lake

As we went back to fort our driver asked several times if we want shopping and mentioned several irresistible shops we should see. We refused, but as we went around market I decided it is time to buy some nice fruit. I told about that to driver, he wanted to stop, but as I could see a stall I decided to go to different one. That repeated several times until driver told us they really have only apples, bananas, potatoes and some lousy stuff I would not buy even for free.

The driver offered us possibility to go to Gadsisar lake. We have seen photo, it was nice so we decided to go there. 100Rs more. OK. Again it was very close, not worth of 100Rs at all. At least photos were nice.

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Other side of lake.
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Jodhpur

When we finished with lake we returned back to hostel, where we spent some time and finally went to railways station. I did not notice it before, but station was very nice building too. Built in the same style as rest of town from the same stone. My camera was packed so I do not have any photos.

Our ride to Jodhpur was fine, but A/C was too strong so I asked conductor to do something with that. He had a lot of good laugh thanks to that. So I wrapped into blanked and it was better.

As we were close to Jodhpur conductor returned to tidy blankets and pillows. I have ignored him. He returned later, still cool, finished Zuzka's blanket and left. I have ignored him. After some time he checked a few times, more nervous at that time. Finally he came and asked for my blanket. "No." I defended my territory. "But Jodpur will be soon" tried conductor. "We are not in Jodpur yet!" I made clear that his bad karma for laughing at me will not go away until we really arrive into Jodhpur :-)

After our arrival to Jodhpur we found rickshaw for 25Rs to take us to Clock Tower. According our instructions from hostel we could not say where we are going, because they would take us happily to fake hostel with the same name. So we got map with instructions how to find it from Clock Tower. Driver tried to find where we want to go, but we ignored him. Surprisingly, our instructions were good and we found hostel easily.

Bigger surprise happened as we got in. "Hostelbookers? Oh, my friend, you should have called you are coming so late! We thought you have changed your plan and we gave your room to very sick girl only a few minutes ago! But I am going to find you another accommodation at my friend's place. Roof top restaurant is still open, go to eat something and I will manage it."

Meal was delicious, we could see town and Jodhpur Fort from restaurant. Fireworks at fort was a nice touch too :-) Nearby sitting guy told to waiter that Bill Gates was there, but I was not able to confirm that.

When we finished our dinner we went to reception, owner took old bicycle and led us to Hare Krishna Guest House. It was located much closer to fort, had nice roof top terrace, but probably was not as clean (and room was quite small). I decided to install a lock on window as I was not able to close it. OK, it is cheaper, we have place to stay at, so I am not angry at Haveli Guest House...

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