I thought I’d start today’s blog just mentioning that I do seem to have caught a bit of a cold, but in my usual resilient fashion am battling through. I had hoped to get a bit of a snooze on the 6 hour drive to aid my recovery. My best laid plans didn’t take into account the general rough condition of the road. There seemed to be road work along most of the 330 kilometre journey. Once again, our driver avoided oncoming vehicles, walking people and other random events to see us through to our hotel.
On of the things that Rajasthanis, in particular like to do, is a temple walk. They often sign up for weeks of walking in up to 45 degree temperatures. There is a whole support team that travels with them to ensure they stay hydrated and fed and there is lots of music and dancing along the way. At one point, we were near a temple and there was about a kilometre of shoes left at the side of the road.
Jaisalmer is deep in the Thar desert and the landsacpe has changed predominantly to sand dunes and most of the construction is yellow sandstone rather than the pink sandstone of Jaipur. The hotel we are staying is a desert-themed palace and because we are in the off season got upgraded to the Luxury Room -824 Sq Ft.
The lounge …
The bedroom …
The hotel was actually built about 8 years ago, but has a very traditional feel. There are acres of gardens and private spaces as well as a billiards room and a few different restaurants, and definitely more staff than customers. We wandered around and took a few photos in the afternoon.
Seems the hotel dog likes a swim!
Dinner tonight was in one of the gardens with a Thar Desert theme. This appealed to us because it didn’t involve any camping or camel rides. Prior to dinner we had a couple of cocktails as the sun disappeared for the day.
We took in a local musical performance, which was very good, prior to being escorted to the garden in some style. There was a drummer and a musician heralding our arrival. We had assumed that other would be joining us, but it just us… and no less than seven staff. There was also a local musician who sang, played a mouth harp and a double flute to entertain us. They brought out 3 entrees prior to serving the ‘Non-Veg Thali’. This was a selection of meat curries, rice and naan breads, kind of like a personal buffet. It arrived with additional ceremony including cymbals, drums and fireworks.
The food was magnificent and the experience of eating outside on a perfectly moonlit night was an experience to savour. We agreed it was certainly a great experience and ine we’ll remember for a long time.
Tomorrow we have a guide to show us around the town of Jaisalmer, so stay tuned.
Until tomorrow!
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