Part Two: Desi Thali - Travels through India in 2003

Jaisalmer
Having reached a small crowd of waiting and excited people on the backside of an old building, I was in Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer the old kingdom of Raja Jaisal, an important point in the nonextant old spice trade route between India and Central Asia. The fort was the township from an era of seemingly medeival times. This was the old world charm hunted by the many many tourists who had been visiting Jaisalmer in their jaunts through Rajasthan. The bus for whatever reason does not actually go all the way to Jaisalmer proper and stops just short of it leaving you to figure out a way of getting to it. Looking at the crowd as I stepped out the bus, I would have guessed that there were no tourists who ever visit this place and I was the first outsider they had seen in years. I was badgered with requests for hiring a taxi, a hotel room in the finest Jaisalmer has to offer, whatever else lost in the noise and confusion of being surrounded by 10-15 loud voices after having spent a nite with absolutely no social interaction. My bag was nearly taken from hand while I tried telling them they were wasting their time since I had already made reservations in a hotel. Telling them that seemed like a voice of reason to stop them from badgering me, however it made things a bit worse, since I was asked which hotel (fair enough), I told them and promptly told me with a smile "Ah yes, it burnt down last nite" "Burnt down?" A bit farfetched to believe but not totally improbable, especially given there was no one there from the hotel. By this time the number of touts had dropped down to a team of two, thjough only one of them was the one doing all the talking, he was a youngish, a bit thughish looking fellow with an unshaven face and a long mustache growing downward. He asked me to call Deepak Resthouse and even walked me through a narrow alley to the PCO, even though we could have walked around the bus station building. The minute I stepped into the narrow alley, I was exceedingly cautious, though the fact that I might be mugged there seemed rather ridiculous, not impossible though. However there was indeed a PCO there and the level of incredulity the tout showed was pretty amazing cause he even gave me the buck, which I turned down, and called the hotel and was told"Somebody is coming, they had some car trouble and they are on their way and don't worry and don't let the bastards bother you!!! " As soon as I hung up and walked out, I could see a jeep headed our way and for a minute it looked like the jeep would straight into the building I was standing in front of, at the end the driver made a rather sharp left turn and stopped dramatically in front of me, with the dust rising so I could not really see anything except that somebody had jumped out of the jeep in front of me and was yelling "Deepak". I must say I was rather relived to see him, the trip had certainly started of well. It was an old Mahindra Jeep with the back open and there was just a frame left on the back. I got in the front of the jeep with one of the guys from the hotel taking my bag and sitting down in the back. At this point the persistent tout smiled and waved me goodbye in a casual way.

We reached the fort and at the entrance of the fort we left the driver and the jeep and switched to a bike on which we drove through a lot of narrow alleys. The inside of the fort was filled with narrow shaded alleys passing through ramshackle houses, there were wires running above us and there were a few people walking through very comfortably doging the motorcycle coming at them. There were some people kids playing cricket in the narrow ways and I could hear pressure cookers going off and the smell of great food, on the front porch of the houses there were chillis being dried out. The road in the alley were made of flat stone and I imagine when it was planned 800 years ago, it was hardly conceived as a road more as a foot path for people to walk though, maybe even a horse, but certainly not motorcycles and scooters. Deepak Resthouse was an old brick structure with an large stoneyard in front with old signs leaning near the entrance of the main hotel building with the usual signs of internet, e-mail apart from the other fascinating facilities available there. The door to the hotel was narrow and had an idol embedded in the wall above it, on entering the hotel I was showed into the main lobby area on the left of the entrance. It was a small room and looked like a police station with a large table in the center and a few benches all around with a man Deepak, the owner of Deepak Resthouse, holding court talking in hindi and rajasthani. There were a few travelers, many local people sitting around talking. I was shown a couple of rooms, most of the rooms were small but the size was not what you were looking for anyway in this place, it was the brilliant views out from the fort outward. The room which I did not take was a amazingly romantic room on the third floor, the winds gently blowing the curtains at the window, the room filled with diffused sunlight, a sense of quiet and calm, where one could lay in bed and look out the windows the whole day probably, it just seemed so idyllic and charming. However since I was on my own I just took the boring room no. 2 on the first floor right next to the court of Deepak. It was just a basic room with whitewashed walls, a tubelight, and some Rajasthani wall hangings, behind the double bed there was a recess in the wall shaped into shelves. The window looked out from the fort onto the town of Jaisalmer outside of the fort. There was some space between the wall in which the window was and the ramparts of the fort and it had some shrubs growing amid the soil and stones. On both sides of the window one could see the seemingly unending golden bastions.

I spoke to Deepak about what might be good places to start with and he suggested going that evening to Sam Dunes, the national park in the Thar desert, since I was not sure how many evenings I might be in Jaisalmer. He did not try to sell me any camel safari, which is quite a popular tourist attraction. I did not feel like riding poor animals across the desert sand. Also it was at his suggestion that I landed up at tourist reception center on the main road to get a map and talk to them about places to see. Here is where I had to also book my ticket to the Rajasthan Tourism organized evening trip to Sam. The tour was to start at 3 pm, I had sometime to kill, so I went back outside and the auto I had taken was still there. I told him I had to see a bunch of things outside of the Haveli and he said he can take me around, he was local and it would not take too much time. I can pay him what I like at the end, it seemed fine with me. I already knew I would save enough time sticking to that guy and he did not seem like he was out to make a fast buck. We drove first to the Gadisar Tank, which used to provide the water supply to the fort in olden times, it was right near the Tourism center. It was now just a peaceful looking lake with no people around, there was a temple nearby with steps leading down to the lake like the ghats of a river. In the lake there was also an island which had a beautifully carved gondola on stilts probably when the lake level was high the island disappears. While there were some boats around, there were no other people around. A large number of piegons were sitting atop the gondola and my driver/guide told me that the lake is on the map for migratory birds.

There are a large number of havelis or mansions in Jaisalmer which are constructed of sandstone and exquisitely carved. I spent sometime looking through them, they were mainly built in the 19th century though there were some additions to at least one of them which was done in a tradional style recently. The latticed carving on them were stunning though there was not much to see from the inside. There were some stunning views of the whole Jaisalmer fort looking at it from the south. I had decided that I wanted to actually leave Jaisalmer and move on to my next destination the next day, I mentioned this to my driver and of course he had an in with some bus company and he took me to the bus stand near Hanuman crossing where I bought a ticket to Mt. Abu leaving from Jaisalmer the evening of the 31st of January. Near Hanuman crossing there were a large number of bus company agents sitting like they were selling lottery tickets and each one of them tried to pester you to get their ticket, even though they were all selling tickets mainly for the same few buses which left Jaisalmer. We drove back to the fort and I ended my tour around the city at city palace. I gave my driver around Rs. 100 , since he seemed rather useful and non-bothersome. He seemed happy with that.

The city palace within the fort is the palace of the last ruler, it is a multilevel structure and it is part museum, part scenic views looking out over the rest of the structures within the fort. Looking out of the fort in itself might have been a majority of the town at some ancient time but over time the large number of structures outside of the fort far out number the people living inside. In some of the structure of the city palace there is again the intricate carving which while prevalent in a lot of mansions is still quite an amazing display of artistic talent and skill. All of the buildings in Jaisalmer have a desert like color to them. It was time for me to go to Sam Sand Dunes, I had to get back to the tourist center and the jeep left with just me. My driver was a surly man, who did not respond to any of my conversations. We drove to another hotel and he just parked the jeep and got out and walked away. I walked into the hotel and was told that he would be back in a few minutes and that they were waiting for a few couples who would also be going to the Dunes that evening. In a few minutes two couples walked down, they were really young and probably looked like they were bearly 18 years old and it was the first time traveling. They were giggling and chatting in a mixture of Hindi and Gujarati, some of which I could follow.
The driver did not say a word to anyone he just got in and started the jeep and started moving and stopped as though realising that maybe he needs to wait till evryone gets in. The jeep was covered in the back and had a door at the back but did not really have any doors in the front. He was dressed in dirty brown trousers and a shirt with a purple handkerchief around his neck. The couples in the back were back to giggling and talking excitedly. We drove around town till we reached the access road to Sam Dunes, maintained by the Army, for security. Jaisalmer and Sam was close to the border with Pakistan and there was an army base near there.

As soon as the driver reached the near empty Sam Dunes road he just accelerated till he was driving at an insane speed and the back door of the jeep seemed to be vibrating constanly. By now the couples in the back were dead silent. I looked back at them once and smiled but they were all tightly clutching to the seat. As we were travelling in a distance we could see colorfully dressed Rajasthani women walking across the road. We were still a good distance away, but the driver figured it was time to test if the horn of the jeep worked. The jeep was rather old and the horn at the wheel did not exist and now was mainly two wires which had to be joined together to make it work. As I looked at the driver who was making the effort to hold the two wires together sounding the horn while we went thundering down the road at great speed toward the poor women, I noticed he had a grin on his face and seemed to be enjoying this. Of course the women were far enough that they were safe but I can imagine how it must have been to have a jeep come towards you at great speed with the horn blaring. Sam Dunes were kind of empty when we reached there, the driver told us to meet him back at the parking lot as soon as the sun had set or he was going to leave us and grinned at us.

I walked around on the dunes and was immediately joined by an old man with a camel persuading me to ride the camel. The poor camel really looked undernourished and had the skin missing around the knees. I politely declined and walked away to the protests that I would his "Bouni" customer. I walked around for quite a distance and there was hardly of chance of getting lost, even though there were a few places where I found myself all alone with no idea which direction I came from, on walking up a dune I would see a number of people walking around waiting for the sunset, supposedly a beautiful sight. That evening was a cloudy evening and the chances that the sunset would be visible rather slim. As I was walking around I could see a lot of Indian tourists and a few foreign tourists, many of whom were trying out camel riding. Many camel drivers though did not have any success like my friend who I met again here. He continued to pester me till I told him I will pay him Rs. 10 if he stands with the camel and I take his picture and then maybe he will let me be and actually find someone who would ride the camel. After I had taken his picture and given him the money, he immediately began again if I would now ride his camel. I let out a loud exasperated sigh and walked away. I came across a indian woman waiting around while her boyfriend finished his camel ride. I spoke to her and after the usual pleasantaries she said she used to be in Pennsylvania and hated it since she was in Harrisburg and there was never anything to do around there, she and her boyfriend lived in Toronto now . We walked our ways and after walking for a few minutes I figured I will look at my lonely planet to plan out the evening after I get back. I realised that I did not have it with me and it must have fallen out of backpack, travelling without my well marked and read guide made me feel naked. I looked around to see if I could spot it anywhere and of course all I could see were dunes of sand and a few people here and there and some camels. While I was looking I ran into the Canadian living Harrisburg hating indian woman, she said "Oh, I think some people on a camel found some book and they were riding out that way". Walking toward the three possible options I had, I chased a red herring and finally managed to find the camel with his load of driver and two people. The driver gave me my book back and immediately asked for a reward. I was ready to pay him something when one of the passengers slapped the guy on the back and said "Friend, do not pay him one paisa, I spotted the book while we were seated here and there is no need for a reward". At this the driver protested that it was his camel and if that was not there, they might not have been on top of it to find it. This made the passenger even angrier and he sent me away, saying if I did not go immediately he would jump down and snatch the book away and burn it, and with that he started yelling at the camel driver that if the sand did not exist, if his parents had not had sex, he would never have existed. Leaving them arguing about what came first the sand or the camel I went away from that crowd. I went to a secluded spot nearer to the parking lot and there was a tea stand there, as I walked past it somebody yelled at me "Oi, DeepakResthouse", I turned to see it was my friend the persistent tout and he smiled and said "I hope you did not mind me yesterday, that is what one has to do, it is after all the stomach we all feed". I smiled back and said nothing. At this I was invited to a special tea, which made me all the more cautious and I said someother time and walked away. The sunset caused a large group of people to stand atop sand dunes looking westward, unfortunately for the crowd the glorious spectacle of the sun going down on the golden Thar desert was not to be. We got back into our jeep and drove back, it was dark by the time we got back to near the for. Although I was supposed to be dropped back to the front gate of the fort, I was dropped back at the hotel where the other tourists were and the driver just walked away, ignoring my inquiries of if he was going to drop me back.

I walked through the calm winter night, I could hear some Rajasthani music playing somewhere, the fort looked wonderfully lit and looked indeed like the Sonar Kila. Finally I reached the main entrance of the fort and walked to get my dinner. I had decided that I felt like a traditional Rajasthani thali and the place to get it within the fort was Vyas Meal Service. The bylanes within the fort were dark and minimally lit, there were a few well lit spots on the street. Wandering through the lanes I soon found a board Vyas Meal Service, atop the entrance to what looked like somebody's home. I knocked and walked in hesitantly thinking I must not be reading it right. There was a kitchen on the right side where there was a really old couple sitting and making rotis and stirring some vegetables and the kitchen looked like it had been really used that evening. Also in the entrance there were a few boxes of Masala tea with their name on it. By this point the old lady noticed me and I started apologizing for intruding and she said " if you want a thali dinner it is Rs 100 and the seats are upstairs, seat yourself and the food will be up in a few minutes." I walked up a steep set of stairs to a loft which was partly covered and looked like a set up for a family function with a few foldable tables and chairs set up. There was a couple sitting at one of the tables and I took the other long table. After a few minutes the girl spoke and she asked me where I was from and she did not introduce herself but introduced her boyfriend Charlie, which I thought was amusing. She was from the US but he was from Canada. He did not speak much, she and I discussed the other places of travel where we had been. It was the end of the journey for the two of them having travelled to Varanasi, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Udaipur and were heading out to Jaipur. I asked them about hotels in Udaipur since I was going to be there in a few days and was planning on making my bookings before I leave from Mount Abu. She smiled curiously and asked me if I did that for all places. I said it was a good idea for me to do that. She gave me the name of the place they stayed and I recommended Karni Niwas in Jaipur to them. At this point, I could hear somebody coming up the stairs, it was the old lady balancing two large trays and was leaning forward considerably and I jumped up to help her and she said "Sit, I will bring yours up in a few seconds", leaving me wondering what prompted such old people to work so hard and weather I would be working as hard when I was that old. My thali came up a few minutes later and the spread of subzi, rotis, rice, dals, yogurt and a gulab jamun was delicious, absolutely the best (and only) meal I had that day.

I walked through the dark alleys, there was the usual night noise of modern india, television floating through open windows. In front of some houses, there were people sitting and talking, probably a post dinner relaxation time. Deepak Resthouse had a few young people sitting in the Police station like office, there was no sign of Deepak. I was welcomed with greetings of" Hello Boss" as I walked past them. I was tired and wanted to sleep on a clean bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and heard sounds of a bell, it seemed to be like the bell tied around cattle, I would like to say even more specifically a goat or a cow, and sure enough when I looked out my window on the well lit bastions of the fort there was a cow grazing through the few plants growing amid mainly rocks. I wondered how had the cow ever got up there so high, after a few minutes of munching the cow moved on out beyond my window on to the next window to probably wake and leave somebody else with the same wonderment.

The next morning when I woke up the day outside looked cloudy and I sat on my bed for a few minutes just looking out at the cool overcast morning.