Search for Solitude in India

Who would have thought one needs to travel 18hrs on a train, only to drive another 3hrs into the desert, just 90KMs from the Pakistan border, in order to seek out some solitude in India.

Two days in Delhi was enough. We were determined to experience the real India, and this elusive town of Jaisalmer was going to be a way to find it.

Before and during our trip, our friends Heidi and Rochy who travelled India extensively a few years ago, hooked us up with some amazing India travel advice. Tip number one - to go on a desert safari in Jaisalmer. We had some expectations about what this place would look and feel like… expectations that that were blown away.

If you can imagine for a moment, LA, NYC and Toronto street traffic combined, with triple the amount of people (not sure it actually is triple.. It could be more), odours like you have never smelled before (some amazing and some awful) with some of the best or worst cases of broken English (depends on how you look at it) and an entire population that stares at you (or takes pictures of you) as you pass by. Now, Imagine coming from that to… say…. Dundas (represent). Only this time, Dundas is a small town/gateway to the Thar Dessert.

Jaisalmer (or Dundas) was an amazing place to end up after an 18hr ride from Delhi.

·     Some noise and odour pollution (it wouldn’t be India without it) but not nearly as intense as Delhi

·     HOT HOT HEAT (not the band… but temperatures in the 40s)

·     But nowhere near the street pollution

Now, after getting off the train to the above, a short drive to Jaisalmer Fort and there was even less… except for the smell, that is always around and the heat (especially this time of year).

View of the town from the top of the fort

Ahh…… finally a little bit of silence.

We toured the fort (as you do in every town)and the local sights, took in some local cuisine and cruised around the narrow streets inside the fort that people have now made their homes. By cruise around, I mean get totally lost in these streets. This Fort was pretty sweet, It’s been around since the 11^th Century. You can feel the history in that place, but there is also this weird sense of newness to it.  Modern people, trying to live modern lives (as their means and society will allow), living amongst the ancient landscape. It’s really something and because this has already happened, I can say, this is a feeling and trend we have seen all over Rajasthan (and I would assume many parts of India…. We will let you know as we keep going).

While touring the man made lake, another one of the town's sights, we had another paparazzi moment, only this time the crowd blew up to about 30 people trying to take pics of Tal. One man even shoved his baby into her arms for a pic....... really what do they do with the pics!

Entering the alley way into the fort

people making their home in on of the side streets

Looking up at the fort from the streets below

Tals holding random put in her arms

People setting up shop in the fort streets

Beautiful detail in one of the havelis

After a day of touring the town, we took off the next day deep into to the Thar Dessert to a little spot called Khurti. We thought we had hit the solitude jackpot…… then we got to the Camel Safari compound.  A gated-in compound of 10 or so mud huts surrounding a clay courtyard. Ahhh... Even more solitude.

Side Note: its off season for tourism in India.

It was an eerie feeling approaching the Thar and seeing NOBODY… No tourists, no tour companies… just a whole lot of empty space and small families in tiny huts. That is the Thar Dessert for yah.

That eerie feeling stayed when we arrived at the compound waited about 30 minutes for the owner to come open up for us, It continued to stick around as a few hours ticked by and no other tourists showed up. That was it… Me, Tals and the owner’s brother, our driver and a few little kids running around with no pants on.

Then the eerie feeling past - We had finally stumbled upon true solitude and silence. After a private camel safari through a few villages, we ended up on the sand dunes for sunset, an amazing view and even better when we received our personal dessert songs. We even got to know our camels on very personal levels. I already miss the loud camel farts Bubbaloo and Lassoo would let go, almost in unison. I flat our respected their talents. Let’s change the subject before I get too emotional.

Our home for the evening 

One of owner's cute nephews....he hates pants

amazing walk though the desert dunes

the wind makes amazing designs in the sand

Our desert welcome song

Sunset over the dunes

Finishing our came trip

I was a bit put off when a Dessert dude cruised up with a bag of cold beers for sale. I wasn’t at the Jays game, I was in the middle of the dessert.. But good on him.

Cut back to the mud hut compound and our night continued with a private home cooked, AMAZING, indian feast made by the owner and some great conversation. Once we thought the evening couldn’t get any better we were getting ready to head to our room (aka mud hut) when the owner tells us to have the true desert experience we need to actually sleep under the stars so he set up a mattress on the roof for us. We slept on the roof of the compound under a dessert filled sky of stars. I thought cottage country boasted great skies.. this... was something else.

Waking up in the morning we were refreshed – physically, spiritually and emotionally…. Smashed some chai and toast and hit the road to Jodphur – just a quick PM stopover on our way to Udaipur.

In our search of solitude we finally found it amidst our bigger goal, of getting a real, true India experience. Next stop Udaipur….For some lance romancing and cooking classes by the lake

Namiste,

OOO_Jonny