Jaisalmer (day 11)

After​ the breakfast we hit the road towards Jaisalmer (the hotel is located outside of the city). Here we first went to an artificially constructed lake. This is where our guide fed the many catfishes. We also saw some burial places. This is rare in India, because Hindu's only cremate the dead bodies. Only isn't Jaisalmer a Hindu city, but a muslim city. After that we continued to the Jaisalmer fortress. This is a big and beautiful fortress, on top of a rock. So it's a nice 360° view on the area! The fortress is unique, because it's the only fortress where people still live in (about 5000 people). After seeing the fortress, we walked through the city. Our guide was friendly enough to show us the non-touristic part of the city. So we could see the real day-to-day life in the city, and not the way of life they show to the  tourists. Ofcourse he also showed us the beautiful houses, some even already a few hundred years old. The houses are so beautiful beacuse of the very detailed decorations on the façades and balconies.

Afterwards we were brought back to the hotel to relax for a few hours (in other words diving in the swimming pool... duhh!). At the end of the afternoon we were picked up again to go for a camel ride. This was only 60 km (one hour) driving to the desert. Don't expect the desert to be dry sands, on the contrary it's remarkably green this desert. Here and there there are dry sands and sand dunes. This is quite special to see. After an interesting car ride we finally arrived at the camels. From here on we rode on the camel towards the sand dunes. During this ride I saw about 5 gazelles and some desert beetles. Ofcourse we also witnessed the sunset in the dunes. After getting back to the car the most exciting thing started: driving back in the darkness for an hour long. Public lightning is unfamiliar here and mopeds / motorcycles, tractors and trucks all drive without the lights on and besides that you have the cows which lay down on the road and pedestrians that cross the road... These are difficult to see. Not to mention the driving behavior from the people in this country... Driving with driving beam and catching up is always possible, even just before a corner, a hill or you name it! So a very thrilling ride, but we survived! Besides we drove to the restaurant where we had lunch this afternoon. Here we had some nice dinner and after that we were brought back to the hotel. Tomorrow we have to get up early again, because the journey continues to Bikaner. This will already be the second-to-last city we will be visiting where we haven't been yet (we will get back to Delhi again, from here on we will fly back to the Netherlands).

Day 10

Travel overview

Day 12