Jaisalmer

We were up earlish for us to make the most of the last day we had left in Jaisalmer and I was feeling better so I was starving! Had a feast for breakfast..a bowl of cornflakes and an omlette! We then met our driver for an action packed day of sightseeing to make up for the last couple of days! We headed first to see some beautiful and quite intricate Jain Temples. Most you pay a small fee to enter and a larger fee in comparison to take in your camera. The first was Amar Sagar Jain Temple a decent drive out into the desert. As with most temples we have visited, we left our shoes at the entrance . We looked around the beautiful temple, all the buildings carved out of golden sandstone. It was a really beautiful temple and very peaceful. There were very few tourists around. We then headed not to far down the road to Ludarwa Jain Temple. The shoes came off again and this time Rudi had to leave his belt off also as no leather allowed inside the temple and for some reason my water bottle had to stay out! Again only a couple of tourists there but a small group of worshipers who were quick to tell us not to take their photo inside the main temple. We looked around the outside and again the sandstone carving of the building was amazing. We were not sure if we could enter the main temple as this is were the worshipers were chanting and doing their thing so we crept up the stairs and got ushered in by an old man in a Gandhi outfit! He talked to us quite a lot about the building and told us they worship the cobra. He took us around the main temple and explained a lot to us that we couldn’t understand. He was nice though so we followed and nodded our head to amuse him! I asked for a photo with him and then we couldn’t stop him! He kept asking for more! He showed us a hole in the wall that we had walked past previously where 2 real cobras live. He told me to look inside it and if I see the snake it is very lucky! I briefly snuck a quick look but to be honest didn’t really want to see some cobra pop out in front of me! Rudi had a better look but still no Cobra. Apparantly the Jain men queue up early in the mornings hoping to sight the Cobra. From here we headed more out into the desert to a place called Bada Bagh Cenotaphs which means Big Garden. It is far from what we would call a garden but I guess it was a desert garden! It had many tombs of I’m sure very important people, I think they were emperors. They were amazing domed and more pyramid sandstone ‘rotundas’ scattered all over the hill side! Each had a separate emperor tombs and on the plaque it had carvings of women beside a man on a horse. The number of women on each tomb was the number of wives each man had. The most we saw was 10! A young boy befriended us, well really tried to sell us a piece of rock but he did talk to us a lot about the place. When we refused to buy his rock he started asking for money…I gave him a banana as he looked hungry! Next stop…Lake Jaisalmer ( that’s me being too lazy to google the name!) (Rudi: Gadisar Lake -thanks to postcard!) there were beautifully decorated camels at the entrance gate and there owners were quick to offer us a ride around the lake in the camel carriage! We refused and decided to go by foot! The start was very beautiful with more carved sandstone buildings. We were quick to make a friend on our walk around the lake. A stray dog! We had no food on us except a banana so we thought we would see if it would eat it but wasn’t interested. Still followed us though and Rudi caved and bravely reached out a hand to pat it! The poor dog I don’t think had ever been pat before and as soon as Rudi stopped it whimpered for more. It followed us for awhile until we kinda got lost in the middle of farm land around the lake! We kept wandering as we could still see the lake and were hoping it was a circuit…it wasn’t. We crossed the lake via a stone wall not sure if it was made to walk across and then ended up amongst some houses and could no longer see the lake! Rudi reassured me he hadn’t got me lost yet so I put my trust in him and he kept his word and we found our way back safely, minus the dog! We then decided to take a peddle boat around the lake as there were some temple like structures in the middle of the lake! We spent 1/2hr peddling around in a blue swan…Rudi could just fit his legs in, on the other hand I was very comfy! While Rudi took photos I did all the work and peddled us around, no just joking! It was really beautiful. We headed back to find Sud and he asked us if we wanted to go to a silver market, of course I said yes! Sud took us down some small streets to a place no tourist would ever find to what appeared a normal house. The man that greeted us explained his family had been making silver jewellery for many generations and showed us the process. The silver comes from Pakistan, and as there are no banks near the border silver is still traded. He then took us up stairs and offered us chai tea. We haven’t been brave enough to accept tea from anyone yet but have tried it at the hotels and its very sweet! He then showed us 6 bracelets and asked us to tell which was real silver! We got one right out of six. He showed us how to tell by rubbing them on a black stone (touch stone) and the brighter the mark the more silver. He then asked us what we wanted to see and I chose earrings thinking they would be the cheapest! Out he brought a bag with 100’s of earrings and emptied them on the mattress on the floor we were sitting on! I was in heaven! We sorted through them for ages picking out the ones we liked then he weighed them and priced them! Next came some rings and then bracelets! We bought ourselves some Christmas presents and left a lot broker! Was really nice stuff though! We headed back to the hotel and Sud asked if we wanted to go somewhere to see the sunset. Rudi ran inside and grabbed his tripod and off we went again! We were up on a hill with more cenotaphs similar to the ones in the morning but this time it looked over the city and had a great view of the fort! The sunset was nothing too amazing as the sky was too smoggy! Was still a beautiful spot though! As we left the grounds Rudi got stopped by a Indian woman who spoke very good english who explained to us she was a bollywood director and she wanted him for a movie they were filming tomorrow! He was flattered but had to refuse her offer as we leave tomorrow morning for Jodhpur! As Rudi rubbed in they wanted him and not me we drove back to the hotel where we had a small feast as we were starving from a big day of sightseeing! We are enjoying the view from the rooftop of our hotel for one last time as we listen to a dogs howl echo across the neighborhood!