Tag Archives: Jaisalmer

Teeter-Totter Train, Take Two

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We finally arrived in Delhi, India, after eighteen hours on the train from Jaisalmer all the way to the Old Delhi Station.

The ride was relatively uneventful. We had take-out from Hotel Surja that included rice, paneer, pakora, korma, and chipatis. It was very good, and we finished supper with cappuccino Bourbons, which are the best cookies here.

First class was a relief, although I didn’t think much of the mouse that crawled down my curtain.

Today is Independence Day here, so the taxi drivers had a day off. We were hoping for a pre-paid taxi, as Sandy Jerath, owner of Jerath’s Villas, said that he could send a driver but it would cost twice as much as a pre-paid taxi at the station.

Well. Even Sandy’s drivers had a day off today. So Dad called and Sandy told us what to do. We got on the Metro and rode to Green Park station. We got off and walked a little way to the white temple. Sandy picked us up in his car and drove us to Jerath’s Villas. We went up all the trillion million stairs to our rooms and decided to rest. At about five-thirty we went outside, had ice cream, and went to the park down the street.

We returned in time for supper at seven-thirty. It was good, and we once again had Bourbons to finish it. Yum! Ciao!

Super Supper

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Yet another superhero title (see “Power Post,” August 12, 2012).

We didn’t really do anything today, so I’m going to focus on our supper. It was cool outside, in the low eighties, and lightning was still flashing in the west. We went to Hotel Surya, right next to our hotel, Surja, to eat. We got our menus and sat on the still-wet plastic lawn chairs. We ordered a butter naan, a garlic naan, a banana lassi (for Mom), a Maaza (mango soda by Coca-Cola for me), a Fanta (for Ethan), a bottle of water, vegetable pakora, jeseera rice, aloo mutter, vegetable korma, and paneer tikka masala. I predicted that it would cost 710 rupees (about US$14.20).

It was good. True, the naan was really chipati, but it was still good. The sunset was spectacular because of the late-afternoon rainstorm. The sky was pink and purple and blue and then black. We could see the silhouettes of the monster-sized bats as they flitted about. The lizards caught flies in the light of the lamp. The people from our hotel watched us eat. The lightning made a backdrop for the dark gray clouds. The moon rose behind a cloud, and we could see a moon beam. Old, 70s television shows were discussed (not like Ethan and I’ve seen any, really) after Ethan asked who Samantha Stevens of Bewitched was.

After we ate most of the food, we paid the 710 rupees (YES!!!) and left, but only after seeing the men on the rooftop kneel towards Mecca and hearing a Justin Bieber song. Sigh. At least the giant bats didn’t touch us.

Ciao!

Bob

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That’s what I’m going to call the man at the Om Restaurant. He didn’t tell us his name, but Ethan and I told him ours. We had an interesting conversation while the four of us enjoyed our ice cream.

Bob works at Om. He’s the cook and was very excited when he found out that Mom teaches cooking: “Oh my… goodness!” He shrieked. “I am the cook… I could teach you Indian cooking!” He grew up in a village of fifty people on the border of Pakistan. He said that there is no electricity and the water comes from wells.
“The people, they… cut stone and raise cows and camels,” Bob said. “I came to Jaisalmer for money.” First he worked in a restaurant in the old city, but its owner married an Australian and moved to her country.
So Bob went to a hotel. He didn’t like it because the tourists were getting drunk. One day a man (who was drunk) grabbed him by the back of the neck. Bob immediately knew what to do: he whacked the man with the hot frying pan he was holding. And then he left.
Bob’s only been working at Om for a month but has been working at his English for years. He said that, in his village, the kids get no education and they don’t know how old they are. His younger brother is trying to get an education, and Bob is earning money for him as well as his mother and the rest of his family. He gets the last of his rupees.
Ciao!

Power Post

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Mom said that sounded like a super cereal. I said that sounded like a blog-entry title. Whatever.

The point is, we’re out of power. We lost it at around 8:15 pm after one hour and fifteen minutes of waiting for supper. We lost power twice already today, from ten to eleven and two-thirty to three-thirty. Those were planned, though, to ration out electricity in Rajasthan. This last one started with a flash of light and then… darkness except for where there are annoying people with batteries.

It’s only been an hour, true, but it seems like a lifetime. At supper at the Little Tibet restaurant after the power went out, the couple at the table next to us started talking loud (-er than before). They were playing Bananagrams and used his lighter/flashlight to see. They’ve been everywhere we have in the same order in India (“this trip,” he said) except for Udaipur. I’m not sure where that is other than it is in northern India.

We’re already drenched in sweat now that we’re inside and it’s so stuffy. Ugh. I hope they solve the problem soon. Ciao!

Okay, this kind of loses the effect but the power is back on!!! It is 9:50 pm. Thank goodness!!! Ciao!

Camel Ride: Not as Smooth as a [Flying] Carpet Ride

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In case you’re wondering why there wasn’t a post yesterday, we were abducted. By camels. In the Thar Desert. And left to die.

All that is true except for the abduction and the dying parts. We did ride camels yesterday and today. We left at around 2:30 yesterday and went to a cemetery, a temple, the empty village, and the camel village. The empty village used to have people until the 1700s or 1800s when everyone packed up and left overnight. Now it is “of archaeological, historical, and architectural importance.” Next to it is the Jurassic [Cactus] Park. We didn’t go there.

The camel village is in the middle of nowhere. We got there after a long, long ride in the Jeep driven by Amin. We had chai tea in someone’s house and then got on our camels and rode off. Goonpat and a man rode on the first camel, then Dad, then me, and then Mom. Ethan didn’t ride in our line.

Before we crossed the road, we saw the goats of the village heading home. We also saw skeletons of goats and cows. After we crossed the road, we followed a dirt track for about an hour until we arrived at the dunes. Ethan was disappointed because there were other groups of people there and because we were so close to the main road. We could hear the cars drive by we were so close.

Ethan and I jumped off the dunes (sometimes Ethan jumped with Goonpat, the eleven-year-old boy who came with us) until we had some chai tea and supper. After supper we looked at the stars, heard a song by Amin, the man on the camel, and two who came in the Jeep, and went to bed. Our beds had actual sheets and blankets, which I didn’t think I would need. Well, it got cold (in the lower 80s).

We woke up to watch the sunrise, which wasn’t very impressive, and had breakfast which was fruit, toast, and cookies. Then we got on our camels and rode for two hours because Ethan had wanted to. Because my camel kept slamming my leg against Mom’s camel, I got to ride seperately. Ethan was mad because he couldn’t kick his camel hard enough so he had to be roped to Mom. On this ride, one of the two dogs chased foxes and antelope to his heart’s content.

We finally piled back in the Jeep, said good-bye to the camel man, Goonpat, and the others, and rode back to Jaisalmer. I don’t think a shower has ever felt so good. Ciao!

Toast Post

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Today was toasting hot. It spiked to 100° Fahrenheit and felt like 110. We’re inside, though, in the air-conditioned Hotel Surja that serves… toast! For breakfast this morning, Ethan had a chocolate-banana pancake, orange juice, masala tea, and toast. Mom selected a cheese omelette, tea, orange juice, and toast. Dad ordered scrambled eggs, tea, OJ, and toast. I had a masala omelette, tea, and- you guessed it- toast.
After going to the Jain temple complex and buying two wall-hangings from a woman (!) named Bobbi, we wandered around inside the fort. Dad had Ethan and I stand next to a cow for a picture. Ethan was wimpy and stood two feet away from it. Dad tried to pet it like he had another, but this one (the cow, not Dad) was in a foul mood.
We now had a chance to be prey to the vultures/shopkeepers. One young man came up and said, “Sir, I can help you spend your money. We have lots of ways.” Dad said, “No, thanks.” The man persisted. “Please sir. Shirts and pants, twenty rupees.” Dad shook his head again. The fellow was desperate and said, “Please, sir, is there no way I can rip you off?”
We finally reached home, did schoolwork, and got hungry. Not even chocolate cookies could cure this hunger, so Ethan ordered plain (boring) naan and I had toast. I finished teaching Ethan an important math lesson and went to look at the latest gossip on Yahoo. Mom went to clean clothes and my closest male relatives went up to talk with Raj, who is the face of Hotel Surja. Suddenly someone knocked on the door of my parents’ room yelling “Hello? Hello?” Confused and slightly annoyed, I replied, “Yes?” They barged in and strode over to the window. The balcony’s cushion and pillows were left in a heap on the floor and with a short explanation:”The rain is coming.”
What!?!? We’re in the middle of the desert! The cloud I see as I put the cushions under the bed in a nice, neat stack is light years off, farther east than the train station. The cloud that was suddenly at the window was, however, not light years off. Were those birds or trash flying around against the white that was all I could see? And why was I getting
wet? I rushed over to the window and discovered that the wind was blowing the rain in just before Dad returned from the roof. I quickly moved Mom’s backpack and my Kindle out of the soak zone, and soon Dad had grabbed a towel and stuffed it at the bottom of the window and I went to go answer Ethan’s cry for help. His bed and belongings were getting soaked and the towel he had put at the window wouldn’t stay put. I went back and forth between those two rooms, pointing out another leaky window and holding down a towel. My room, where Mom had been, was fine except for the rattling windows because it was facing west. 
This gave a new meaning to “When it rains, it pours” because it hasn’t rained in Jaisalmer for about a year. Dad said we went to the desert to escape monsoon. Well, it caught us. The thunder and lightning are still going, but it’s not so hot that you could toast a piece of bread on the sidewalk. Ciao!

J-Cubed

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I woke up at- oh, this hurts- 3:20 am take a shower so we could be in a taxi at four. Our train was supposed to leave at 4:45. It left at 6:30.
Between these times, we saw a pickpocket trying to rob a man sleeping on the platform. We think he failed.
Once on the train, we went to sleep and when I woke up, I put my hand on the window. It was the inner of two. And it was almost hot.
Our train finally chug-chug-HONKed into Jaisalmer. The brown buildings were a welcome sight after hours of red dirt. We got off and maneuvered our way to the exit and the man holding the sign that said “Jery.” Four people, four suitcases, four backpacks, and one hat piled into the Jeep. The vehicle slowly wove its way up narrow streets, into the fort, through four gates,  and to a small parking lot. We got out and walked the fifty meters to Hotel Surja. After the necessary obsessing over our rooms, we settled in, cooled off (we were already drenched with sweat after only fifteen minutes outside), and waited through several short power outages.
Dad decided we needed to go explore, so we left the fort and walked up and down a few streets. Thankfully we didn’t get lost. After another short power outage, we went up to the roof and ordered a round of lassis. I should have remembered the hot “chocolate” of Mandore Guest House. It was only a lassi with hot cocoa powder mixed in. Yuck. And that should have prepared me for the custard at desert which was like hot pudding with, once again, hot cocoa powder mixed in. I’m sure breakfast will be better, though, since they have toast, which I pretty much eat by the loaf. Ciao!