India Jaisalmer Holiday and Travel Guide.

Holiday Guide to Visiting and Sightseeing the Golden City of Jaisalmer including Jaisalmer Fort and Palace as well as trips out to the sand dunes in the Thar Desert

Jaisalmer is a small Indian City located way out in the Thar Desert and only a short distance away from the India - Pakistan Border. The City is named after Rao Jaisal who created the yellow sandstone Fort and City in 1156. This fort was built on quite soft sandstone and clay foundations and is becoming rather fragile - there was no cement involved when it was erected and the leaking drainage system is now infiltrating the whole structure and weakening it.

Getting to Jaisalmer. By Car. There is a good well-surfaced road between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer - the trip takes around 4 hours - however there is very little except desert and scrubland on most of the trip and no particularly attractive places to stop for drinks and food on the whole route. A car and driver will probably cost between 2800 Rupees and 3200 Rupees (plus as always a small tip). Apart from convenience one distinct advantage of this method is you can work out several places on the outskirts of Jodhpur to stop off at and visit on the way - for instance go via Osias with it's temples and then on via Phalodi.
Indian Railways. A service does exist on Indian Railways which links Jaisalmer (JSM) with Jodhpur (JU) although it is quite a slow trip - it's probably best to take an overnight sleeper compartment.

As of June 2009 (re-check the following for any changes) Train 4059 starts at Delhi (1740h) and goes via Jaipur (23.57h) and Jodhpur (0515h ) to arrive at Jaisalmer at 1100h. Another train 4810 goes from Jodhpur at 2300h and arrives at 0500 - both these trains run daily. Jaisalmer's railway station is just 2kms outside of the City. Going the other way train 4060 returns to Delhi via Jodhpur at 1715h and 4809 goes to Jodhpur overnight at 2315h.
Tourist Buses. These run frequently - again mostly from Jodhpur - and are a low cost way to get about. Our only comment is from what we were told by several people staying at our hotel who used this service - they were distinctly unhappy for several reasons not least the lack of room and the continual noise - and were certain they would not use tourist buses again in India.
Flying to Jaisalmer. Currently there are no commercial flights going anywhere near Jaisalmer with probably the nearest commercial airport miles away at Jodhpur. One internal service to Jaisalmer was due to start in 2009 - flying 3 times a week - but this never really "took off" apparently due to lack of passenger interest. For what it's worth the airport is located around 9kms from the City.

Accommodation/Hotels. There are lots of places available to stay at whilst on holiday in Jaisalmer many of which advertise themselves on the Web  - with the choice of either staying within the city fort area or perhaps staying just outside the Fort's walls. One of the big problems up in the Fort is that the drainage system is failing - this causes water  to seep into and weaken the Fort's foundations - exasperated of course if many tourists are staying there. Therefore you might consider NOT staying inside the Fort, but use an outside hotel or guesthouse instead. Quite a few of the hotels and guest houses have roof-top restaurants so you get great views of the Fort.

Generally about Jaisalmer. The town is quite compact with everything sort of clustered around the Fort's walls - the streets are really interesting to wander through - lovely old houses and havelis to look at as well as the normal bustle of a typical Rajasthan town - especially in front of the Fort's main gate where the Manik Chowk bazaar is located. We found little problem with touts and begging etc. especially compared with some Indian locations like Agra and we generally enjoyed our 5 days holiday at Jaisalmer. Due to the proximity of the Indian / Pakistani border there is a huge amount of military activity - army lorries here there and everywhere and often you can hear and spot Indian Air Force jets whizzing about. Actually on the trip up from Jodphur by road the desert is not nearly as empty as it might appear - especially nearer Jaisalmer you can see many tanks and other essential military stuff playing about.

 

Jaisalmer Fort, Palace Museum and Jain Temples. The Fort is occupied by around 2000 people so it's a living fort - and so there is no entrance fee and it's always open. However within the Fort there is a small entrance fee plus camera fee (i.e. about 70 rupees) for the seven Jain temples and to go into the Palace Museum the price is an awful 250 Rupees. As far as visiting the Jain Temples - two of the temples are open between 7 a.m. and midday whilst the other five (which are all interconnected with corridors and only have two entrance points) can only be visited between 11 a.m. and midday i.e. one hour only. Since day trips and coach parties will target their visits for this opening and therefore inundate all seven temples if you are staying at Jaisalmer a good time to visit the "one hour only" ones is around 11:30 and take a look round the other two at your leisure later.

 

Jaisalmer's Havelis and Streets. When wandering around Jaisalmer's narrow streets always look up a little at the buildings - the design and lattice work as well as various shapes of the houses and old havelis is really excellent. The havelis were built by rich merchants and so on during the 18th and 19th centuries - three of the most beautifully designed are NathMalji ki Haveli, the Patwa Haveli and the Salim Singh ki Haveli.

 

Gadi Sagar (Lake). This beautiful lake or sagar is located on the south eastern edge of the town just off the Jodhpur-Jaisalmer main road roundabout - it's easy to find and only a ten minute walk from the Fort or about 30 rupees in a tuk-tuk. The Lake was built around 1367, is fed solely by rainwater and was originally designed to provide the town with fresh water. The area is flanked with quite a few temples and several long ghats and generally speaking is a nice shady peaceful place to wander down too perhaps after a hot day's sightseeing out in the desert.

There is no charge to go in, however at the entrance gate you will usually find someone selling loaves of bread (don't pay the initial asking price which can be as much as 200 rupees - ludicrous - around 50 rupees for 2 loaves is plenty). You need this bread as once at the lake's edge if you go left a short way to the rocks you can then feed the many huge fish - these fish will actually take the bread out of your hand. There are paddle boats available if you fancy a bit of free-floating - charges vary according to how much they can get from you. Quite a lot of wildlife uses the lake as well as camels, pigs and cattle - if you sit down under a tree on one of the Ghats you should fairly soon enjoy the sight of kingfishers plying their trade. It's easy to spend quite a lot of time enjoying the peace and quiet at Gadi Sagar and/or you can also walk out into the desert area a little way or simply meander round the lake.

 

The following three places of interest can all be visited by making one sort of circular trip.

Bada Bagh. These are a collection of cenotaphs built on a small hill-lock - they are in memory of Jaisalmer's previous rulers and their families. The entrance fee is around 50 Rupees plus you may have to pay a small amount to use a camera - the cenotaphs are open daily. If the cenotaphs fall into dis-repair/collapse they are repaired once only - then left to take their chances. Just by the car-parking area next to the cenotaphs is a single temple - Bhaironji Temple.

 

Amar Sagar Palace. This 18th Century Palace and three Jain Temples are located around 7kms northwest of Jaisalmer - easily visited after you have been to Bada Bagh and on your way to Lodurva. Entrance fee was around 60 Rupees including use of a camera.

 

Lodurva. Lodurva is a small walled temple site located a little way out in the desert - around 15kms south east of Jaisalmer. The site contains a few rebuilt Jain Temples with the main temple dedicated to Lord Parshvanath. It's open daily and the entrance fee is around 70 Rupees including using a camera.

One of the main features is a beautifully carved 8 metre high Toran (arch). Equally well known is the Kalpataru Tree which is sat on a series of square platforms. The tree is made from an alloy of eight metals with copper leaves - it's rather difficult to see the leaves as it's all been surrounded with wire presumably to keep the birds away.

 

The Thar Desert. These are just a few photos from a trip out into the desert - actually the area you can reach legally is just scrub land with little to see. One of the main trips out is to go and look at the low sand dunes someway towards the border. Probably the real benefit from going out into the area is to say you have "been there and seen it".
One of the big things that are on offer in Jaisalmer are the Desert Safaris, Camel trips and so on - these can be day or afternoon trips into the Thar Desert or longer affairs overnighting for several days. Having been on camels several times this did not have any attraction for us but we did hire a jeep and driver and went off into the desert for a few hours to take a look at the sand dunes and so on. Our driver actually still lives a little way out in the desert and he took us to visit his parents out in his village - where we were given a cup of tea and something to eat which was nice of him.

 

More of our Holiday, Travel and Touring Guides about India:-

 

Please see our Home Page for our India related topics and towards the end of that page there are also links to our other travel sites about England, The Canary Islands, Cyprus, Portugal's Algarve, The Greek Islands and Athens, Egypt, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangkok, Bali and several other Indonesian Holiday Islands.   Please visit our Resources topic if you wish to Email Us and/or to see our site privacy policy.

www.india-travel-guide.co.uk