Jaisalmer

The perfection of location… sitting in a balcony that is nothing else but a soft sofa-seater that is approached by crumbling on your knees out of your hotel bedroom window:) Take that! Legs sticking out of the balcony, all tucked with soft embroidered pillows and covered with my warm shawl, feeling almost like the wife of a maharaja:) Ah, one more small fact - the room is just inside the Golden fort of Jaisalmer, on top of a huge artificial hill that was built by the order of the maharaja. The balcony is overlooking the entire city of Sand. 

Apparently the people did not like their king too much, so they threw him out of his own palace and settled within the fort walls themselves (that is at least the history version of the car driver). Today a part of the fort are still houses of locals, part is diverted into a museum, the rest are simply ruins or history heritage hotels. The Golden city (as it is called due to the colour of the houses that so naturally mingle with the surrounding desert) is unforgettable, unimaginable, majestic! 

It's streets are so narrow that no cars can enter them. They almost remind me of the Venetian labyrinth of passages and streets. It is such fun to see how autos mingle with cows and bikes and pedestrians… a mission impossible at first look but they know their ways:)

It's a special feeling to be in the most Western point of India with a pure desert ahead you. The next stop behind those far away laying sand dunes is Pakistan. No wonder that ages ago this very city was the point for opium, diamonds and gold trade:) The richest man in the city was actually the biggest opium trader and you can still visit the opium sell-room in the museum of his house:) There is a rumour that you can still find a marihuana shop in Jaisalmer. Well, did not come across it:) 

People are different here too… As if everything shrinks in the desert - less water, less greenery, skinnier cows and skinnier, shorter people … The desert dries everything out! You have to mind your head in every single old house. Feels as if you are abnormally tall:) Bumped my head numerous times in this Golden city:) Shall always be fascinated by the colour of this city, the bright red sarees of local woman, the subtle ways how they cover their face with a transparent shawls to protect themselves from the heat and sun, their heavy silver jewellery, royal raga music sounds, numerous safari jeeps on the roads, deep sharp penetrating look of the local faces, the sound and feel of desert hot wind on your face, the dryness in your own skin… that's my way to know I am right in the hearth of the Indian desert! A dream to come true - finally a tick for The Golden City, definitely one of the must-see while in India and a place I shall always carry in my memories! Leaving with a feeling of complete fascination and respect for the hard ways of desert life and the strength of the spirit in the eyes of local people…