Jaisalmer- The golden city

The stunning view of the fort from our hotel roof top restaurant.

On top of the fort looking out onto the city.

Fort streets.

Inside the old palace.

Sunset view that greeted us on the walk back to the hotel.

Relaxing on the patio off of our room!

Jaisalmer lies in the middle of the Thar desert, at the most westerly edge of Rajasthan, less than 125 miles from the border with Pakistan. We actually flew into the air force military base instead of an actually airport and were met on the runway by a large group of men with guns who escorted us off the runway, waited with us for our luggage and then escorted us out of the base. Jaisalmer is Rajasthan’s oldest living fortified city and staying here is like taking a step back in time to the days of the Arabian Nights. The first thing you notice when you enter the city is the huge really impressive yellow fortress built across the top of the hill that is in the centre of Jaisalmer...it seems to rise out of the desert like a sand castle. It is called the golden city due to the yellow sandstone used to build the fort...amazingly enough, a quarter of the city’s population is still living in it! Some 2,000 people (and I'm guessing an equal number of cows) live within it's walls.... we have seen so may forts so far but all of them long since abandoned so it is cool to see how they once functioned and how people live in them. Inside the fort you'll find a bizarre labyrinth of streets, alleyways, courtyards, temples and palaces. It's not only the oldest fort in Rajasthan, dating from the 12th century, but it is the oldest inhabited citadel in the world. Unfortunately, it is now facing ruin. For the past 20 years, Jaisalmer's old buildings have been collapsing on an alarming scale, victim to the overuse by the people living and working in the fort as well as the tourist industry. The sheer volume of people living in the fort and particularly the hotels and guesthouses are putting too much pressure on the city's ancient drainage system and the increased water consumption has left the fort infrastructure in danger of collapse. Seventeen of the 99 bastions of the fort have already collapsed...the fort walls are subsiding and palaces and havelis have come tumbling down. The city is now one of the world's most endangered heritage sites.

For this ethical reason me and Sue chose to stay at a guesthouse outside of the fort as not to contribute to this problem... Our hotel has a wonderful roof top patio which gives us an amazing view of the fort(something you can't get while staying in the fort!) We arrived at 2pm after a quick flight from Jodhpur( so glad we weren't on that long train!) We walked into the fort and spent the afternoon exploring it's streets and alleyways. It is nice and quiet here and very laid back! We even found a cute little clothing shop and I found some surprisingly nice clothing all hand made by this man and his wife...some of the shirts you could slap a designer label on them and sell them for $150 in Calgary - but here $4! We just had dinner at the hotel at the rooftop restaurant and tomorrow plan on taking a an afternoon/evening desert safari to see the sites and watch the sun set behind the dunes!