The Fortress City of Jaisalmer

Many centuries ago a great King took a hunting trip in the desert of Tar. His mind was abuz with the troubles of his people and the suffering of his lands due to the invasion of the Muslims from the north. As he walked over a dune he saw hidden away a Lion toying with its prey, a young goat. He watched with shock as the mother goat came towards the great lion and attacked, doing what she could to defend her innocent kid. The great King saw that the Lion was frightened by the passion of the goat mother to protect its young and set the kid free. From the distance appeared an old Sage who spoke to the King. "As mother protected kid so shall this land protect your people." and so was built the great Fortress city of Jaisalmer.

We arrived here yesterday from Delhi on a 19 hour overnight train journey. The contrast of the beautiful carved city filled with gentle people, cows and cool breezes is mind blowing from the heat, noise and suffocating population of the the streets of the capital.

Our flights were quite stressful as we had some problems with our tickets and visas not scanning in which saw us running across airports and diving through doorways for 3 flights. Our first day in Delhi we managed to make it as far as the hotel lobby for breakfast before unequivocably deciding to return to the room, keep our swollen feet raised and sleep for another 12 hours.

We bravely ventured out after catching up on rest and shopped on the streets of both Old and New Delhi, took a ride through town on a rickshaw with a pleasantly tame monkey and visited spice markets in the sweltering heat.

We are travellling with a lovelly group of 7 other people from England Australia and Spain who, although all quite different manage to be getting along incredibly well.

Last night after an afternoon exploring Jain temples and palaces we dined together on the balcony of one of the forts turrets on plush carpet and cushions in the cool gentle breeze of the night air. This city is stunningly beautiful and we were all filled with joy and celebration as we ate some of the best food we have ever tasted, drank cool beer and sang songs together into the night.

Above is the sunset from our rooftop private dinning area and below a holy man grinding stone in the great jain Temple inside the fort of Jaisalmer.