BvHHS: MC. JAISALMER / JODHPUR JOURNEY 2018 no.5

9 Feb. / Jaisalmer is called 'The Golden City' as the architecture is created in the yellow sandstone

Bikaner – Jaisalmer 336 km.

My young Indian friend Sandy, who I also attended Bikaner 2011 when he helped his father to run the Guest House where I lived for a number of days. He now manages with his young age (25 years) to rund a relaxed, youthful and cheap guest house Dhora Rani overlooking the Fort, for the next 3 years.

I asked if he had a room with a view. We looked at a couple of rooms that were fine but they lacked a window with a view or an open door where I could sit and write and arrange photos. He sensed that I was not completely satisfied, so he led me from his own Guest House to a neighboring Hotel Prithvi Palace, with which he collaborat.

Guest House Dhora Rani with beautiful view to Fortet

Since 2011, Jaisalmer has really been newly built and restored. Next to my Hotel Prithvi Palace, they have chosen to rebuild in the old carved sandstone style, as labor is still cheap so you can afford to build in the traditional time-consuming aesthetic style we tourists come to enjoy.

We walked from Guest House to Hotel. So the standard here was a bit better but stiffer. They had a nice room away from the sun with a balcony where I could then sit in the daylight in the doorway and write in the alarm that now arises when they all the way around the hotel is building new houses. On Jaisalmer's behalf you can only enjoy all the new buildings that take place throughout the city. Tourism has grown.

Sandy insisted that I was his guest so he wanted to take care of my hotel stay as well as the dinners we enjoyed together. He showed the same grandeur and hospitality as my friend Saleem in Bikaner. When my stay was over I gave him an amount that hopefully covered the costs.

Jaisalmer Fort is build 1156 in soft yellow Jurassic sandstone. The photo taken from my hotel

Saleem has chosen to build and lived in his birthplace and made his future around the family core. Sandy has moved from town to a more internationally oriented city of Jaisalmer. He is more adventurous, something must happen, so he hopes that he soon managed to travel to France where he has some friends. But it is difficult for a less-favored alm. Inder to get a visa.

As a tourist it is probably one of the most casual and least-traveled cities with only 78,000 indb.

My rear wheel was flat, Sandy made me aware of that. I got it to a workshop where they tried to find the hole caused by the air slowly searing out. They could not find it. I chose not to take the chance, but asked for a whole new snake to be added.

Koen venter på at få sin daglige ration fast food

A small village outside of Jaisalmer

12 Feb. / The blue city of Jodhpur has become a bit deprecated by the economic reality

Jaisalmer - Jodhpur 295 km.

I had once again chosen to stay at 'Cozy Guest House', a 500-year-old blue-painted house in the heart of the Old Town, a little up the mountain side on several floors with a rooftop restaurant and views of the 'Meherangarh Fort'. An old guest house filled with Hindu paintings on the walls.

It was a bit of an attempt to drive the MC out of the very steep narrow alleyways with full catch. I remember from the last time what kind of trial I think it was. There is a small fear in the head that the engine may not have the power to cope with the ascension.

This time, 'Cozy Guest House' did not act like a breath of fresh air but a bit of a dusty past. Maybe because there were only a few young guests this time or I had become more fond of all the waste I thought had come in the area.

There should be a safe parking space here on the slope. But also a place where some pour their waste, to give it to others. 'Recycling'

Unfortunately, I did not experience this time the blue kick from Jodhpur

The kick it gives you when you look beyond a city in the shades of blue shades in clear sunshine, I did not experience this time. Instead, I experienced a city that was faded and the whole mood seemed more ashamed than when I was here last. Here I feel that the economic upturn has not benefited the poor in here in Jodhpur.

’Meherangarh Fort’.

Physical performances put into cultural frameworks

You pay 'Holy Money' for a bundle of green leaves to the sacred cows. The bound is then thrown into the second pile, which is then passed on directly to holy cows