A recluse in Jaisalmer - Day 2 (Kuldhara, Khaba and Sam Sand Dunes)

I left Badal house after a heavy breakfast of paratha, pickle and curd and headed towards the bus stop to catch the 11 o'clock local bus to Jaisalmer. On the way to the bus stop, I caught a glimpse of village life in Khuri. It was a Sunday, but a few children were playing in the school ground, which also had to serve as their playground on the weekends. They waved at me as I passed by them. There are two schools in Khaba, a primary school and a senior secondary school. Kesar Singh told me, on our way back to Badal House from the desert, that the senior secondary school had been built by Jaswant Singh, a BJP leader and former Finance Minister, former Defense Minister and former Minister of External Affairs. He is a native of Khuri village, I was told. He also told me about the scarcity of teachers in these schools, only two teachers in primary school. I was wondering whether the politician deserved a word of praise for his initiatives or to be condemned for his negligence on this.

I boarded the Jaisalmer-bound bus from Khuri at the scheduled time. It took us about 1 hour and a half, and this time I could enjoy the beauty of the landscape which was entirely dotted by windmills. These windmills are one of the latest developments in the area that provided electricity to the villages. Now, after I reached Jaisalmer's Gadisar Chowk, I had to walk to Hotel Jaisal Palace near the Fort. Its a decent, fairly priced hotel very near to the Fort entrance, with clean rooms and bathrooms, very good staff and roof-top restaurant with a view of the Fort. I got a room for Rs600/- only, had a bath and left for a stroll. I was also looking for a taxi that could take me to a tour of Kuldhara, Khaba and Sam. I had a healthy breakfast of fruit salad and banana milk-shake at The Trio (I was told this was the best restaurant in the city) and coming back to the hotel, I booked a taxi (Tata Indica) for Rs1200/- (while a couple of others were asking for anything between Rs1600-Rs1800). Malik, the 22-year old taxi driver, picked me up from Hanuman Circle at 2:00pm and we headed for Kuldhara.

Kuldhara, now a famous tourist spot and a shooting site for a couple of Indian movies, is actually one of those villages that have been deserted for more than 150 years now. These villages belonged to Paliwal Brahmins. I had already come through a couple of stories about these villages on Internet. One anecdote goes like this: the inhabitants of these villages were treated with cruelty and were heavily taxed by the ruler of the area. Moreover, the village chief's daughter who was believed to be very beautiful caught the eye of the ruler. To escape the dishonour, the Paliwals vacated the villages overnight and migrated to some place which is not known yet. Since then, these villages are cursed and deserted. The landscape now serves a beautiful place for photography.

Kudhara ruins

Kudhara ruins

Kuldhara is a place where one would want to be alone, to feel the inherent melancholy of the place, to hear the silent cries of the ruins. It was my bad luck that just before we arrived, a school bus full of kids had reached there for a Sunday picnic...wow!! But I got a couple of pics of the kids as a workaround, nonetheless :)

I also got to know about a couple of Bollywood movies that were shot here - Kachhe Dhaage was one of them. Saif's upcoming movie 'Agent Vinod' has also been shot here recently, as I read on the Internet. Having nothing much to do, nothing much different to click in Kuldhara, we left for Khaba - another deserted village with similar stories. It is actually same as Kuldhara as far as ruins are concerned, but in addition, there is a small Fortress on a hillock overlooking the village. This fortress has been revamped and it now houses a small museum with ancient artifacts from the village ruins on display.

Khaba Fort

We parked the taxi near the fort and I went off to stroll around the ruins and click some pictures.

Khaba Ruins

The fort offers a breathtaking view of the vast expanse of the village and the surrounding areas.

Museum in Khaba Fort

There were a couple of kids inside the fort that, apparently, tried to fool the lone tourists around. One of them approached me and said "Hello", I replied in "Hello" and the next thing he said was "10 rupees"...!! I asked him "Why brother?" in Hindi, which surprised him (I don't know why, I don't even look like a foreigner). Then another guy came and asked me if I'd bought the tickets to the fort. There was no ticket, I knew...so I simply ignored him, clicked some pics around while Malik (my taxi-driver) kept himself busy reading about the artifacts, the fort and the village. When we climbed down the Fort, Malik said: "This was better than Kuldhara, I liked it". I felt in him a desire to learn about things, to read...may be he can learn more and become a full-time tour guide for this place, I thought.

We still had a lot of time till sunset, so we drove towards Sam. The sand dunes in Sam are more widely spread, just adjacent to the road and almost at level with the ground, unlike Khuri which is  at some height. We parked the car in the parking and Malik decided to stay in the car only while I indulged myself in the golden delight of the sand. He had already warned me about the local camel-men and safari operators as in how they fool people around. I anyways had no plans to ride a camel (I had done it in Khuri) or a jeep for a safari. I just came to Sam so that I could see how it is different from Khuri. Escaping the hordes of local tourists, ever-convincing camel-men and all those mini tent-cities that have been put up there by myriad of resorts and hotels, I let myself get lost between the dunes.

Sam Sand Dunes

Sam Sand Dunes

Few tents by some resort @Sam

Its very hard to find a sand dune in Sam that is not littered and not marked by footprints. Its also very hard to find a perfect point where you can take a beautiful desert shot from.

I had walked for about 2 kms into the desert, and I could see other groups of sand dunes at a distance where I very much wanted to go. But that was not possible without a jeep or a camel. And staying at Sam just for the sunset had no point, so I walked back to the car parking, pounded the sand out of my shoes and headed back to Jaisalmer.

I liked being alone and experiencing the wilderness till now, but being a city-dweller I now wanted to just relax and chill out at my hotel room and sleep the day's fatigue off. I thanked Malik, bidding him goodbye and slipped into a local sweet shop that he had recommended for Pyaaz Kachori and Jalebi. But again, my luck had me savoring Daal Kachori, Mirchi Vada and Imarti instead. Imarti took a lead, being cooked in "desi-ghee" and very rich in taste. Back at the hotel, I rested for a while, had dinner on the rooftop restaurant of the hotel, watched TV and slept.

For the next day, I had plans to get up late in the morning, visit the city, a few "havelis" and the cenotaphs at "Bada Bagh". My departure was scheduled at 5:15pm, so that was the day when I had to cover the rest of the things.

A recluse in Jaisalmer - Day 1 (Khuri Sand Dunes)

I'm not a recluse per se, but I couldn't find any suitable title other than this...reason - this was a solo trip of mine to Jaisalmer. Being not a backpacker's trip in true sense (as it was planned more than a month in advance), it had a certain degree of freedom of choice. I had a few places in my "To-Visit" list, but I wasn't sure if I could cover all of those in the time I had given myself. So, a bit of planning with a bit of flexibility to allow changes on-the-fly was essential. I had a long weekend (a Monday being an optional holiday in my office), so that had to be it. I booked my departure train tickets for Friday evening and return train tickets for Monday evening.

As a habit, I always acquaint myself to the place before my trip. I was told by the blogs over the web about two deserts - Sam and Khuri. Sam is more popular (being bigger than Khuri), thus more touristy, more crowded and more littered. I wanted to be all alone in a desert, so I opted Khuri. I also came to know about Badal House in Khuri village where I could stay and get my desert safari arranged from. And then there was a bit of information on two deserted villages - Khaba and Kuldhara, which I was dying to visit after reading anecdotes about those and seeing the pictures on the web.

I boarded Delhi-Jaisalmer Express from Old Delhi Railway Station that leaves Delhi at 5:30pm and reaches Jaisalmer at 11:00am next morning, halting at about 36 stations in between. The train is in pretty good condition and you get clean sheets, pillows and blankets in AC 3-tier coach. After reaching Jaisalmer at 11:30am, I called up Badal Singh and he told me to either wait for the local Khuri-bound bus, scheduled to arrive at Gadisar Chowk (a 10-minutes walk from the station) between 1:00pm and 1:30pm, or hire a taxi to Khuri. Bus fare was Rs.20 and taxi would charge somewhere around Rs.500-600, so it was quite clear that I was to wait for the bus. There is no sign-board on the bus to Khuri that says, well, "Khuri"...as these are privately-owned buses, so I had to ask somebody in every single bus. The bus came at 1:30pm, crowded but not fully packed. I boarded the bus while a group of Korean tourists who were also going to Khuri preferred traveling on the roof, so they climbed up. After an hour and a half, I got off the bus at Khuri bus-stop, where Badal Singh was already waiting for me. I don't know how but he recognized me instantly, and so did I because I had seen his photographs on the web.

Badal house is a very simple, modest setup of a couple of mud-huts with roofs made of straws and hand-woven beds made from used "saree" or ropes. There is a small but very clean toilet-cum-bathroom where I freshened-up. By the time I changed into fresh clothes, my meal was ready...yummilicious "bajre-ki-roti" a.k.a. "baajri", "urad-ki-daal", "kadi", "ker-ka-achaar", rice and curd. I was all set to dig my teeth into "baajri" first, and then savour kadi-chawal, but finishing even one "baajri" was a heavy task that took eternity, and all my desires to relish other things on the table just got washed away. There was an English woman who has been coming to stay at Badal House for more than 20 years now and she has become a part of their family. We chatted for some time while they cleaned-up some green-leafy vegetable for dinner. Badal had already arranged for a camel (Babloo) and the camel-man Kesar Singh waited for me outside.

Khuri Sand Dunes as seen from a distance

I initially planned to stay in the desert for sunset and come back, but then I was told by the English woman that going to the desert and coming back after sunset (not spending the night there out in the open) was not even half the fun. That charged me up and there I was riding the camel, talking with Kesar Singh as we walked towards Khuri Sand Dunes, just about 2 kms from Badal House. There were already a couple of tourists at the dunes preparing to shoot the sunset, so we by-passed them and reached the far end of the desert, from where I could see not a single soul other than Babloo and Kesar Singh.

Form here I could see the beautiful dunes on one side and a vast expanse of barren land with sparse vegetation on the other. This land is a part of Desert National Park. I could spot a couple of brown deer and a fox at a distance.

We camped near a bush (where Kesar Singh has been camping), that was just a bush with no tents around and the bush was only meant to shield us and the fire from the blowing winds. Babloo rested nearby munching on his fodder and Kesar Singh went off to fetch some firewood...we had to stay there for night and cook our food..."this is going to be some fun" - I told myself and carried on with my camera to click some sunset pictures. I strolled around, wherever I wanted, clicked a lot of pictures, stood there in silence gazing at the huge orange-going-red fireball of sun setting behind the horizons. Cool breeze was making it all the more surreal...and it makes a haunting sound while passing through a dense bush, a different sound. I came back and chatted with Kesar Singh as he prepared food for us - Bajre ki Roti, Daal, Rice, Aloo ki Sabzi and chhachh which he brought from his home.

I asked him if he knew some folk-songs and he offered me a folk-tale instead, and a long one on that. I couldn't understand much, apart from the names of the characters and the concluding line that talked about some place where they still had footprints of a camel's three legs engraved on a stone. We then had food in stark darkness (the bonfire light was not just enough, was ever diminishing). Kesar prepared our beddings - simple cotton-filled mattresses and thick razaai (cotton-filled quilts). We slept under the star-studded sky, and it was actually chilling outside, but the razaai did its job pretty well (I actually had two of them :P).

We woke up well before sunrise the next morning. I again set-off for sunrise pics while Kesar Singh prepared tea, without milk and really sweet. After that we headed back to the village, but this time we walked through the desert instead of bypassing it, and it came to be far more mesmerizing than it appeared the day before. I had the actual "desert" feeling only when I was standing amidst the dunes, with other dunes surrounding. Golden sand with no footprints and beautiful ripples appeared to be God's most meticulous art-work that should leave mortals like me dumbfounded.



And then I got my dream-shot:



It was a lovely morning, and my experience of last night made it all the more memorable. I came back to Badal House, freshened-up and had my breakfast of paratha with curd and pickles. I had plans for the day, I had to visit Khaba, Kuldhara and Sam also (if time permitted). I needed a cab for the day and Badal tried calling some of his friends to arrange a cab, but all were pre-occupied in some or the other wedding function. So I was left with a local bus to Jaisalmer as the only option, and from Jaisalmer I could hire a taxi for other visits.