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.