Jaisalmer, West Rajasthan, October 24th 2014

We’ve gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. At Jodhpur we stayed in a quite expensive two-story suite at the ultra-modern Raas Hotel — mini bar, sunken bath tub with views, butler service, pool, spa, gym. Today, we arrive in Jaisalmer, a small fort town in the far west of India, separated from Pakistan by the Thar Desert. Our hotel is a very traditional Haveli called Garh Jaisal, situated in the Old Fort, and at just $110 per night including breakfast, it’s less than one fifth the price of the Raas.

Jaisalmer Fort — aka ‘The Golden Fort’, on account of its sandstone colour which at sunset takes on its golden hue — was built in the 11th century. Our Haveli was built into the walls of the citadel as an abode for wealthy Jain merchants, before being converted to a hotel 7 years ago.

As no cars are allowed into the fort, our baggage is unloaded into a waiting TukTuk and we squeeze in alongside it. How these TukTuk drivers manage to avoid hitting anything is a mystery. Half of all the TukTuks in Jaisalmer seemed to be attempting to enter the narrow fort gate while the other half were trying to leave, and no-one giving an inch. A policeman was on duty but all he did was blow his whistle incessantly, adding to the chaos.

The room I’d booked — the Maharani — turned out to be tiny. The loo was larger than the bedroom. Memsahib was not impressed. While I quenched my raging desert thirst with a king-brown-sized Kingfisher beer on the rooftop bar, she was downstairs harassing young Tarun the manager. Ten minutes later he showed us a much larger room called Sweet Purple. “Your husband especially requested that room,” said Tarun. “If only he’d have asked, we could have told him it’s small.” Thanks, Tarun.

That afternoon, our guide Madhu arranged a trip out into the Thar Desert — to the village of Sam — to ride camels into the sunset. Hundreds of camels, thousands of people on the dunes, not a westerner among them. My drover was scruffy, wearing jeans, sandals, a salmon-pink shirt and a baseball cap. Where’s your turban, mate? He then borrowed my Canon 60D and turned out to be an excellent photographer. Go figure.

After the sunset, back in Jaisalmer, Madhu walked us home past the infamous Bhang Shop. The speciality: a cannabis lassi. Legal here, and the government runs one of the shops. I declined — the place didn’t look that inviting, even to me. The Sweet Purple room beckoned.

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Read next:
→ Poppy Day in Rajasthan — Jodhpur, the Raas Hotel and a Jain temple
→ They Sikh Us Here, They Sikh Us There — arriving in Delhi
→ All India posts — the full Rajasthan journey in order