A 5-Day Adventure: Jaisalmer at Night and at Dawn

The next day we drove for nearly 9 hours across the barren landscapes of Rajasthan to make it Jaisalmer, a beautiful city on the edge of the Thar desert and not too far from the Pakistani border. As we drove closer to the city, we were frequently passed by military convoys and tanks. We passed the time by playing 500, an Australian card game similar to the American game Whist.

            We arrived in Jaisalmer after dark and checked into the hotel, which was a charming place on the outside of the city (and much warmer than Pushkar). 

Door of the bathroom in our room

Our room

We went for a walk in the city, to find the lay of the land, and as we walked we started to hear blaring Indian pop music. We kept walking to find a street filled with sari-clad women and well-dressed men, following a large truck with huge speakers on the back, blasting out tunes. Everyone was dancing and having a grand old time. I started dancing like an idiot (as I am prone to do when I hear loud music with a good beat) and soon the women were approaching us and pulling us into the circle, encouraging us to dance. We danced through the streets of Jaisalmer for a good half hour, before we decided we should probably find some place to eat and stop party crashing.

Party in the streets

            By the time we finished dinner and went to bed it was past midnight, which turned out to be less than ideal as we woke up the next morning before 6 am to go see the sunrise over Gadisar Lake. Gadisar Lake is a small, manmade lake within the walls of Jaisalmer. It was absolutely freezing when we woke up, and we all bundled up in jackets and blankets, but the sunrise over the water was worth it.