I'm very excited to participate in the contest 'Choices! What will it be? #42' as this is my ninth post in the serise. As per the rules of contest I would like to invite two lady fellow Steemians to participate in the contest @eveetim @paholags
My choice is
I don't remember when I heard the word desert first time. It might be in our geography book where we were taught about a desert called Thar in Rajasthan. It was in the border area with Pakistan.
Upto my school days I had attended only one overnight tour to Digha with out any family members. Afterwards I had been to two or three small trips with in the state.
After my completion of graduation exam I was just wasting time without any concrete work in hand. One day I was told that my friend is going to visit Rajasthan alongwith his father and cousin. I convinced my mother and joined the team. At that time I knew that there was a place called Jaisalmer with golden fort ( 'Sonar Kella' a Bengali movie produced and directed by Great film director Satyajit Roy) and palace near a complete desert. It was about 135 km north east of Jodhpur. Our tour itinerary was Kolkata - Agra - Bharatpur - Deeg- Bundi- Kota - Ajmer - Udaypur -Mount Abu - Jodhpur - Jaisalmer - Jaipur - Delhi - Kolkata a 28 days trip. Traveling in 1980 was horrible mostly our journey in Rajasthan was by bus and road condition was also bad. As per our plan we started from Jodhpur in late morning by train towards Jaisalmer. The rail track was meter gauge. It was just like century old rack going in snails speed. On the way we saw only green chilli harvesting. Few peacock and camels were seen. Local people mainly Brahmin and rajputs were passengers. We reached Jaisalmer in the afternoon. By the time we checked in RTDC lodge it become dark. We stayed in the dorm. We meet many people from many places of the world.
Next day morning we started our visit to the living fort as it houses 3000 families. There are many palaces which were built by sand stone. It was built without any cement and sand. It was some interlocking technique made the building stand. There was a museum with very good collection of armour and weapons. One can see very long guns called camel gun. There are temple inside the fort with around 6000 statues of gods. There are lot of shops of local items. I bought one traditional jacket at reasonable price. We also visited artificial Gadi Sagar lake made for the scarcity of water. There was huge well with chain pulley inside the fort which is no more in use.
Next day we arranged a private car to visit the Sam sand dunes in Thar desert which is just 40 Km away. The driver also accomodate one Australia alongwith us. It cost us arround INR 250 for car rent. We reached in afternoon. We could not see anything other than hips of sand. The dunes changed its shape due to prevailing wind from one direction to other. We climb and ride the sand hips and piles on camel black. Now a days camel carts are also available. It is amazing to see ones shadow becomes tall as sun leans into west. Sunset in Jaisalmer Sam sandunes may be a lifetime experience.
I can't resist myself from the temptation of disclosing the fact that total expenses of the entire tour was just INR 1472 per head. In those days there were no online or card payment system. We carried travelers check.
Unfortunately I lost my friend in pandemic. His father left us longtime ago. His cousin brother is still in touch with me. We always repent as we don't have any photo of the tour.
Thank you for reading my post.