The Golden City - Jaisalmer
Jaisalmer is called the Golden City - literally everything is built out of this caramel coloured sandstone. There is again a fort on a hill but this fort is completely inhabited and one can find many hotels, restaurants and shops inside the fort walls. We stayed in a beautiful place again - two nights inside the fort walls.
Built in 1156, the Jaisalmer Fort is the second oldest in Rajasthan. Rising to almost 90m with strong and imposing crenellated sandstone 10m high wall, the fort has 99 bastions, 92 of which were built between 1633 & 1647. The wells within the fort are still a regular source of water.
Jaisalmer fort offers the usual tourist shopping opportunities (albeit more expensive than previous towns along our route). Janine managed to find a traditional Indian painter who would sell her some of his rock colours, which he had already ground to a fine powder. This is the same mineral powder that they mix with gum resin and paint in fine detail on silk and special paper. She also went for a heena painting on her hands. She loved her time with the woman who painted her hands as she learnt a lot about the life of an Indian women in India. One thing about arranged marriages in this part of India is that girls get married off from ages 7 to 17! The girl is only allowed to go to her husband after age 11, but if the parents manage to marry their young daughter off to a much older man then they bypass the need to pay a dowry. Men appose women having their own businesses and women often have to attempt these ventures in secret.
We managed to chill here and do very little - mail, eat well, the usual.
Built in 1156, the Jaisalmer Fort is the second oldest in Rajasthan. Rising to almost 90m with strong and imposing crenellated sandstone 10m high wall, the fort has 99 bastions, 92 of which were built between 1633 & 1647. The wells within the fort are still a regular source of water.
Jaisalmer fort offers the usual tourist shopping opportunities (albeit more expensive than previous towns along our route). Janine managed to find a traditional Indian painter who would sell her some of his rock colours, which he had already ground to a fine powder. This is the same mineral powder that they mix with gum resin and paint in fine detail on silk and special paper. She also went for a heena painting on her hands. She loved her time with the woman who painted her hands as she learnt a lot about the life of an Indian women in India. One thing about arranged marriages in this part of India is that girls get married off from ages 7 to 17! The girl is only allowed to go to her husband after age 11, but if the parents manage to marry their young daughter off to a much older man then they bypass the need to pay a dowry. Men appose women having their own businesses and women often have to attempt these ventures in secret.
We managed to chill here and do very little - mail, eat well, the usual.
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