Sam = :-(

You can’t go to Jaisalmer and not go to see the supposedly ‘spectacular’ sand dunes of Sam!

 But what I realized is that for someone who spend all his childhood in a Desert town (a k a myself) – Sam  (at least the more popular bits of it) – is really really sad!

 Firstly the sand at the dunes is not really good.. then there is the terribly loud and messy tourists that have no respect for the beauty of this desolate landscape...

 .... and last but not the least the horrible attitude of the local hoteliers and camel riders (waiting to pounce on any tourist and rip them off their money). 

All in all it’s a complete waste of time and effort, if you want to see a good desert go somewhere else!

Pokharan Fort

While driving down to Jaisalmer we stopped at the city of Pokhran to check out its famous fort.

 

 

 Sadly this ancient caravan town is today only known to most Indians as the testing grounds of the country's controversial nuclear arms programme.

 

 

 The locals here talk about how the Indian army covered the craters in the ground formed due to the tests with mountains of onions as they absorb nuclear radiation which they feared could have escaped in to the atmosphere! There is however no mention of this in any media reports and the Indian government maintains that there was no leak of any nuclear radiation. Hopefully the government is right although it's difficult to believe that they would actually have admitted to any such disaster especially given the international pressure that India was under just after the tests.

The tiny temple town of Osian

 Around 65 km from Jodhpur along the old highway to Jaisalmer is the tiny temple town of Osian.

 The city has groups of small but extremely interesting temples scattered all across its fabric

 

 

The vertical shikharas raising above the temples and Lingam shaped posts (like the one below) depict a particular architectural style of  this region of Rajasthan.

 

... the Sachiya Mata Temple on the hill (below) is clearly the main focus of the city..

.... but the main reason for my stop at this middle of nowhere city was to see the amazing Kund (stepwell)of Osian...

 

 

 

It lies towards the south and belongs to the same age of the main temple complexes, we can only speculate that it could have been used for religious purposes.

Royal Chatris @ Mandore

Some 8 km north of Jodhpur, is an old city that was the capital of the Marwar kingdom before it shifted to Jodhpur - Mandore.

There are no architectural traces of that era, but there is a group of red sandstone buildings that belong to a later era. The structures look like temples but are actually tombs of the royal family of Jodhpur.

 

 The largest (above)  is the mausoleum of Ajit Singh.

The buildings of this complex are designed with Islamic touches to the traditional Hindu temple style.