Fortress of the Sun, and an Afternoon at Sambhali Trust

This is a second attempt at publishing! The internet like electricity and hotwater is like a box of chocolates in India....

PART 1: MEHRANGARH FORT

First Impressions

We started the morning at Mehrangarh Fort, which towers about 400 feet above Jodhpur. I was impressed before we even got inside. The modern steel walkways and security checkpoints have been painted the same colour as the fort's stone, so nothing looks garish or official. 

Walls Carved From the Cliff

Rao Jodha began the fort in 1459, though most of it dates from the 1600s. The walls are up to 36 metres high and 21 metres thick, and they rise straight out of the rock they were cut from. We climbed through a series of gates, one still scarred by cannonballs.

At the last, the Loha Pol, small red handprints mark the royal widows who committed Sati on on Maharaja Man Singh's funeral pyre in 1843, a sobering moment. Sati had already been outlawed for 14 and presumably they were drugged out of their minds and NOT in serenely calm 📷 [gates, walls]

Our Own Pace

We were given headphones for an audio tour, which let us stop where we liked and take as long as we wanted. We spent a couple of hours. Mehrangarh means "Fort of the Sun", after the sun god the ruling family claim descent from, and it's still owned by the royal family. The current maharaja, Gaj Singh II, took the throne in 1952 at the age of four.

Palanquins and Women's Quarters

The museum is full of royal treasures, including the gilded palanquins (palki) used to carry royalty. We also got a glimpse of women's life in the fort, with its screened windows. Restoration is ongoing, and it's great to see.

PART 2: THE SAMBHALI TRUST

What It Is

Then it was off to the Sambhali Trust, the charity behind so many of our activities. It was founded in 2007 by Govind Singh Rathore, who began with 16 women under the thatched roof of his own house. Today it runs empowerment centres in Jodhpur, Setrawa and Jaisalmer, and has reached tens of thousands of women and children.

How It Works

Women usually spend about a year learning skills, and children get scholarships, so some stay with the Trust for many years, learning to read and write. They get opportunities they might otherwise have not.

Our Afternoon

Our visit was a paid activity, which is a good way for guests to help. We tried tie-dye, which in Rajasthan is called bandhani, where tiny knots in the cloth resist the dye and leave patterns.

We watched a cooking demonstration, enjoyed local musicians and dancers,

 ate far more food, and had henna painted on our hands. 

We were especially impressed with the Khartal playing -  an ancient Indian percussion instrument made of a pair of flat, rectangular wooden sticks often referred to as Indian castanets. Players produce sharp, high-speed rhythmic clacking by holding both blocks in one hand and snapping them together using a thumb and finger technique. Most prominently featured in Rajasthani folk music and devotional bhajan singing, 

The Shop and the Foundation

The women and children make crafts, which are sold in the shop, and I came away with a few pieces. The Sambhali Development Foundation, started in 2024, also runs a café and guided walks to help the Trust support itself.

Volunteer If You Can

There seem to be fewer volunteers this year, and it's something I'd recommend to any traveller wanting to make a difference. I'm glad we could contribute as tourists. ❤️

Stuck in the Sand and a Camel Ride

The Family Behind the Charity**

Most of our next few days centre on one family. On the way to Jodhpur we stopped at Setrawa, the Rathore family's ancestral village. They run Durag Niwas guesthouse, and Govind Singh Rathore started the Sambhali Trust in 2007, which provides education and skills for women and girls in Rajasthan. 🐪

Stuck in the Sand

Our coach got stuck on a sandy road, and the  locals all came out to help dig us free, with curious kids all around. It turned out we were five minutes' walk from the next village and our destination and we'd just taken a wrong turn. The deep sand was scorching, so we scampered between grassy patches.

Lunch at an Oasis

Dev Bagh is a beautifully kept haveli, and the drama was worth it. We were greet with a traditional greeting and lunch was all local and vegetarian, with fresh yogurt and vegetables I couldn't name. They do homestays too https://durag-niwas.com/devbagh/index.html

Camel Caravan

The next activity was probably my most favourite thing so far.

Each of us mounted a decorated camel led by a handler in a white kurta and turban. I picked one with flowers on its head and it led most of the way. I was the first in the group to get up, which is a very scary two movement maneuver,  because the camel stands back legs first. One of our group fell off getting up but she got straight back on, but will be feeling it for a while. After 40 minutes or so of the most exhilarating ride through the local landscape we reached a ridge, where we watched the sunset with masala tea. Along the way we saw deer, a falcon, butterflies, and I saw a fox!🦊

Music and Dinner

Back at the haveli, local musicians played while we ate a simple buffet. We left about 8 pm, with the bus parked further away this time, because locals were getting stuck in the sand as well.

India After Dark

The two-hour drive to Jodhpur showed another side of India. It reminded me of a nightclub, in daylight the roadside shops look dusty and sleepy, but at night, all lit up, they look inviting and exciting. On arriving  in Jodhpur it was very hairy traffic again was a cacophony of lights and beeping, like Delhi with even narrower streets.

Art Deco room in 200 year old Haveli Hotel

Our hotel Heritage Kuchaman Haveli

is a 200-year-old building with a hotel feel, and my room is art deco, which I love, having grown up in Napier, the Art Deco Capiltal of the world. Hot water to clean off the camel ride and desert dust,  then sleep. 

Five Mansions for Five Sons

Our last stop before leaving Jaisalmer was Patwon Ki Haveli. Our local guide was informative and very funny about haveli life and just surviving in the desert. It's actually five connected havelis, started in 1805 by Guman Chand Patwa, a wealthy Jain merchant who traded in gold and silver thread and brocade. Some say opium and moneylending funded it too. Each of his five sons got a mansion, and the whole lot took 50 to 60 years to finish. Even the front door is around 200 years old. 🏛️

Bling bling ceiling

Air Conditioning, 1805 Style

The house was built for the heat. Two floors sit below ground, where it stays cool, and more than 60 balconies keep the air moving through the building. Water was also collected from the roof

. 

Secret Safes hiding behind bling 

The Patwas ran a huge business, with trading activity across about 350 centres that much money and precious material changing hands, the family needed security. Hidden behind a sliding door and covered by a painting is a secret safe, and there's a much larger one in the chambers below ground.

Locks

Locks aren't something that usually catches my eye, but we've been padlocking our hotel doors every night, so I'm paying attention. Traditional Indian locks are works of art. Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, the "City of Locks", makes around three-quarters of India's locks, hand-cast in brass, including puzzle locks and ones with false keyholes. 🔐 and two keys required.

Making a Living in the Desert

Our guide talked about how people survive here. Water is scarce, and for much of the year it's too hot to do much, with summer temperatures reaching the 40s. Then the cooler months bring the tourists. As far as I can tell,  tourism is the main industry and the season is short. There are also wind and solar farms, some mining (limestone and gypsum) and a little farming and livestock.

Who Owns What, and Dinosaurs

The five havelis are now in different hands. The Archaeological Survey of India took over some in 1974, one is a private museum, and others are family homes and craft shops. The museum also has some surprises. A news cutting on display tells how scientists found fossils of a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur in Jaisalmer, about 167 million years old and named Tharosaurus indicus after the Thar desert.📸

View from the roof

Golden Fort, Golden Sunset and One Very Well-Wrapped Bedspread

Up to the Golden City

Our day in Jaisalmer began with yoga on the hotel rooftop, and a very pleasant breakfast, with the best service we have had here in India,  then it was a  bus up to the fort. 

Jaisalmer is called the Golden City, and you can see why. The fort is built from yellow sandstone that glows honey-gold at sunset, and it's one of the world's largest fully preserved forts. It's also a "living fort", with about 4,000 people still living inside the walls. We were told residents can even own the land in there. It was founded in 1156 by Rawal Jaisal and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 🏰

Hawkers and a Bedspread

We walked up through hawkers and hundreds of would-be guides. According to Jane, It is a very  quiet tourist season so competition is high however I believe the vendors co I ld be n efit greatly from reading some sales techniques, especially about too many choices. I wanted a bedspread like the one in our hotel room, but with no price tags and high opening prices, shopping here is difficult when you just want to look. I walked away from one shop (in photo below) then got waylaid down an alleyway into another, where I found a lovely silk bedspread in turquoise tones, recycled from saris. They started bargaining at around NZ$280. I wanted to pay ₹5,000 (about NZ$100) and we settled at ₹6,000 (about NZ$120). It's wrapped so tightly that I won't see it again until I'm home, which will be a lovely surprise.

Why We're Here

After a rest at the hotel, we headed back up at 4:30. This is probably the moment to explain why we're all here. These tours began with Rachel and Bhooi. Rachel was Bhooi's wife and Jane's best friend. Rachel died accidentally in 2013 and Jane and Bhooi have kept running these tours in Rachel's memory, and to raise money for her children's education in New Zealand. The itinerary is built around Rachel's favourite places, and she loved this fort. She loved watching the sun go down over the desert from a terrace with pizza in hand.

Sunset, Pizza and Bats

So that's what we did. The toppings were just like back home, and the bases were bready but very light and absolutely yummy. We'd seen lots of bats roosting in the fort, and as we sat down to dinner there was a changing of the guard: the pigeons went to sleep and the bats came out, so we watched them coming and going against the sunset. It was a glorious evening. 🌅 🦇

Back to the hotel, then up for yoga in the morning.

Bricks, Cranes and a Painted Ceiling: On the Road to Jaisalmer

A bit of yoga to start the day, then a very long haul: over 300 km to Jaisalmer, with our driver Puneet at the wheel.

First stop was a brickworks. These are not announced by signage they are literally just straight next to the highway. In previous years this tour group have been able to participate and make some bricks but everything is weather dependant when making, sundrying and then baking them. The clay is dug, mixed with water into a mud and pressed by hand into wooden moulds. The raw bricks dry in the sun and air, usually for 3 to 10 days, then get stacked in a kiln and fired. The tall chimney we saw belongs to India's most common kiln, the Bull's trench kiln, a design from a British engineer in the late 1800s. It burns continuously, with fresh bricks going in one end while finished ones come out the other. India makes well over 100 billion bricks a year, so there are plenty of these furnaces around here. 🧱

A shallow dent called a "frog" is pressed into the top of each brick as it's moulded, and it usually carries the maker's mark, which is how a brick can be traced back to where it came from. The moulding is mostly done by contract labour, paid per 1,000 bricks and often recruited by a contractor who offers an advance (similar to the way shearing gangs operate in nz).

Cranes

Then it was on to a man-made lake that's now a sanctuary for migrating birds, home to thousands of demoiselle cranes. They're the world's smallest cranes, and the French name means "young lady". Every year they fly in from Central Asia to spend winter here, arriving from about August and leaving around March. The lake is one of several old reservoirs built by villagers centuries ago and are now protected conservation reserves 🦢

Lunch was at a desert oasis restaurant where I picked up some souvenirs. 

Then we rolled into Jaisalmer, the Golden City, named for the honey-coloured sandstone it's built from.

We're staying at Hotel Heritage House, which is the best accommodation and the best service of the trip so far. We were once again greeted with flower garlands and a cool drink.

The rooms have gorgeous painted ceilings, and the cleanliness is a high standard. I've told Jane I could just about spend a whole day just staying in my bedroom.

Dinner on the rooftop with a warm breeze was very pleasant. 🌙

Maths on the Median, Camels in the Desert: Mandawa to Bikaner

Yoga

Yoga again to start the day, then another 300 km on the road, this time to Bikaner on the edge of the Thar Desert.

The road itself was a parade. Pilgrim buses blared loud music (it's Navratri, so there are plenty of devotees on the move). Overloaded trucks groaned past, stacked high with crops. A camel plodded along pulling a cart, and more cows wandering across the road like they owned it, which in India they pretty much do. 🐄

We also passed green fields, possibly drought-hardy crops like peanuts, pearl millet, guar and moth beans.

Our driver was even pulled over for speeding, but he produced an exemption card that lets him travel at 80 km/h instead of 60. At 60 it would take a long time to get anywhere!  The seemingly random speed bumps were less welcome, and often sent our bottoms flying off the seats. 😅

As we rolled into Bikaner, the median strip had become an outdoor maths lesson. Every 100 or 200 metres stood a large 3D symbol (a plus, a minus, a circle, a greater-than-or-equal-to) with an English explanation. No photo, sadly, because we were moving. 📐

Lunch was at a very cool Harasar Haveli

where we also stayed the night. built from local brick and carved sandstone.

Then it was on to Junagarh Fort. It covers around 13 acres (5.28 hectares), which makes it huge. It was built between 1589 and 1593 by Raja Rai Singh, a general in the Mughal emperor Akbar's army, and the city grew up around it. Unlike most Rajasthani forts, it sits on flat ground rather than a hill. This a black and white photo of it from the museum so you can get an idea of its size.

We drove in through the gates, and our sightseeing centred on the Prachina Museum, which was founded in 2000 and fills part of a hall built in 1937. It's full of royal costumes, weapons, silverware and instruments from the ruling dynasty. 

This lady's husband wanted a photo with me... so I asked for a photo with her:-)

next stop. 🐪

That was the National Research Centre on Camel, just outside the city. The centre keeps several hundred camels of four breeds, each suited to different work. Bikaneris are strong and good for milk and draught work. Jaisalmeris are built for speed and stamina. Kachchhis are good milkers, and Mewaris are load carriers. We watched the herd come home from grazing in the desert and saw how the males, females and calves are kept separate. The females are milked, but only for a few litres a day.

At the end we tried camel milk ice cream, and I bought a camel milk lassi to keep up my goodbugs while I'm away. It was fascinating and very hot, so we sheltered under a Bodhi (peepal) tree, the type of tree that Buddha was sitting under when he reached enlightenment and from whence his adopted name came.

After arriving back at the hotel,  🌳A five-minute stop at an ATM turned into thirty when we ducked through a doorway and were waylaid by Shiv Swami, a traditional and contemporary miniature artist, and his gallery, much to the inconvenience of our guides, who had lost us. His English was impeccable and he was fascinating to listen to. Shiv comes from a family of traditional Bikaner painters and learned the craft from his father and grandfather. His work has been exhibited in England and France, and he's credited with holding the Guinness World Record for the world's smallest painting in 2002 and 2003. He paints with squirrel-hair brushes and makes his own pigments from minerals and plants, and his work is best viewed through a magnifying glass. 🔍

📍 Bikaner Miniature Arts, on Municipal Road near Kirti Stambh Circle, Bikaner. www.bikanerminiaturearts.com