By this point, we had enjoyed a lot of Indian food, some hot weather and some interesting places. However, for Jaisalmer, we were mostly interested in the Sam Sand Dunes, just about 30 minutes’ drive outside of town.

We quickly booked a jeep tour and headed out to the desert! The dunes did not disappoint. It was strange to see a sudden desert come up on the horizon and be able to access it from a main road. I can’t say that the desert stretched as far as the eye can see, because, frankly, it didn’t. The desert was big, don’t get me wrong, but you could easily walk to the end of it in about 20 minutes. Still impressive, though.

As we walked across into the dunes, we were spotted immediately by the touts we had grown so accustomed to in India. They were out in full force to sell everything from snacks to camel rides. (Point of advice, camels make this place one that is not friendly to bare feet. I recommend bringing sandals!)

We watched as costumed performers sang and danced and begged for tips. We enjoyed an ice cold water in the desert as we watched the sun set over the dunes. Then we headed back to our hotel and counted the day as a good one.

There were other cool places to see in Jaisalmer, which we quickly set out for. We took in the Gadisar Lake, which was near the place we met for the jeep tour. I found this one interesting mostly because of the giant fish that call the man made lake home. Apparently most Indians don’t eat fish, but like to feed them. =) The fish grow large and plentiful and are a lot of fun to watch.

Jaisalmer, like any other Indian city, also has a large fort, which we also scoped out. This was was honestly a little more decorative than some of the other forts we had seen, so that was a nice change.

We also spent some time looking at the Patwaon Ki Haveli and the Bada Bagh, two really beautiful pieces of architecture.

At this point on our journey, we had spent about six weeks in India, and to be honest, we were sort of itching to get out. We sped through the sites and booked our flight out of New Delhi, hopped a train to the airport and away we went.

We hope you will continue to follow along on our journey. Please check back soon to read al about our month-long vacation in Bali, Indonesia.

Travel Tips:
As I said, at this point of our trip through India, we were a little tired of India. We sprung for a nicer hotel, which did not disappoint. Hotel Roop Mahal, which had great food, nice room (with ac) and was in a good location. The price was steep for India at around $14 per night.

Transportation: We took an AC 3 Tier class train to from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer, which cost about $7 per person. Remember, if you want to book a train in India you need to do that as far in advance as possible. For help in booking train tickets, you can always e-mail us, or check out seat61.com and click on India on the left hand side.

For Jaisalmer, we actually didn’t hire a driver and just talked with the autorickshaw guys for the one-two times we wanted to ride instead of walk. This is mostly a walking city, so no need to secure a tour guide or driver. Your one-way trip in an auto-rickshaw should cost you no more than $1-2. We did book the jeep tour out to the Sam Sand Dunes, which cost us about $5 each.

Daily Budget: Our daily was $40.08 for 4 days including train travel, accommodation, food and all attraction entrances.

Photo taken using Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens

While touring North India via the Indian Railroad, we spent some time enjoying the beautiful and detailed architecture of the walled city of Jaisalmer witch is located about 100 miles west of the Pakistan border. While there, we made an afternoon trip out to the Sam Sand Dunes about 1 hour away for sunset.

The dunes are not as expansive as we had hoped and, due to the culture of India, were littered with trash. They were also spotted with people trying to get paid for singing & dancing or selling camel rides, cold drinks or strangely, something we would never really crave in the desert from our experience – potato chips.

Because of all this, it was not as beautiful or as peaceful as we might have hoped a subset sand dunes visit would be, but it was a unique Indian experience all the same and, we felt, worth a visit if you are in the area.
The picture here is of one of the dancing women with a boy selling potato chips from his bag walking towards some other travelers to offer their services in hopes of making some money for the day.

Travel Photo Of The Week Sponsored By Tamron USA.

For more information about Tamron and the lenses we use, check out our sponsors page here.