Day 3: Tanot Mata Mandir, Longevala, Sam Sand Dunes
We woke up a little earlier today and had tea and went through with the routine of getting ready. It was a bit chilly outside however there wasn’t any fog today. We headed to the breakfast area and the menu here at Moomal was also the same. Poori Bhaji, Poha and with some bread toasts. The taste however was much better than the Jodhpur hotel and we had a heavy breakfast. We left hotel and I got the petrol tank topped up as today was also going to be a long and lonely road trip. Then I withdrew some cash from the nearby ATM and started our journey onwards to Tanot Mata temple. It was about 120 KMs from Jaisalmer city and the idea was to cover the same in 2 hours. Soon, we were on the outskirts of the city and were cruising along the highway. It was a small single road with no divider but was maintained in a pristine condition. The road was almost empty with occasional trucks passing by and both sides were surrounded by sand. Soon, we could see huge wind mills covering both sides of the road and we couldn’t help but make a quick photo stop. Due to higher than average wind speed, this area is conducive to large number of wind mills and is among the world’s biggest wind mill projects.
We were moving along at a very fair pace and were on target to reach Tanot by 11 Am. I was on Jio Prepaid and till now the coverage was excellent. However, when we were about to reach Ramgarh, the network simply vanished and we couldnot locate any signal what so ever. Ramgarh was the only place where we could see some dhabas and all and we planned that while returning we would have lunch here itself. From Ramgarh, the road splits into two directions – one goes towards Longevala directly and one leads to Tanot Mata. From Tanot , there is another road which joins Longevala through Sadevala and we were planning to take that route. After Ramgarh, the landscape changed drastically and there was no trace of any villages or travelers across miles. Driving on such a lonely road was adventurous as well as scary. After travelling around 50 Kms from Ramgarh, we reached our first stoppage which was Ghantiyali Mata Temple. It is a small temple just 10 Kms before Tanot . It also has a legend attached to it w.r.t. 1965 Indo-Pak war wherein it is believed that Pakistan soldiers who had invaded the temple were killed by each other. The temple is a small complex and also houses few of the idols which were vandalized by the PAK soldiers. Everything was going fine till now but I did not know that the biggest misadventure of the trip was just about to come. We reached the Ghantiyali temple and I unknowingly parked my car on soft sand on side of the Temple entry. We went inside and visited the temple there. There were also toilets which were situated behind the temple complex but those were really filthy. Do not use them as the toilets at Tanot Mata temple are much better maintained.
It was 10.30Am when we came out and I started the car. While I was trying to move the car, it somehow didn’t want to move and I kept on accelerating and due to this the whole of the front tyres got buried in the sand. I was like “what the hell”. I tried to remove the sand with my bare hands but it went in vain and straightaway I knew that now we were doomed. Seeing me struggling, the small shop owner in front of the temple came to help and told me that you shouldn’t have accelerated that much harder. I was feeling like very bad and went inside the temple to ask for some help. There were two –three labourers who were working inside and they came outside to help. They tried to push the car from behind but nothing happened. The guy brought the spade and tried to clear the sand from the sides of the tyres. But all our attempts were going in vain and I was now starting to feel very worried. Thereafter, a bolero came with few people who were going towards Jaisalmer. We asked for their help if they could pull the car with the tow rope. But they didn’t have any rope for towing. I suddenly remembered that I had bought the tow rope and it was lying in the boot of the car. I opened that rope and we tied our car with the Bolero. As soon as the first pull came, the useless rope broke off and I was like.. I knew this was going to happen. Since, we had no other jugaad to pull the car, the bolero people went away and we were again left there stranded. Meanwhile, there were other tourists who were coming and going from the temple. One of the drivers, who saw us struggling, came to us and told us that it will not work out like this. He told us to pull the car sidewards and shake it harder so that the sand can get beneath the tyre and the tyres could come upwards. We tried that but we were only 4-5 people and we were not able to move the car at all. The driver gave us the idea to lift the car tyre by putting the jack. However it wasnot very easy to put the jack as well as there wasn’t any space and front of the car was completely submerged in sand upto the bumper. With the help of the spade, we tried to create some space to place the jack. Finally after so many tries, we were able to place the jack and tried pulling up the car. Meanwhile few other travelers and a few army men had also stopped there to help us. With the jack, we were able to somehow lift up the right tyre and then all of the people pushed and shook the car from the left side. This time, there was a lot of force and the car moved very easily. One person filled sand beneath the tyre and now the left tyre also came upwards. With high hopes, I sat inside the car while all the people were pushing the car from behind. Very slowly I accelerated and then with the force from behind, the car started moving and I was able to park the car on the road. I took a sigh of relief and thanked everyone who were there for the help. I also gave 100 Rs. each to both the labourers who were there all the time for the help and they were very reluctant to accept that. I was totally sweating by now and after having a large gulp of water, we sat in the car and started our journey again. I looked at the watch and it was already 11.45 Am and we had lost a lot of precious time today. Anyhow, I am very thankful to all those people who came there to help us and I must say that the locals were very helpful. I wonder what would have happened, if I had gotten stuck somewhere on an empty road.
We reached Tanot mata temple soon thereafter and spent around half an hour there. A lot of people do visit the temple looking at the number of cars parked there. The temple is now maintained by BSF. It is believed that in the war, the Pakistan army fired more than 3000 bombs on the temple but none would get exploded. The temple premises, still has few of those bombs on display. There are a few small shops selling food items outside the temple and there are a large number of goats as well roaming inside the temple and the outside as well. The toilets here are in much better shape than we experienced earlier.
After visiting Tanot Mata, we headed towards Longevala. There is a direct road connecting Longevala to Tanot. Distance between Tanot and Longevala is roughly 40 Kms. We set up the directions in google maps and started the journey. It was a comparatively narrow road and if you got a vehicle coming from the other side, you would have to make space for that vehicle to cross. It was totally secluded with no trace of inhabitants anywhere for miles. We carried on the journey for about 22 kms and then reached the checkpost at Sadevala. At Sadevala, there were 2 BSF soldiers posted. They checked our id and asked me to make an entry in the register kept there. When I was about to start there was a strange sound which came out of the front right wheel and we inspected. I didnt find any issue or loose part. I told the soldier there that we had stuck earlier in the sand and there might be some issue due to which the noise came. We tried again but this time no noise came. He advised us to take it slow till Longevala to avoid any issues. Longevala was about 16 kms from there and hence I decided to keep it slow and not to overspeed. Next 16 kms went without any issues and we reached Longevala at around 01.30 Pm. We parked the car and headed towards the museum. The war memorial has the Pakistani tanks and jeeps captured during the 1971 war on display. It also shows the various arms and ammunitions captured from PAK army during the war.
We came out of the museum area and headed to the theatre where they play a small 15 minutes movie depicting the victory of Indian army over Pak in 1971. There is a ticket of Rs. 40 per person for the same. We bought the ticket and went inside the small theatre like area. This theatre had around 40-50 chairs and by the time we had gotten inside, all the seats were full. Hence we had to accommodate ourselves at the last row standing. The movie showed the planning and efforts by the Indian army to defeat the enemy including few clips from Border movie. Overall it was a nice experience specially for the kids who were not yet aware of the history of the war. Outside the theatre area, there is a small stall where they were selling maggie and chole bhature. Since it was already 2 pm, we decided to have a quick lunch there only. We ordered 3 maggies and a plate of chola bhatura. The maggie was ok, however the bhaturas were not that great and were soaked in oil.
There are also some temporary toilets arranged near the memorial however those were not clean and hence we decided not to take a loo break there. After a few more clicks, we now started on our journey to sam sand dunes. The distance was approx. 110 Kms. The road till Ramgarh was totally empty and it was in a great shape. So much so that I forgot that I had decided to drive not at a pace above 80. I was easily touching a speed of 120 constantly. Soon we reached Ramgarh and took the much needed loo break at a small dhaba which had a cleaner toilet. At the petrol pump, I got the tank filled and asked the attendant there the way to Sam. He confirmed the way which google was showing and we headed on to the same. It was around 70 kms from Ramgarh and the road proved to be a very small road which passed through mainly villages. As a result, there were a lot of speed breakers and it took us some time to cover that stretch and finally around 4 pm, we connected to the main road leading to Sam sand dunes. There is an entry fee of Rs. 50 which is taken at the road for entry to Sam sand dunes area. We drove on the road and could view the sand dunes across both sides of the road. There were also so many camp sites along the road in case you are interested in spending a night there. As soon as you reach the main area, a lot of people will come running to you for jeep safari and camel safari. Some will even follow you on a bike until you shove them off while some will stand right in front of your vehicle and if you don’t stop you might as well run them over. The salesmanship of these guys is quite aggressive and they will try to sell the package to you by hook or by crook. Finally after searching for a while we parked our car in the parking (on concrete road just outside the RTDC's Sam Dhani resort) and hired a jeep for a safari. He told us that he would take us for a 25 KM ride and will show different tourist points. Personally I believe that all this is just hoax and one should not listen to the stories they tell you to sell. Anyhow, since, we had to do the safari, we hopped on to the Jeep (open jeep) and he started driving like a racer. He carried on the main road for a while and then took a left to move into the desert. The jeep was moving very fast and he was playing loud Rajasthani songs in the jeep. We moved deep into the desert and now it was beginning to show the true colours of the desert. Soon, we reached the main point where all the jeep walas stop for photo stop. We spent 15-20 minutes there and clicked some photos. The kids also played with the sand there and were very happy. Later, the driver took us to another point and claimed it to be the point where the Bajrangi Bhaijaan scene was shot. Soon after, we were on our way back to the parking for the camel safari.
The jeep safari was also wonderful while it wasn’t actually comparable to the Dubai safari. The level of stunts performed by those guys over there was entirely very scary. This safari was however less scary and hence the kids also enjoyed a lot. All in all it was a good experience. We reached the parking and set on for the camel safari. The rate for camel safari was Rs. 50/- per camel. We took two camels and started the safari. While the kids might enjoy riding the camel, I totally do not like the awkwardness and the leg pain it brings to me but however, we moved on. One thing I would like to mention here is to not to get into the bewildering chats these people can get you into. For example, they will tel you that the sunset point (destination for 50 Rs. ride) is no good and dirty. They will claim to take you to national desert park and they will say that they will spend the whole evening showing you around. They will entice you that the sand here is very inferior and that this is not the original desert. They will show you the original Thar desert.
Just beware of these thugs as all these claims are to entice you in spending more money. Since the kids were enjoying the safari, we asked them to take us to a longer safari and we agreed for a payment of Rs. 400/- which I still believe was on a very higher side. They took us for some 500 meters more and said that they cannot go beyond this point. They asked us that we should get back to the sunset point to view the sunset. When I objected then they had to take us a little further and asked if we would stop there. Since kids wanted to play more with the sand, we stopped there for 10 minutes to sit in the solitude. However these camel walas were very eager to get back and keep on asking when we will move (even though they had promised that they would show us for the whole, evening). Irritated, I decided to go back and soon after, we reached back at the starting point. When I handed him 400 Rs., he started shouting that it was supposed to 400 Rs. Per camel. Perplexed, I had to remind him that what we finalized was a lumpsum amount and not per camel. They started arguing and it was a very unpleasant experience. Finally I handed him 100 Rs. more and told them to just go away. They finally went away cursing us and this had almost spoiled the complete experience. We certainly learnt a lesson and agreed that we would try to stay away from such conniving thieves from now onwards.
It was already sunset and we decided to head back to Jaisalmer. We started at around 6 and reached Jaisalmer (around 40 Kms) at around 7 Pm. Yesterday we had heard someone talking about some puppet show near the Gadisar lake and hence we decided to give it a try. We headed to the Gadisar lake area again as asked for the Puppet show. It was across the road in the Desert Cultural Center. The show would start at 7.30 PM and hence we decided to have some bhel puri at one of the stalls at the lake area. It was very good and with some of the appetite subsided, we headed to the show.
The show was supposed to last for 40 minutes where they would play a movie for 10 minutes and 30 minutes were for the puppet show and the museum. Yes, there was a museum too, consisting of artifacts collected by a single person, Mr. N.K. Sharma. The show started late at around 7.40 Pm. All good seats were gone as usual and we were sitting in the 5th or 6th row and it was supposedly the last row as there was only a limited audience. It started with a film on a small tv screen narrating the history of Jaisalmer. Thereafter, the narrator started telling the stories about how the show was started and the efforts being put in by Mr. Sharma for the benefit of the city and its culture. The kids were starting to get a bit jumpy by now and I too was feeling the same. Finally the puppet show started. It was good while it lasted. They performed 3-4 acts on various themes and kids enjoyed few of the acts. Finally the show ended around 8.45pm (instead of 8.10 as it was scheduled to be). The effort put in by the puppeteers was great and somehow I felt may be the narrative should have been a bit more engaging. Thereafter, We headed for some place to eat. The last night's experience of the 'Pleasant Haveli' was not very pleasant so we again googled for the best restaurants in Jaisalmer and it again proved to be a very tiring experience, navigating from one restaurant to another, sometimes in the tiny alleys and sometime ending into some horrible looking place. Finally we settled on a decent looking restaurant in a hotel and ended up having our dinner there. The food was okayish but atleast better than yesterday. We headed back to our hotel after the dinner. It was a very tiring day and also the most adventurous of our trip. Tomorrow we had to leave Jaisalmer and head to Bikaner. Since we had to cover only the Jaisalmer fort and Kuldhara, we decided to take it easy tomorrow and get up a little late. Plan was to leave Jaisalmer by lunch time and reach Bikaner by evening.
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