Nov 14, 2010

Khuri - A Desert Village

After deciding that our next trip would be in the Thar Desert, we started debating on the exact locations. We knew we shouldn’t miss the sand dunes around Jaisalmer, but of the two famous ones - Sam and Khuri, we couldn’t decide which one. After reading reviews and hearing from friends, that Sam is way too crowded when compared to Khuri, we decided Khuri was the place - as both of us like calm rather than crowd!
We reached Jaisalmer by train from Jaipur at around noon, hired a taxi to Khuri - about 40km southwest. We heard from the driver that this year there was a lot of rain due to which the desert was more filled with shrubs and small plants. I was afraid we wouldn’t get to see the actual dunes, and just kept my fingers crossed.
As we reached Khuri, I was amazed to see the number of camp-resorts in that little village, tourism is definitely becoming one of the biggest business there, especially in winter. Most of the buildings are of yellow sandstone, as in Jaisalmer - the reason why Jaisalmer is called the Golden city.
We got into the home stay - Badal House, run by a real gentleman, Badal Singh, about which Dee will write in detail. (Yes, we have a pact and share topics and write, when it comes to travel!) As we freshened up and had a small talk with the owner, the weather suddenly became cloudy and windy. Once wind blows, there will be a few millimeters of fine sand settled over and around you, which we had already experienced in the train. And in a couple of minutes the weather became too chill and there was a small shower of rain! We had to postpone our plans for camel safari and camping for the night that we had planned for the next day.
Had I told you, wherever we go, be it any season, the rains surely follow us! And this we’ve been observing in all our trips throughout last year. We just smiled at ourselves, and set out in the drizzle, to explore and experience the desert ourselves.
I was amazed at the number of birds that we spotted, and Dee started shooting them. A few meters of walk out of the village and there we saw the dunes! Pure, neat and secluded! Wasn’t this what we wanted!! We started walking in that direction and what seemed to be so near took so long to reach. As we neared, there were hordes of people arriving in buses, jeeps, vans and even on camels to the dunes to watch the sunset, and with all the shor-sharaba! Oops, we immediately changed our direction and moved further to a calmer portion, away from all the noise, just to calmly enjoy the beauty of nature and watch the sunset from the clear sand dunes.
How beautiful nature is! It was a treat to walk on the clear sand dunes, watching the sun go down, with chill wind blowing on your face. Just as the sun set, it began to get colder, and we started walking back to the village, happy and satisfied for having chosen this place.

Check out the birds here.

5 comments:

  1. aww lovely!!! :) Did you take the camel ride? and did you get a chance to dress up like the localites? I love their traditional attires! And hey, what did you shop there? ;)

    Beautiful pictures btw!

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  2. beautiful photos!!! and a wonderful vacation to stow away in good memories section of the brain!

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  3. oh wow.. sunrise and sunset never be boring and different at every place! Waiting for rest of the pics, esp birds :)

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  4. Hi,
    amazing pics of desert sun rise and sun set, really beautiful desert life.

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