[sudev]

@Samurai: You are sounding more like the Gauls from Astrix comic fame...worried about sky falling on your head? Believe me, unless it is raining, try a night out. You can always drag your bed (charpoy) out of the tent, heck you may just have to end up doing it considering how hot and humid it is sometimes.

@TSK: Want to try your beast for a bit of off roading - I can post GPS tracks for one of the Desert Storm sections from that area. HotelFifu sire is up for grabs...are you sure hotel is working?

[tsk1979]

sudev, you are looking at the wrong website
Correct site is
Rajasthan Travel Agent,Rajasthan Travel Agency,Travel Agent in Rajasthan,Travel Agency in Rajasthan
I am thinking that we will go to their tent site near Khuri on the safari itself and not the open jeep.
In 35 degree C riding an open jeep is not really fun I think!
Unless there is proper sand on the way where we can sink in, the safari should be able to handle mild off roading.

thankfully nights are cooler around 20-25 degrees in October(I checked the historical temperatures)

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by sudev

@Samurai: You are sounding more like the Gauls from Astrix comic fame...worried about sky falling on your head?

I am the guy who does off-roading with the seat belts on, remember?

Knowing my son I would like to keep the tent option open. People who were at Muthodi forest when the GV got stuck can tell you how my son was screaming his head off everytime he saw a slow moving leach. You can't reason with him during those times.

[tsk1979]

Don't worry Samurai, Fifu has the tent option too.
Moreover we will have the safari to sleep in if attack of the bugs is too much

[tsk1979]

Hotel is not a problem now with most places having 1200-1300/night room.
However camel safari is playing hard to get.
We want to sleep on the dunes at night.
Camel safari package costs 1450/person, and if you take your own vehicle it costs 150pp less.
So at 1200-1300/person just to sleep in a tent is too much.
Can anybody give some contacts and tips it will be great.
The plan is to drive away from Jaisalmer in the evening, reach the dunes.
Take a small round on camel, and come back near the vehicle, and then sleep for some time in a tent.

An eco hut or something will also do if not a tent.

Unless you go on the dunes no extreme off roading capability is needed, therefore the safari will do fine on the dirt tracks.

[sudev]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

An eco hut or something will also do if not a tent.
Unless you go on the dunes no extreme off roading capability is needed, therefore the safari will do fine on the dirt tracks.

Again a new thought. Instead of night at Fifu/Khuri do the touristy thing of watching sunset and staying on till a bit longer and then back to Jaisalmer.

The tent/dune thing can be done next day at Dechu - halfway between Jaisalmer / Jodhpur. OR you can do a little grand style stay at Khimser (on Jodhpur-Nagaur) where they have a fort hotel and another little tourist village totally cut off from world near by - stay in air-con mud huts!

And from there Nagaur-Ajmer....onway back.

[tsk1979]

That sounds great sudev, but we would have to reach Jodhpur early morning for Samurai to catch his flight. So spending night in Jodhpur itself is a better option. Lets see the flight timings etc.,
Anyways how are the dunes at dechu. Its 110kms from Jodhpur.

Meanwhile, anybody have any idea about these guys?
Indrlok Resort : Home

[sudev]

AFAIK all flights from Jodhpur are mid-morning / mid-noon (have not looked up schedule - me+lazy) so Dechu - Jodhpur may not be a problem. Should be and hour and half drive at easy pace.
Dechu also has rooms/resort and the desert camp is about 2km's off road (even cars can do that since it is hard surface)
No clue about Indralok but if the facilities are what they say would they have tenting alone as a worthwhile activity?

[tsk1979]

sudev in that case we will spend 2 nights in a rustic place
Khuri dunes can be be the total wild place, and at Dechu we can stay in the proper resort rooms.

Can you pm me the contact of somebody at Khuri and Dechu

Tanveer

[Samurai]

Our flight from Jodhpur is at 2PM, so we have to be there at 1PM.

[tsk1979]

I checked Khimser Fort resort. But at 6000/night its a whopper

Meanwhile I found something called moonlight hotel. They have one hotel at Jaisalmer, and a resort at Khuri, but their website is so wonderul that its not allowing me to read their contact details
Hotel Moonlight , Khuri Resort , Hotel jaisal Palace

[sudev]

@tsk: Bargain with Khimser this is really not "on season" ...but yes they are expensive side. Do not want to follow up on my advise of Phalodi? Pass with caution! birds of “kheechan” & hawelli at phalodi
They will be in line with your budget and hopefully - expectations. I think you can find about them at Overview_Lal_Niwas_Phalodi

I will PM contact for Jaisalmer.

[tsk1979]

Phalodi seems to be a nice place!
So instead of staying at Jodhpur we stay there for the 4th night?

Hmm so many places, but very less time

[rubin2006]

I have been to Jaisalmer 3 times i have always stayed at RTDC hotels they have AC rooms also but not at dunes ofcourse (SAM Dhani) and also they have tents there ,from hotel in Jaisalmer they leave for dunes at 4 Pm every day i don't remember how much they charge for dunes i think 500 - 600 Per person but that includes a 1-2 Km camel ride then some folk programs by singers ,evening tea snacks and finally dinner .

Then people have the option to stay in tents ,also they have permanent rooms at dunes or come back and stay in there hotel back at Jaisal -mer basically its a good option as by paying for one day one can stay in AC room in jaisal mer at day time and also stay in dunes at night .

While going to Jaisal mer i have not done the trip in one go once i went from udaipur as i had to see Udaipur also it took me 8 hours to do Udai pur - Jaisalmer , the other time i had a Tyre puncture in village 2 hours after Jodhpur which took 3 hours to fix as they punture wala was not sure how to open an alloy . He basically had expertise in jeep and trucks

But while coming back this time it took me 11 Hours to from dunes to straight at my house in Delhi which included one hours lunch some where in a jungle before bikaner , and also tea break in evening , so the route was basically JAISALMER -- BIKANER -- JAIPUR - DElHI , I usually drove at 120 -140 KM PH but in between when i saw open roads which were in plenty i went above reasonable speed also .

As said by you 14 hours is a very very reasonable time to reach if one doesn't get a traffic jam in the way , The road were so good at some places like Jaisalmer - Bikaner that its the only road i felt That those who own super cars should live here and not in Delhi , If i ever have my hands on one like Ferrari or Lamborghini i would run to that place ( even though its a dream only but yes BMW 3 -5 series looks like a real in a few years and that is the place where i will Run To) Speed of 250 is quite possible and you can see 5-10 Km of road in in front of you .

Also Don't be conned by some restaurants from Jodhpur to Jaisal mer as the are basically opened to rob Foreigners only they gave us 4 double omelette's for 800 rs and then refused to give 8 pieces of bread for which i again paid 25 rs per slice (Shame on them ) Indians were stopping at that restaurant but not eating and foreigners were being fooled , and i came to know only after i got the omelette's , Some people are good also one restaurant owner had a price of 300 rs per bowl of veg dish but he told us in Hindi that we will charge you 50 % only This price on menu is for foreigners only and chapati for us was 20 Rs while for them its was 100

Also in Jaisalmer there is a Small market where there one restaurant ( Kebab Corner )in left corner of that square They serves very good Mutton Kebabs If you re not veg do not miss that it would be best Non -Veg food that city can Offer

Buy diesel at Jodhpur only as after that Pertol pums are there but easy to miss and also qualtiy issues

And Drive Safe Happy Journey

[tsk1979]

Thanks Rubin.
I chose the Jaipur-Jodhpur-Jaisalmer route because its shorter than Jaipur-Bikaner-Jaisalmer route.
I will check out the RTDC hotels too.
Thanks

Can you provide some more info about hotel Sam Dhani?
Its at Sam Sand dunes, right?