Photograph: Jaisalmer Fort "The Golden City" in Rajasthan, India Facts

Featured Photo: Jaisalmer, India “The Golden City”

Trikuta Hill Raj Mahal Castle Forts

You won’t find gold here but you can stay a night in a fort if you like!

I visited Jaisalmer, India for one purpose and one purpose only… to make it to the desert to do some night photography. That didn’t happen by a long shot and ended up taking one the of the worst tours during my stay in India (click here for more about it).

What did happen was something unexpected, I got a room in an old fort for less then $5 per-night with a window in my shower overlooking the whole city. Yeah funny right, who would have thought and if it hadn’t of been for the beautiful architecture I would have left the next day after the tour.

One thing that makes Jaisalmer so different then all the other cities that have forts is that people actually live inside the fort still, own the houses where they live and run business out of them. That is strange because all others are property of the government or the old royal family.

Why is Jaisalmer the exception? When the Royal Family left after India broke away from the British Monarchy it went to Nepal for a while (think years). When they left, the workers were still there inside the fort and eventually just took over the place, moving their families inside. When the king returned, India had changed, as it was no longer under the same rules as when the British oversaw it. He wanted his fort back but the people refused to leave and they cited that it was their official residents now. He wasn’t happy to say the least and he appealed to the Indian government to help evict the tenants but the response from the Indian government was “It’s listed as their official residents sir, sorry nothing we can do!” Since no one wanted to buy out all these poor workers and relocate them to new homes, they were allowed to stay.

Hence, the only fort in India owned by the people!