齋沙默爾Jaisalmer為在印度四色城市中的金色代表，有金色城市之稱齋沙默爾位在拉賈斯坦邦最西邊，距離巴基斯坦邊界只有65公里。
There are four color cities which is famous in Rajasthan, India. Jaislamer, the one called “Golden city”, which placed in the western Rajasthan, only 65km far from Pakistan.
來到齋沙默爾可說完全是個意外，原本因為在印度新年這段期間完全訂不到火車票，先是被火車站售票亭的印度女士的慢效率氣瘋，後來就連巴士也一票難求，直到和沙發衝浪認識的T那晚在焦特布爾頂樓小酌一番後，「去齋沙默爾沒車票？放心，我去幫你們弄兩張來。」於是深夜11點半，一個壯漢在路上飆著檔車，後面擠著兩個困惑的旅人(我們)，外加硬是塞進來的大小行李，直奔焦特布爾火車站上演玩命快遞。原來印度火車是有分等級的，線上訂票適用於外國旅客及當地人，若是訂不到也可以到現場和當地人擠在售票機器前搶購限印度人搭乘的Sleeper class，T把我推到前面笑笑地說，「妳是女生，擠在前面的印度人看到女生就會自動閃開讓你順利買票。」驚訝的是從焦特布爾到齋沙默爾車程要6個小時，我看著手上車票，50台幣一個人。
Coming to Jaisalmer was an accident, cause neither booking train tickets nor bus tickets all became impossible during their biggest festival Diwali this time, (and the other thing was I was so angry at the madam who is sooo inefficient while we was booking the train tickets from Jodhpur to Jaislamer at the counter), but after meeting Tarun from couchsurfing while we drank some beers at the rooftop, he confidently promised us that he could definitely help us to buy the train tickets to Jaisalmer. And that time was already 11pm, there is a strong man riding a motorbike with two scary tourists sitting behind him, holding the big backpack on our hands without being stable on the motorbike, like the movie fast and furious, racing to Jodhpur railway station. And after arrived to railway station, I just realized online booking is for all locals and tourists, but there was the other options to book the ticket— The booking machine in the station. Tarun pushed me standing in front of the booking machine and said ” Don’t worry, Indian men are gentleman, they will let you buy the ticket first if they see you are a woman.” And the most surprising thing for me is, after I successfully bought the tickets, I felt shocked at the price printed on the ticket, ” 105Rs”, and from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer wasn’t a short journey, it took 6 hours.
在印度，永遠沒有規則，也沒有「不可能」。
OK, there is no rules and nothing impossible in India.
上了當地人的Sleeper class後才知道，這裡的車廂沒有一床一位這種準則，只見上車的人越來越多，越來越多，大部分是準備前往邊境的印度軍人，有些人一上車像個猴子般馬上就爬上上層臥鋪，很自然的拍拍已躺平在上層的男人叫他讓個小空間給他，或是一上車直接就在車門口地板鋪上棉被(真的帶著棉被上火車了阿….)，倒頭就睡。總而言之，直到火車終於發動引擎開始往齋沙默爾行駛後，整個車廂臥鋪已經「掛著」好多連車票都不知道有沒有買的印度人(也沒有見到任何車掌前來驗票)，以各式各樣不同奇怪的姿勢睡著了，而伴隨著火車輪子滾過鐵軌的隆隆聲，還有越晚越是下降的氣溫，我蜷縮在由一張臥鋪拆開成兩張的椅子上，坐在我右上方用圍巾包住身體的印度男人時不時朝我這裡看，我不敢睡也睡不著，直盯盯的看著這車廂怪異又和諧的景象。
After getting on the train, besides my anxious finally released, I finally understood that there are no rules in the car, more and more Indian people got on the car, most of them are military, some people quickly climbed on the top berth which is already occupied by some other people, but then he just naturally woke the guy up, asking he to leave a small space for him. Or some people just directly started to put bed sheets on the ground of car and sleep immediately. Anyway, until the train started to get off, all the car was filled of people inside, sitting or lying in lots of weird postures, I even didn’t know if they did really buy the tickets or not. With the noisy sounds made from the railway and the decreasing temperature, I couldn’t sleep and wasn’t dare to sleep, moreover, there was a guy who covered with the scarf on his body and kept looking at me, I decided not to sleep, and stared at this strange view in this car.
早上五點半，頂著沒有預期的冷冽寒風，前幾天已經鼻涕流到不行，現在的我已經完全失聲，T說他每年跨年都會在齋沙漠爾度過，已經十年了，特別打電話給他經營旅店的老朋友請他好好照顧我們，所以很幸運的大清早不用再以失聲的喉嚨和嘟嘟車司機各種討價還價，J舉著” Vicky Taiwan”的看板在外頭迎接我們，從遠處看來格外親切。
5am in the morning, I didn’t predict Jaisalmer was so cold then, and I’ve already got cold when I was in Jodhpur, apparently, it was getting worse, I even did’t have any voice at that time. Luckily, when we met Tarun, he said he used to spend some times in Jaisalmer during New Year since ten years ago, so he contacted his old friend who ran a hostel here, so this time, I don’t need to use my poor voice to bargain anything with rickshaw drivers. Jistin held a board with ” Vicky from Taiwan” on it, I smiled, suddenly I felt it was so adorable when seeing my country in India.
清晨的齋沙默爾有種荒野之城之感，砂礫隨著行駛的輪胎滾動上升一片塵土飛揚，霧濛濛一片更為齋沙默爾鋪上了一層神秘的面紗。直到車子駛進了古堡內，我才興奮了大叫，「天啊，我們住在古堡內阿？」每次旅行都沒什麼偉大的規劃，至少在印度你只需要認識幾個印度朋友，接下來的行程就不用煩惱了，印度人的熱情無法擋，而且不曉得為什麼，他們的朋友總是無「遠弗屆(但僅限印度啦)，來這趟齋沙默爾已經是個意外，更沒有料到興建於西元1156年，至今已經800多年的古堡竟然可以住人。ˋ
Jaisalmer in the early morning gave me the feelings of living in a abandon city, the sand and rocks lifted up while the tire of car rolled over it, the smoggy view even made Jaisalmer become more mysterious, I shouted excitingly when I realized I was going to live in the fort.
「歡迎來到Jaisalmer Fort！先到樓上喝杯茶吧。」J聽聞我是T的朋友，熱情的邀請我們上樓，結果上樓迎接我們的不是熱呼呼的奶茶，而是早晨六點半，剛上升的火紅日出。
” Welcome to Jaisalmer Fort, please come to the rooftop and have the tea first.” Justin knew I was the friend of Tarun, so he kindly invited us to go upstairs, but we were not only welcome by the hot tasty tea, but also welcome by the red sunrise just slowly rose up in the sky.
齋沙默爾Jaisalmer原本的意思是「Jaisal的堡壘」，也就是說，整座城市就是以齋沙默爾古堡起名，自古以來就是駱駝行商必經之路。
The original meaning of Jaisalmer is “the Hill Fort of Jaisal”, that means all the city was named by the Jaisalmer fort, and it was the route which camels used to go long time ago.
而齋沙默爾古堡內最讓我驚豔的是，這麼多年以後，古堡不再像以前普通老百姓只能遠觀不能褻玩焉，王國消失後，現在人們紛紛進駐成為古堡的共同主人，在古堡內居住，開旅店餐廳，做生意，齋沙默爾的古堡已經成為人們生活的一部分，有別於印度其他地方以前的城堡現今都變成了要付門票的博物館，和古蹟共存則是齋沙默爾最特別的地方，仔細觀察古堡內的砂岩壁面幾乎都有非常精緻的雕刻，古堡內像是迷宮一般，但每一個轉彎，都是一個迎面而來的驚喜。
And more interesting, long time ago, the citizens can only watch the royal family from far far away, and after the Rawal Jaisal, people now become the common owner of this place, they run restaurants, make business, nowadays the Jaisalmer fort has become the part of their life, apart form other palace of other city in India have become the museum which have to pay ticket to go inside, living with archaeology makes Jaisalmer more unique.
齋沙默爾Jaisalmer古堡內的旅店很多，這次我是住在Temple view guesthouse, 一晚雙人房450Rs，就是簡單乾淨，其實還可以找到更低價位的旅店及房間，畢竟古堡內外的旅店多到不勝枚舉，基本上只要嘴巴夠厲害，旅店老闆寧願降一些價錢也不願讓我們這些肥羊逃走哈。之所以叫Temple View，和字面上意思相同，旅店就位在Jain Temple的後面，在齋沙默爾古堡內的旅店99%都有頂樓餐廳，但個人覺得不管在哪個旅店的頂樓餐廳，身為齋沙默爾Jaisalmer最高處的地標，放眼望去都可以一覽整個金色之城。
There are so many hostels you can choose in the fort, I stayed in Temple view guesthouse this time, double room cost 450Rs/per night, I won’t really recommend this, because you can always find the cheaper one here, and most important of all, almost all the hostels have their own rooftop restaurants, and it really doesn’t matter which hostel you are going to live, cause you can always see the best view as standing on the top hill of Jaisalmer 🙂
在齋沙默爾古堡巷內轉角遇見了一間外觀拚湊著不同顏色磁磚的喀什米爾圍巾店，也因為停留在店門外和M討論了好久到底要怎麼防買到假貨，因此邂逅了目前在印度旅行遇過最老實沒有心機的好老闆，結果這一進店裡就是一個多小時，老闆非常熱心也很老實的和我們分析到底該怎麼分辨真假，只見老闆把所有不同材質的圍巾全部從櫃子裡掏出來，很大膽的把它們從袋子拿出來，非常熟練的，開始拿起打火機燒起了圍巾尾端的流蘇，我心頭震了一下，老闆微笑著，看起來卻一點都不覺得可惜。
While we were roaming around in the fort, we encountered the Cashmere store which the entrance was decorated with different color bricks on it, and just stood in front of the store and discussed how to distinguish the real Cashmere scarf, we were invited by the shopkeeper, he was so willing to show us how to recognize different materials of scarf, “You only need a lighter.” He smiled, and started to burn the terminal of all of different scarfs, I was shocked.
「全部都拿去燒一燒，你有打火機就不用怕再被騙了。」老闆開玩笑地說，邊搓著各種材質的殘渣，絲綢製的，棉製的，羊毛製的和聚酯製的，難怪老闆說全部都拿去燒，燒完之後再用鼻子聞，用手指去觸摸，所有材質全部現形，賣家想騙也騙不了。在介紹之餘，老闆並沒有散發任何的暗示要我們購買這些圍巾，「你們很特別，是我這些年來，撇除購買，遇到對於圍巾這麼有求知慾的客人。」「我做這行已經三十幾年了，知識如果只是放在腦袋不讓它流動，有一天也會隨著生命的逝去而消失，今天我很幸運遇到你們，我希望你們能幫我把這份知識傳下去，讓大家買到的不只是真品。」
” Well, burn the terminal of these scarfs, then you won’t need to be afraid to be cheated again.”
He asked us to smell and to touch those ash of different materials, from silk, from wool, from cotton, and from polyester, I was surprised, now it became really obvious to recognize all of them. And moreover, he even didn’t give us any hint to purchase anything from this store. “You are the special guest I’ve seen in these years, except purchasing these goods, you seem more interested in knowing the knowledge about this.” He said. “I’ve already run this business for more than 30 years, and if I only keep the knowledge I gained in my mind, then one day it will disappear when the life gone, I hope both of you can help these knowledge keep passing to your friends, and the next generation, help all of them to purchase the real scarf.”
「還能同時買到快樂。」
“And purchase the happiness at the same time.” He smiled.
才抵達這裡的第一天，齋沙默爾已經被我列為目前待過最舒服的印度城市之一(和Jodhpur並行)，來此旅遊的觀光客還是一樣的多，但整座城市給人的感覺並不像齋浦爾這樣令人喘不過氣，你可以在城堡內爬上砲台俯瞰整座黃金城，在巷子裡迷路，和各式各樣的老闆胡亂聊天在他們要向你兜售商品時找個藉口離開，跑到德國麵包店前來一塊超值只要40台幣的巧克力香蕉派；或到古堡外偷拍Baba (印度僧侶)，然後在他們大聲和你討錢時溜個無影無蹤，擠進人潮爆滿的甜點店問當地人吃什麼好，聽著他們七嘴八舌向你推薦各自覺得好吃的甜點，最後乾脆放棄跟你溝通，直接幫你向老闆點餐，或是跑到古堡外喝一杯貴鬆鬆的Bhang Lassi (大麻優格)，然後發現即使點了Strong對你也起不了作用(真的，我多希望我能感受幻聽一下XD)。
Just arrived to Jaisalmer on the very first day, Jaisalmer has become one of my favorite place in India so far (Jodhpr as well), not like Jaipur always give me the stressful feeling. While staying in Jaisalmer fort, you can go on the top of fort, watching the view of all the golden city, getting lost in the small lane of the fort, chatting with lots of shopkeeper here, and escaping when they start to sell the goods to you, having the valuable chocolate banana pie here, or taking the picture of the Baba sit next to the wall, running away when they start to ask you for money, joining the crowd which people are waiting for the famous dessert here, asking them to recommend some sweet to you, and after they will be giving up communicating to you but then directly tell the shopkeeper to give you the sweet, or having the Bhang Lassi, which is really legal here, but then realize even the strong taste of Bhang Lassi can still make you awake, that’s sucks.
Story @ Jaisalmer 2016.11.02
