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Desert Festival

Jaisalmer

By Javi Lorbada

August 20^th, 2018

The Jaisalmer Desert Festival is an annual event that takes place in February each year in India. It is held in the Hindu month of Magh, three days prior to the full moon. Early this year, during this period, without having any prior knowledge of it, luckily, we were in Jaisalmer!

The city itself is one of the most beautiful places in Rajasthan, you can see in here the other cities of the state we covered during our trip.

So let's get into the details :)

Jaisalmer

Due to a train delayed we arrived at Jaisalmer pretty late, a couple hours past midnight in fact, so the morning after we really weren't going out early.

Jaisalmer is small, we almost walked twice the same area during our first day. It is beautiful though, especially the Fort, this city is called the Golden City for its yellow stone bricks and that made it special, although outside the fort there’s no many tourist attractions but the regular life of the Indian Desert people.

In the morning the inside fort was a bit overcrowded, later we realize there was a festival starting the day after, which we didn't know about it! How excited was that! After a few hours back at the hotel headed out for sunset, we walked around the fort again, finding new spots next to other tourist staying in town.

We ended up having a drink at a rooftop terrace and see the sun setting and the moon rising, the best in the Golden City.

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Jaisalmer Desert Festival - Sam Dunes

Waking up for sunrise and visit our rooftop again, although the sun in the desert it’s incredible both in color and shape, I couldn’t find anything to compose with.

Around 9 am belongings were ready and we headed out for breakfast, soon enough to see the Desert Festival Parade, which was going through Jaisalmer Fort main gate around 10:30 am. Unexpected to me, the number of people, almost fighting to take a picture, amazing how it’s handled, so serene and calm. Dancers, music, camels, big mustaches, color dresses… we were incredibly lucky to be in here at this time of the year.

Just after noon, we had our pickup to go to the Sam Dunes, so we did, they received us very kind and warm and welcome us for the next couple of nights on a Swiss Tent. This is a sponsored part of the trip, thanks to Sultan Resort. Unpack, lunch, nap, and jeep safari for the sunset.

The driver left us in the dunes and I really enjoy it, even though this dessert wasn't spectacular, there were a few dunes, many camels and jeeps and good, great sunset! On top of that, the moon was getting close to be full, so it was also incredible to see it changing color along the sunset.

I thought the day had ended, but when we arrived back at the tent, there was another show waiting for us at the resort. No words, it was beautiful to see what Indians like when they come in here, couldn’t be a better way to end the day.

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Jaisalmer Sam Sand Dunes - Sultan Resort

We woke up for sunrise, we took our first camel ride from the resort to the dunes, even though it wasn’t spectacular I really enjoy being just the four of us and the camel at the dunes, it was a peaceful sunrise.

We headed back to the camp, the camel to me was a bit uncomfortable already, but I knew that before riding on it.

In the early afternoon we had our second camel ride, to me, unnecessary, but the staff insisted that we took it, it was a good chance to let the drone follow us and we got in trouble again with the authorities, but this time they didn’t say much. Straight after our camel we had a jeep safari, more than a jeep safari it’s like a roller coaster, totally unsafe, you are on the back of a very old 4WD car, and this reckless driver goes through the dunes without any consideration of the people behind, so unless you grab yourself very tight to anything you can, be ready to be flying on the first turn or slope down.

Sultan Resort responsible offered us dinner under the stars, and we did it, pretty awesome to be at the dunes pretty much for ourselves having dinner, no many stars though, full moon instead.

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Phew! We almost made it through India, one more in Mumbai and we'll change countries!

Exciting times ahead!

Desert Festival

Please share your thoughts in the comments, or contact me at my email for any question.

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Footnotes

Fujifilm X-T2 + 16mm F1.4 + 18-55mm F2.8-4 + 55-200mm F3,5-4,8 + DJI Mavic Pro

FootNotes

Fujifilm X-T2 + 16mm F1.4 + 18-55mm F2.8-4 + 55-200mm F3,5-4,8 + DJI Mavic Pro

© 2026 Javi Lorbada

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