When the sun went down, the Maharadja closed the door behind him and they were all alone. Sherahazade dreaded that she might never see the sun again, that this night, finally, she would not be able to distract the Maharadja and that he would follow his habit with women and kill her at dawn after having spent the night with her. Frantically, she thought about a story to tell while the soft sounds of music drifted up through the open window. "Once upon a time, there was a young couple," she began, "who set out to explore our beautiful country. As they didn't have a lot of money, they couldn't take the plane or travel with a private driver, so they decided to take the train for 20 hours to get from our contradictory capital to the magical, golden city of Jaisalmer.
They were very positively surprised by the comfort of our train in the sleeper class and spent most of their time looking out of the window at the unusual empty spaces of the Thar desert they were crossing or reading comfortably. However, as many other Europeans have experienced, they had to suffer from the. terrible habit of our people to communicate screaming at each other even in the
middle of the night and from our inability to educate our children who run around the train all the time, screaming, yelling, crying,... So at least the young girl didn't get much sleep during the night and they arrived a litte fatigued at their destination.
When finally, after about half an hour and a furious explosion of the girl, they were able to shake off the large crowd of touts trying to trick them into every sellable thing on earth or offering to take them to the moon for free?!?, they were able to leave the train station, they were thunderstruck! Before them, the jewel of Jaisalmer and of the Thar desert was shimmering golden in the late afternoon sun: the majestical Fort of Jaisalmer! Within a second, the two travelers were sure they had entered a different world. All the dirt, the filth, the noise,
the trouble of our everyday Indian life were forgotten. The Fort with its 99 bastions, rising out of the desert where you may live for seven years without ever seeing a drop of rain, seduced them and transported them into our world of magical stories, heros, beautiful women and fierce warriors, of glorious history, ancient wisdom, and deep religiousness.
They could not but explore it during day and night, marvelling at every new view that opened up in front of them, at all the differnt plays of light on the warm sandstone walls, and at the majesty of the place. People in this Fort, living in the well-protected city within its defense system, had once survived a
siege of 12 years! How many stories were there to listen to and how many different streets, buildings, and towers to explore! They strolled through the tiny, winding streets inside the Fort, getting lost once in a while and luckily the girl had her boyfriend with her because otherwise she would probably still be looking for the exit! Another thing that astonished them was the praise of the audioguide of the view our women could enjoy from the inside of the buildings onto
the streets, while being protected from the starring eyes of men on the streets at the same time. Well, our two found the women's view rather shockingly reduced to nothing! (see picture) However, the view from the highest tower made them dream. They saw the beautiful golden sandstone city rise out of the flat planes of the desert and they had the slight impression of looking at the result of a child's play in a sandbox. :)
In the evening, they couldn't but help gliding even deeper into our rich culture. In a fairy-tale environment, they sat down for their diner, the Fort shining brilliantly and rivalling the stars in the night sky, our musicians enchanting them with ancient tunes and songs of long-lost glory, and our foods seducing them with hundreds of differnt odors and tastes. 
Of course, our two travelers couldn't just leave this magic place after one day, so they prolonged their stay and started to explore the mysteries of
the ancient city at the Fort's foundation hill. They soon found themselves marvelling at our oldest houses, called haveli, once built by very rich families and decorated with thousands of stone carvings. Of course, the two travellers had to take hundreds of pictures, and even though they were rather disappointed at the now lifeless and empty insides, they were overwhelmed by the 360 degree views from their rooftop balconies. How beautiful this places must have been when laughter was still filling the halls, when typically Indian tissues in all different colors were flying from the windows,... again, a magical place." 
Sherahazade halted her story there. The Maharadja looked at her rather disgruntled. "So what?" did he say. "What happened to the travellers next? Where else did they go in our wonderful country?" A slight smile rushed over Sherahazade's face. She looked out of the window and saw the horizon coloring in the pale morning light. "This, my lord, might be the story of another night."
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