Yippee and Dino go to Jaisalmer

Yippee and Dino were very excited. Mamma and Papa were planning a trip to a place called Jaisalmer. Mamma had told them that the place was in Rajasthan in India. It was a desert. Yippee asked Mamma to explain what she meant by a desert.

Mamma said, “A desert is a place were the soil is very sandy and there is very less rainfall. So there is very less plant life.”

“Oh! that is not a problem for either me or Dino or even Bruno we love eating chicken. So less of plants is actually good” said Yippee gleefully

Mamma smiled and said "Yippee, what do you think chickens eat? They eat grain and that comes from plants. So it is not that simple. But don’t you worry, Jaisalmer manages to feed all its tourist very well”

Yippee, Dino and Bruno were very excited about the trip to Jaisalmer. The next day they were busy packing their bags. Dino decided to pack all of Bruno’s toys as this was her first trip out and Dino did not want Bruno to feel home sick. 

Illustration by Gauri Ghosal

The day finally came for their trip to Jaisalmer. And after a train journey they reached their destination.

 The train station was gorgeous . It was made of beautiful yellow sandstone and it glittered like gold in the sun shine. Even though it was December they were feeling pretty warm. 

 In the resort Yippee was getting impatient to get started on exploring the city of Jaisalmer. Papa and Mamma had to quickly freshen up and then they all went off to explore the fort. The fort is called “Sonar Qila” which means Golden Fort. It is made of yellow sand stone and looks really awesome.The fort was huge and Yippee and Dino ran ahead of  everyone else to explore. 

 Illustration by Gauri Ghosal

But suddenly Yippee realised that Dino, Bruno, Mamma and Papa were no longer coming behind him! He was lost!
At first, he felt really scared but then he realised that sooner or later he will find them because the plan for the day was to check out the fort only and so everyone was going to be inside the fort.
Yippee decided to ask a shop keeper about the way to the Jain temple as he remembered Mamma telling him that the temple is very beautiful and they would definitely check it out.

Mamma had told him that Jain traders who were extremely wealthy built the temple. They used to trade with  China, Iran, Afghanistan in silk, spices and opium! The traders were said to be richer than the Maharaja!Yippee reached the Jain temple and hoped and prayed that everyone else would also come there first.

And as luck would have it, they were there! Yippee rushed and hugged Mamma  and said “Thank God! I have found you. I was feeling very scared”Dino looked sullenly at Yippee and said “You went off on an adventure all by yourself. Why did you not take me?”

Papa looked sternly at both of them and said “Dino should have gone with Yippee because how many dinosaurs are there in Jaisalmer, only one. So it would have been easy to find Yippee. Next time please get lost together.” said Papa and everyone laughed.



They visited the other sites as well, the Fossil park, the lake, the abandoned village of Khuldera but what Yippee remembers the most are the beautiful Jain temples of Jaisalmer