Khuri, the quieter dunes and the village beside them

Why we bring guests to Khuri

• Smaller than Sam: the dunes here roll rather than soar, broken up by bushes and grazing land.
• For one perfect dune: if your heart is set on an immense, sculpted dune for a photograph, Sam at dawn is still the better choice.
• Khuri's gift is atmosphere: sunset watched with a few other people, or none, while a shepherd brings his flock home below you.
• After dark: the village lights are faint and the stars are bright.
• A real village: not a stage set behind a row of camps. Children walk to school, women carry water and fodder.
• Two jobs: the men who drive jeeps or lead camels in the evening are often farmers and herders by day.
• What you take home: come with respect and a little time, and you'll understand the Thar far better than from a dune top.
• The two compared: our journal piece Sam or Khuri.

A village built from the desert itself

• Women's work: walls and floors are plastered by hand with clay, dung and water, which keeps out insects and dust.
• A sign of celebration: plaster is renewed before festivals and weddings, so a fresh coat means something is about to be celebrated.
• Patterns: many families paint walls and doorways with simple white or ochre designs, passed from mother to daughter.
• Catching rain: it may fall on only a handful of days a year, so many compounds have a tanka, a covered underground cistern into which the courtyard drains.
• Beris: out in the fields, narrow shallow wells tap moisture seeping through the sand above a harder layer of ground.
• The old systems endure: piped water and tankers have reached most villages, but everyone here remembers a drought.
• Women's dress: full skirts called ghagras with a long odhni, printed or tie-dyed in red, orange and deep green.
• White bangles: in some communities married women wear them stacked from wrist to upper arm.
• Men's dress: white dhotis and kurtas, with turbans in saffron, red or patterned cloth.
• Reading a turban: its tie and colour can tell a local where a man is from and what the occasion is. See our piece on the turbans of Rajasthan.
• Visiting a home: we arrange it through families we know, at a time that suits them, with tea, and we pay the family for their time.
• Never uninvited: please don't wander into compounds, however open they look.

The rhythm of a desert day

On the dunes at Khuri

• Shoes off: the sand cools quickly once the sun goes down.
• A gentler camel walk: the pace at Khuri is usually slower than at Sam.
• Our checks: owners we know, camels that are healthy, well fed and properly saddled, and rides kept to an easy hour.
• What we don't book: racing, or long rides in the heat.
• Longer journeys: our camel safari page explains rides that begin or end at Khuri and continue for a night or two across the open desert.
• For walkers: go out at first light with a guide, read the night's tracks, and watch larks and wheatears in the scrub.
• Not empty: in the quiet of Khuri you are more likely to see that the Thar is full of life.

The land around the village

• Monsoon grass: the fodder that keeps the herds alive through the dry months.
• The national park: further south and west, the same grassland inside the Desert National Park shelters the great Indian bustard, chinkara and many winter eagles and falcons.
• Around Khuri: chinkara at dawn, foxes at dusk and, if you are very lucky, a desert cat.
• Birds: larks, wheatears, shrikes and sandgrouse are common.
• Cranes: in winter, flocks of demoiselle cranes sometimes pass high overhead.
• A changing horizon: wind turbines and solar farms in many directions, power lines across the plain, and canal water turning scrub into fields.
• Mixed feelings: new jobs and roads on one side, lost grazing and danger to birds on the other.
• Ask your guide: you'll get an honest and thoughtful answer.

Where to stay for Khuri

What the village eats

• Khichdi: millet with moth beans.
• Kadhi: yoghurt cooked with gram flour, made almost daily.
• Ker sangri: the small, tart berries of the ker bush with the long beans of the khejri, cooked with spices and oil.
• Food that stores: fresh vegetables were once rare luxuries, so meals were built on beans, berries, millet, gram flour and dairy.
• Dal baati: baked wheat balls broken into lentils and soaked in ghee, a treat camp cooks make for guests.
• Tea is welcome: chai boiled with milk, plenty of sugar and often ginger or black pepper in winter, poured into small glasses or saucers.
• Accept at least one: refusing outright can seem cold, but saying you have just had some is perfectly polite.
• If offered food: take a little with your right hand, and know the family may eat only after their guests have finished.
• A family kitchen: ask your guide to arrange an evening watching rotis made over the fire, eating cross-legged on a rug in the courtyard.
• The dishes explained: our Rajasthani food guide.

Music, embroidery and the long winter evenings

• Listen for: the kamaicha, the Manganiyars' bowed lute, and the quick, clattering khartal, wooden clappers played in each hand.
• The tradition: our page on the Manganiyar singers explains it, and we pay musicians directly.
• Afternoon embroidery: women stitch quilts, bags, wedding clothes and wall hangings, mostly for their own families.
• Mirrorwork: often covered in tiny mirrors that catch the firelight.
• If you buy: buy directly and pay what the piece is worth. A single bedspread may be months of afternoons.
• For the finest work: combine Khuri with the embroidery villages of Barmer to the south.

When to come to Khuri

• February and early March: warm by day and mild by night.
• From April: intense heat and pre-monsoon dust storms, and most camps close until autumn.
• Desert Festival: in February, Khuri is a peaceful base away from the crowds in town and at Sam. See the Desert Festival.
• Book early: for Christmas and New Year, busy everywhere in the desert.
• The broader year: our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan and our journal piece on winter in the Thar.

Getting to Khuri, and what to see on the way

• Beyond Khuri: continue by jeep or camel. Our jeep safari in the Thar uses established tracks only.
• Border roads: the roads west lead towards border areas, and checkpoints may ask for identity documents.
• Our journeys: Khuri fits Under the Thar Sky and Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.
• The rest of your stay: read the full Jaisalmer guide.

What to combine with Khuri

A night at Khuri, the way we'd spend it

Who Khuri is right for

• Also: writers, painters and anyone who wants to talk to people rather than photograph them.
• Returning visitors: our first suggestion for a second or third trip to Rajasthan.
• Less suited to: those who want a five-star resort with a spa and a choice of restaurants, because there is none here.
• And: photographers chasing a single towering dune, who should head to Sam at dawn.
• Want both: we split the night: dinner and stars at Khuri, then a comfortable bed at Suryagarh or The Serai an hour away.

What we tell friends before Khuri

• Dress modestly: shoulders and knees covered in the village.
• Pack a torch, warm layers and a scarf: winter nights are dark and cold, and the wind brings sand.
• Choose quiet camps: ones that use acoustic music and switch generators off at night. Silence is the luxury here.
• Right hand: use it to give and receive things, including money and food.
• Take your rubbish back: the village has no way to deal with plastic.
• Greet with khamma ghani: the Rajasthani hello, returned with real warmth.