We arrived the night in Bickaner after a journey train of 8 hours. As usual when we descended from the train a crowd of tuc-tuc drivers asked us if we wanted a ride for our hotel, but our hotel was quite close to the train station so we walked for 5 minutes and arrived in our pre-booked hotel- nice and easy J. It was a really nice haveli with nice and clean room. On the way to the hotel , opposite the train station, we saw a brand spanking new Europe-style Indian fast food restaurant selling south Indian, north Indian, veg (of course) burgers and pizza miam miam :P We went here several times just to eat (masala!) pizza.
The next morning we decided to go for a camel safari in the desert. We called an agency to see if it was possible to book on in the same day, fortunately for us it was not the busy season so they could organize our trip in the desert for the afternoon “No problem!”. Waiting for our appointment with the tuc-tuc we went for a walk in the town to visit a bit. Bikaner is not a tourist town and many of the shop keepers were wearing unfriendly faces but at least it meant no hassle or pressure to buy. We tried a few local sweets, which had no idea what it was called, but it was very tasty and very sweet- of course! We also walked into the material area of the market which was in a little road, at the entry an arch with lot of detailed carving. The road was full of shops and each vendor had their material, saris and daputa (scarves) hanging outside for everyone to see.
At two o’clock we returned to the hotel to catch our tuc tuc to the desert! On the way we stopped to pick up our guide and we drove for an hour out of town to meet our camel man and his young apprentice. Waiting us were two camels, a cart full of blankets, food and water, our cool camel man who spoke several words of English: “OK?” “OK!” and “OK.”(He spoke more camel than English).
One camel was our “chameau char” (camel cart), he was 10 years old and quite well behaved. The other camel was to ride, he was only 4 years old (they live until around 25 years old) and he still had a lot to learn. As camels (with one hump) are notoriously uncomfortable to ride, we took turns to ride on the camel or to sit on the cart. The young camel was always looking for something to play with or to bite. He bit the cardboard box containing the water bottles (but he didn’t like the taste so he spat it out!) he tried to eat a water bottle, he bit the cart that was in front of him, he was continuously trying to bite through his reigns, and he was afraid of trucks! He also had a cold and kept sneezing all over the young guy who tried to control his reigns. He complained to sit down, he complained to stand up, he tried to find his own way along the road, camels are quite stubborn animals! He did, however, understand the language of “the stick”. Every time he was naughty he would get a smack on the neck with a stick and he knew it was coming! The trip was really peaceful and quiet. We left behind the noise of the towns. Sitting on the camel or on the cart staring out into the sandy landscape was very relaxing and we could see some wildlife too such as antelope, desert foxes, bee eater birds etc. The landscape was certainly desert but it was not rolling sand dunes, there were some bushes and the occasional tree, sometimes a small mud hut or a tractor. We stopped for the night on top of a dune with a nice view of the sunset, although it was a little cloudy. The wind was picking up too and we found that quickly everything was completely covered in sand.
After the sun went down the guide made a fire from dried camel dung and small branches that he had collected earlier and proceeded to cook us a dinner of vegetables, rice, chapatti and … sand. It was tasty, even if a little crunchy. After dinner (8.30pm) it was time for bed (because what else are you going to do in the desert with no lights!) so they took out some blankets from the cart and we made our bed for the night in the sand, looking up at the stars. We fell as sleep quickly as it was very comfy and nice and quiet J. We slept very soundly, at first, then what we were hoping would not happen,. happened.
It started to rain.
In the desert.
After some rusting around and some unintelligible grunting from the camel man, they produced a waterproof cover from the cart and fixed it over the top of the cart to make a little tent underneath. They woke us up and we crawled under along with the guide, the camel man his young apprentice and a stray dog (but fortunately no camels!). There was not a lot of space and Marc kept hitting his head on the top of the cart. We passed another couple of fitful hours of sleep until dawn when we were woken up by the camel man giving us a hot cup of chai. In the morning, because of the rain the night before, the landscape was foggy so we could only just see a few trees shrouded in fog. After some dodgy toast butter jam and some more tea we continued our camel trek. A couple of hours later we arrived in a small village and stopped at the house of the camel man. His house consisted of four round mud and dung (cow shit) houses with a straw roves around a central open floor. It was very well kept and clean and inside the mud/shit houses it was really fresh and cool- far cheaper and more effective than concrete. Inside the houses there were some traditional decorations, wall hanging and some family photos and a hand loom for spinning textiles. Whilst we were drinking ANOTHER chai, the camel man had a shower (outside with a bucket of water) and changed his lungi (traditional cloth trousers) and we were on the road again.
About an hour later we stopped for lunch in a nearby house (some friends of the camel man). As we were waiting for the guide to cook our food, we watched one of the girls of the house paint a picture of several women and children holding hands in bright pink on the white wash wall. It was part of women’s festival that was taking place the next day. After lunch we were invited to lie down to have a nap in a sort of ‘rest room’ with 3 string beds inside a mud/shit house. After our little nap, we made the last part of our trip. On our way we past a (look up on internet) of female camels with young. A little further down the road, the camel man started saying something a pulled the cart off the road. We headed into the bush near to something lying on the ground. As we got closer we saw it was a female camel who had just given birth. We went close and we saw the baby camel trying to get to its feet, his legs didn’t seem to fit his body! It was really amazing to see. Both mother and baby seemed to be doing fine so we went on our way and left them to it. We finished our trip around 5 and after a quick goodbye to the camel man and his apprentice; we went with the guide to the Rat Temple.
This was a very strange experience! It is a temple dedicated to rats (for reason that we haven’t found out yet!). People come from far and wide to see this place. People were queuing to get inside the temple to worship the holy rats. There were rats EVERYWHERE! there were holes in the wall spewing rats, the floor was moving.. with rats. The rats are given large bowls of sweet milk and Indian sweets litter the floor. This is rat heaven- oh to be a rat in this rat temple! There was a rat garden full of branches and things to play with and more food and more sweet milk. Rats were all over the fence to the rat garden, some falling asleep perched in the most precarious positions. It was insane (and also quite smelly and extremely dirty- euk!).
After half an hour of buses we came back in Bickaner with the guide. He organized a rickshaw to the hotel. At the hotel we ask with puppy dog eyes to have a shower in one of their room for answer we had a nice smile and a head wobble for a yes. We clean ourselves of sweat sand and sun cream.
After having diner in our favourite place in Bickaner we waited ages for the train to Jasisalmer.
