Farting camels Desert Driving
Trip Start
Oct 04, 2005
1
29
31
Trip End
Mar 13, 2006
Pushkar, India
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
From Bangalore we spent 4 days travelling up to New Delhi. We lasted only 6 hours in New Delhi before catching a train out - it was all a bit chaotic and busy... after weeks of relaxation.
We caught 2 dodgy trains to the desert village of Nawalgarh. For the first time on a train during this whole trip, I got touched up by a dirty Indian man... not once but three times urgh!
Nawalgarh is renowned for its exquisitely painted havelis - haveli is the term used for a building of personal residence in Shekhawati and Marwar regions of Rajasthan, India. The word haveli is of Persian origin, meaning "an enclosed place". The village was what I have imagined a wild west town would look like... this village didn't even have a restaurant. We spent our days walking through the nearly deserted streets, and visited a couple of the havelis, they were simply amazing. Just so you get a bit of a feel, the havelis were centred aroun a small courtyard and were 2 stories high. There were balconies around the courtyard with doors leading off to dancing halls, bedrooms, dining rooms - all the rooms were elaborately painted (photo's to follow). Because there were no restaurants we ate all our meals at our guesthouse... thankfully the wife was a great cook!
We ended up staying in Nawarlgarh 4 days there as I got crook, this time we had to get the good old doctor to come around to fix me.
From Nawarlgarh we caught a bus for 7 hours to Pushkar, during the first 2 hours of our ride I was almost certain that we weren't going to come out of the trip alive. Within half an hour of us being on the road our bus driver almost had 2 head on collisions with a bus and truck. I think the bus driver must have received my telepathic message I was trying to send him - "I am going to strangle with my hards and suffocate you, if you don't slow down you bastard!!" Half way through the journey we got off the one-lane highway and found ourselves driving through the middle of the desert. All you could see for miles around was sand. At one point a local got off the bus in the middle of this desert plain, where he was going is anyones guess... we spent about an hour driving across the desert, and it was such a fantastic experience.
We spent the last 4 days in Pushkar, and to be honest we've done a whole lot of nothing - we haven't even done any of the sightseeing musts! All we've managed to achieve is spending heaps of money buying up large - Pushkar is one of the cheapest places in India to by trinkets and the like... hence us spending a fortune!
Yesterday there was a Festival of the Sand Dunes, organised by the local government to try and attract more tourists - to be honest I think enough tourists haunt this place... but who am I to say. Anyway we are told that they had a similar festival a couple of months ago, but most of the people got drunk on bhang lassies (marajuana shakes) and ended up dancing naked in the desert - for those who've been to India will know that nudity is a definite no-no. So, the local government decided to try again!
The festival was free for all, and would involve a camel sunset walk and local music dance. The guy that owns our hotel had arranged for everyone staying there to be escorted to the festival by way of 3 men beating large drums. There were about 10 of us, he gave us all flowers for around our neck (men included) and sent us off behind these men. Although the thought was terribly nice and we felt humble for the effort he made, it was rather embarrassing to be walked through the town of Pushkar with everyone stopping to see what the commotion was. Once everyone knew that we'd arrived the drumming stopped and we were finaly able to hide within the crowd. We followed the procession for a good half an hour and then some policemen offered us to hop onto one of the camels. So, up we got on this poor camel and were walked the rest of the way up into the desert... this time we felt like celebrities, children running up to say hello and the adults smiling and waving (there were about 20 camels with foreigners on their backs).
We'd been told by our hotel guy that everything (including the camel rides) were being funded by the government. But in true Indian fashion, once the guy let us off our camel he tried to sting us for 150 rupees... knowing that he was trying a smooth one we told him we'd get the police over, funnily enouh he soon went his own way. Another couple of people we ment didn't know it was free and paid 100 rupees - bastards!
As the sun went down over the desert we were entertained by girls dancing with firepots on their heads; Western chicks performing a risque version of traditional indian dancing (with Indian men whooping to boot); Indian men doing fire pois and almost catching the stage and spectators on fire - loosing control of his fire stick and it catapalting into the crowd. All in all it was just a really nice, mellow festival and when your not expecting anything it's quite special.
We will spend one more night in Pushkar before heading off to Jodphur and Jaisalamer for a few days. Our hotel guy has talked us into coming back to Pushkar before flying out to relax a few days... we've agreed, mainly because we've purchased about 10kg worth of junk and don't fancy carrying it.
Just a footnote about celebrity status, and cow encounters.....
During our time in Pushkar we had 2 little cow experiences, the first was when we were having lunch at a curbside cafe, this cow decided that he wanted our food. He was right by our table and looked at us for a bit, and then... decided to come over and threw his head on our table, trying to eat our food. The cafe owner chased him away, and in retaliation the cow peed all over the road right in front of the cafe.
The second encounter was during the festival, we'd all been given a flower garland for our necks. Whilst walking in the procession this calf cornered me against a motorbike and proceeded to eat the garland from my neck, I really didn't have much choice then to let him have it... all the locals found it extremely funny (photo's to follow).
Now the celebrity status, again at the festival. Somehow we (well mainly Ant) got our photo in the local paper. The hotel owner was over the moon, showing it to all who cared. Unfortunately the paper is written in Hindi, so we have no idea what they are saying about us.
