Fam Jam - Days 20-21
Trip Start
Mar 23, 2012
1
10
21
Trip End
Ongoing
Bikaner, Rajasthan, India
Thursday, April 12, 2012
We arrive just after 6 in the morning and go to the hotel. Its a beautiful old building. Red walls and cute gardens surrounding it. We have to time freshen up relax and have breakfast before heading off for our camel trek!!
It really is such an awesome thing Riding through the dessert on a camel.
When we arrive at the the starting point & there are a lot of camels sitting around. Getting on the camel is an experience in itself. I thought we would be sharing camels but lucky for us we have one each! One last loo stop before heading out and Teigan names our little group the fam jam! We are family jammed together to look after each other for the next three weeks.
Back to getting on the camel:
The camel stands with its back legs first so you have to hold on tight until it has stood on its front legs!! It feels a little like your gonna fall off the front but your not leaning forward for to long and it's best to lean back if you can.
Tessa and I follow at the end of the group chatting the entire way to the lunch stop.
We start through a v small Village and before long are surround by dessert alone. There are a surprising amount of pylons here that really don't look dissimilar from the ones you can see dotted around the English countryside (I guess that isn't completely random).
We stop for lunch under some shade. They have set out little stools for us and are preparing lunch. We have some lentils, aubergine and a vegetable from the dessert. After eating mattresses are lain out for us on relax on as it is too hot to continue the trek for a while. I follow Kat's new trend of leaving the stall on its side so you can use it as a back rest. It's lovely to relax in the dessert chatting/reading. It's soon time to continue and at first muno(I think this is the camels name) she seems a bit unsettled but it's ok. There are a lot of birds flying about but sadly I have no idea what they are. We do see foxes deer and antelope. I chat with Jen this time but sometime my camel decides to eat so I get a little left behind.
We arrive at our campsite and it's so cute and very fitting for a large bunch of girls with its pink tents! There is also a dining table with a red table cloth in the middle of it. Its pretty random and not what any of us had been expecting.
We watch the sun set on the top of the sand dune and it's lovely. It's so peaceful here in comparison to the busy and loud city of Delhi.
Dinner is served and it gets really dark we have soup and finger fries to dip into for starters. We are also offered to stay if we want to under the stars instead of in the tents. Teigan, Hannah, Cara and I decided to do it. After seeing some fairly scary looking bugs cara and I have second thoughts about this crazy plan but they have already put the beds outside so when we go to lay down and then we are too lazy to move it all again. We are told the guys that have been looking after us are staying outside as is Dushyant so I decide it will be fine! I am also so glad i did!
Sleeping under the the stars is amazing!! I'm listening to ben Howard (obviously) and I think it is safe to say I am blissfully happy! The realisation that I am actually doing something I've wanted to do for such along long time is amazing ! Lying there watching the stars pays off when I see the most amazing shooting star. They are always fabulous but when your lying in bed and I'm not sure I've seen on quite so detailed just adds to the amazingness of the whole situation.
Eventually I fall asleep, wake quite a few times but it's worth it.
Thursday 12th April 2012
Woke up to see the starting colourings of the sun rise. Cara has already gone to the top of the hill to do yoga and Teigan runs to make it up before the sunrises. I follow slowly afterward and then Hannah and Tessa!! Tessa Joined the stars crew cos it was to hot in the tents. The colours are so warm as they wake up the dessert.
Our journey back is in camel Carts which are very bumpy rides. It's fun though and doesn't feel like it takes us long at all. Our main guide for the camel trek (we soon learn is Afan) has agreed to take us on a tour of Bikaner in the afternoon so we have the rest of the morning to get cleaned up and rest.
We see some temples and then walk to the old part of town. We walk across a rail crossing even though the barriers down despite all of our better judgements, it seems like the norm here though.
The old part of town is a lot quieter and has great architecture. A cow charges at us and Cara has to be moved out of the way by Afan. A little scared of cows now. We go to a market and try some dried mango and smell some spices.
Some of the girls go to the loo and the rest of us are surrounded by locals. This old gentleman wants a photo with Tessa so he sits next to her and puts his arm around her hehe.
We are then taken to an embroidery store even though we are told this is a factory that is set up to help widowed women make a living. Potentially some translation confusion cos it is just a big warehouse store although the women may have made the items! It's a giggle anyway especially as Teigan has gotten married :-p, Cara has been set up with someone and Jen got a free scarf.
The car picks us up from there as we are due to go to the rat temple. The name is
When I say a rat temple it really is a temple full of rats. We are told that the rats are blessed an they never leave the temple and no other street rats enter! There are so many! You also have to walk around bare foot and you get to feed them! I fed maybe 3 or 4 but it creeped me out too much! Tessa loved it, Kat tried it out too and Teigan took out photos! The others all escaped as quickly as possible. Ewwww!!
We had dinner on a roof top lookin over the city and had some local music was played for us. This lady was doing dancing a long with the music and got us up to join in. It was so much fun.
