Naughty Camel... Don't Roll Over Krista!
Trip Start
Jul 04, 2007
1
13
23
Trip End
Aug 07, 2007
Pushkar, India
Monday, July 23, 2007
So after resting awhile, Mr. Negi called us to tell us our camels had arrived. At this point Lisa got fairly terrified about how she would get on top of an animal whose back is at least 8 feet in the air. Luckily the camels sat down on the ground and we simply had to maneuver ourselves as it stood up with us on their backs already (still not easy). And we were off. Unfortunately we had to walk partially through the main street of town. As if we weren't obvious looking enough as it was. The normal stares were now amplified as the two white girls sat atop gigantic camels and were paraded through town while being pulled by two Indian men. Hello freak show.
Luckily we soon left the main drag and started for the countryside. The desert around Pushkar is mostly green hills (but still sandy) with lots of little farms and goat herds. Eventually our Indian puller guys jumped up on the camels and rode a bit too. My (Lisa) guy's name was Pachu and, like most Indians, doesn't really care for George Bush, but LOVES Bill Clinton and anxiously awaits the day for Hillary to take office.
After about an hour and a half, we were going to stop for a break. Apparently Krista's camel guy doesn't speak English as well as Pachu because he had told me to hold on for dear life as we were going to sit down. Krista thought it was simply time to take a picture of me, so she wasn't holding on at all, and looking through her camera when suddenly her camel, Jenny (who was a boy) started to sit down. Krista screamed and actually made it to the ground okay except the camel immediately decided to lie on its side, rolling Krista with him. Luckily Krista and the camel guys were pretty quick and he only managed to squash her foot into the sand. She was fine... just a wee bit dirty, (she says she had sand in every crevice for the rest of the trip) but of course Lisa found it hilarious.
While we were stopped a pack of crazy Korean people arrived on their camels. We consider them crazy because they started having private photo shoots with each of their camels, getting ridiculously close to their faces and their kicking legs. The camel guys kept saying "NO! THey will bite you!" But did the crazy Koreans care? Oh no. A-1 Nut Balls right Sarah?
We were off again for a couple more hours as the sun started to set over the hills. It was around 7:30 when we arrived at our camp where they were at least 5 more Indian guys there to serve our every need. We went and watched the sunset (and goats pass) as they set up our tent for us and started to cook dinner. After a bit we headed down and met the other tourists there for the night, two English students named Mark and Julia. They were very nice and we got to hang out with them the rest of the night. We had a fairly interesting dinner, complete with background music and Mr. Negi arrived with our water and clothes. The guys even pulled out big cold beers, (totally naughty in Pushkar) and then we got ready for bed. It was too hot in the tents so we actually pulled our little beds out and slept under the desert stars... pretty cool.
In the morning we got up with the sun and our guide people started making us breakfast. We had a warm glass of chai and some fruit and crackers before things got packed up and we headed for home. Only about an hour on the way back, we were very happy to get off the camels (OUCH!) and use a real bathroom. We showered, repacked and got ready for the drive to Jodhpur.
