Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Walking like John Wayne

Well, looks like I survived 3 days on camel back without breaking my neck. Got back yesterday afternoon in pain (in the bum and legs) but happy. My experience can be roughly described as follows-

Day 1 Anger followed by Terror followed by extreme pain
Day 2 Mild terror and medium pain followed by a degree of pleasure
Day 3 Mild pain and quite a lot of pleasure

As you know, Im travelling on my own, and am gradually getting more and more jaded by the constant attention a single women traveller experiences in India. So with this in mind, I decide to do the camel safari to meet some other tourists who I can hang with for a little while. SO I sign up at the hotel for a group tour and am assured that there are at least 3 others on the tour and more joining. Every time I discussed the trip with the hotel manager I asked about the other people and he re-iterated that there were several other people on board, but he didnt know exact numbers etc.

I then smelt a rat on the morning of departure when there was NO-ONE else in the jeep with me going to the start point of the trip. I asked the driver, and he said "the others are coming in another jeep" so I think...OK no worries.

Then I arrive at the start point, and...guess what...its me on my own with the 21 year old Camel man. Grrrrrrrrrrreat. Hence my extreme anger. I must admit, I had a hissy fit and demanded to be taken back to Jaisalmer, but was met with the Indian favoured phrase"not possible"

So, onto the camel I got.....from which point anger was eclipsed by pain and terror!!! My poor camel man (his name was Matar) must have thought he had got a really horrible client, because the first half of the day I was EVIL!!! Anyway, he was very calm and nice and helped me a lot so I calmed down enough to ride to the lunch point. From nowhere Matar magic-ed a wonderful meal (he cooks on fire built in the sand) and put me in the shade on a blanket lounger to cool off!

We rode further to the first set of dunes to make camp for the first night, by which time I had made friends with my lovely camel, and things were looking up (except my completely dead legs) Matar cooked for me again, and we slept under a huge blanket of stars on the powdery sand. Wonderful. Lots and lots of shooting stars. Although Matar was a young and amourous man (like all men here, he wants a tourist girlfriend) he was very respectful when I told him I wanted none of it.

The next day saw a couple of hours on camel back in the morning, as well as a stop at one or two of the outlying villages. Riding along is very peaceful - no noise except the camels burping and letting off gas the other end! We saw a lot of deer and goats and other desert wildlife, and the scenery was spectacular - wide open spaces and lots of blue sky.

The second night was spent at Matar's own secret dunes which are virgin territory and very beautiful. The whole trip was exceptionally non-touristy, which, to be fair, is what I was promised.

After leaving the desert and coming back to town, I realised that it had actually turned out for the best being on my own as Im sure I wouldnt have been coddled in such a way if there had been other people on the trip. I look at it that I got a DI-esque private camel safari for the price of a group trip! Im ever the optimist!

Last night I had to elbow the hotel chef in the stomach when he tried to give me an unwanted massage for my bad legs. Luckily he is anorexically thin, and so he crumpled like a twig!

Today im off to Bikaner on the bus at lunch time, so ive been wandering the streets in the fort taking a last few pictures and visiting the famous Jain temple.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, you wanted "non-touristy" camel safari...

xxx

2:05 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And why didn't I have any problems with over-amorous men then..??

I feel rejected....

4:35 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Getting nervous - 'uk woman tourist - last heard of getting bus to Bikana' - - - -
Ma.
x

4:34 pm  

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