JAISALMER 26 November - 1 December 1996
I slept well on another night bus but Joan on the window side suffered a cold draught on her legs throughout the journey. the stops though frequent were mainly short and never at a place with toilets or even eats, just chair. Every time we got off the bus a set of chancers got on and took our seats - I think they were street people looking for a warm place and a free ride, a woman with a child certainly came into that category but she could not work out how to get into our seats for lack of familiarity with reclining seats, both those in front and our own - never easy.
On arrival we were approached by a representative of the
Samrat Hotel recommended by the botany prof Sharma, we had made friends
with in Manali, and by Dutch girls in Pushkar, so we followed
meekly. The LP was full of warnings about touts in Jaisalmer - but this
applies almost everywhere. We had an excellent room there for 40rp, but
no doubt all the hotels make their real money from selling Camel
Safaris. We settled for a two and half day (two night) safari, out to
the desert by jeep, good food, fruit, mineral water for 1300rp each.
There were two day safaris to be had like the Dutch girls said for
250rp, 2 night safaris were advertised in town for 450rp, so in our
haste may well have paid well over the odds.
Notes from now on completed at home on 3 March 97!
Sharma visited us at the hotel and said he considered the price we had paid for the safari to be reasonable, but at the time he thought we had paid 1300rp for two. We walked up and around the small fortified walled town with him.
The following midday we set out on our safari with two French girls and the Samrat manager. On our way out to the desert he took us to a couple of temples and a deserted village before the rendezvous with the camel drivers, but only three camels, they said there would be another in the morning and was as good as his word.
We had a short ride for perhaps one hour to our overnight camping spot in the dunes. It looked just like our preconception of a sandy desert. It was dark before we ate our first camp meal and after a photo session we laid down on blankets in the sand with only our sleeping bags to keep us warm and isolate us from the great outdoors. It felt like a great new experience, one we were going to enjoy. We slept well but it was a little chilly when I wandered off a little to pee. The long shadows in the early morning sunlight were quite magical, ones which would make this small area of shifting sand look normal, though it clearly was anything but normal.
Onto the
camels for our first taste of an extended camel ride. At first it was
fine but soon the sitting posture, legs splayed wide by the camel and
especially by the large number of blankets made you very aware of the
aching of muscles you didn't know you had. Trying to walk after
dismounting two hours later was very difficult, to say the least. An
attempt to walk and the to run was a relief if still painful. But riding
alone through the desert was a wonderful feeling, after a while the
drivers, who were walking beside us, gave us the reins and I soon learnt
to balance and ride without holding the saddle for grim death. I could
look around, take photographs and enjoy the whole experience except the
pain. At the lunch stop there was a hedgerow of trees, the first
greenery we had seen, where Joan soon discovered it held wild peacocks.
We were friendly with the French girls, around 35 years, and they with us, but never got the feeling it was more than politeness. They were both nurses, one worked in Rwanda for Action Contre la Faim, a rough equivalent to the better known Medecin Sans Frontiers. Maybe there was a sad/serious side to their nature, they seemed happiest the second night when we n met up with another camel party an a French male. It was then we realised how much more English other drivers could speak. Our driver was pleasant enough but verbal communication was not his scene.
By the end of this second camp I had become obsessed with destroying the plastic water bottles which were simply discarded in the desert. A more tangible confirmation of the return to civilisation was the endless stream of women carrying water home in pottery jars on their heads, whilst the children went off to school. Their possessions are few so perhaps for the moment plastic bottles are a help.
Towards as if to ensure we felt the maximum pain the drivers were forcing the camels to trot causing us to bounce on the saddle. It was also exhilarating and illustrated that we were now more confident in the saddle. In fact I tried to make the camel trot by myself by holding the reins high and puling his head back but it did not work, the impetuous always came from behind perhaps the forced trotting of Joan's camel.
The last day was broken up as we visited temples and villages before arriving back in Jaisalmer just as the exodus was on from their first camel fair at this time of year. It was scheduled to be just after Pushkar which they hoped would encourage visitors to come further west.
Back at hotel Samrat we were met by Sharma who was to take us home for dinner. We met his wife and one daughter, the other was away at college.
Once again no-one ate with us, we think this was because we didn't
belong to the Brahmin caste. He apologised a little for the meal as his
wife was clearly not in the best of health, she was soon to go into
hospital but for the moment had to build up her blood from anemia in
order to be sufficiently well for the operation. from which one might
conjure up of someone wasting away, but she was a large woman and it was
suggested that a hormone imbalance was at the root of her problems.
We showed him how to use his new camera and left two films as a present. He told us of his other English friend who he had recently discovered was involved in the drug trade, buying in Manali, storing in locked deposit boxes in Dehli hotels and selling in Goa. Apparently all the carrying was done by Indian nationals. He didn't seem too worried by the morality of it and seemed to adopt an Indian attitude and accept that people had to make a living.
He had made several business ventures most of which had failed because he drank the profits - though he no longer drank. He had greeted us with the fact that his nephew and cook had absconded fro y the Shiva restaurant in Old Manali with the takings, so he did not expect to be opening next year for he had enough. Those two had appeared to get along well in Manali so the news was a shock, the lad will be a big success in Goa given his energy and talent as a cook. Sharma has a plot of land in Jodpur on which he expects to build a house for his retirement, but for the present is hoping for promotion which could well involve moving to a city with a government college. He was scathing about the quality of lecturers, 60% of whom are local appointees who knew little about the subject and are not even prepared to give lectures for fear of displaying their ignorance.
I slept well on another night bus but Joan on the window side suffered a cold draught on her legs throughout the journey. the stops though frequent were mainly short and never at a place with toilets or even eats, just chair. Every time we got off the bus a set of chancers got on and took our seats - I think they were street people looking for a warm place and a free ride, a woman with a child certainly came into that category but she could not work out how to get into our seats for lack of familiarity with reclining seats, both those in front and our own - never easy.
 |
| Looking down on defensive walls of Jaisalmer |
 |
| Palace at Jaisalmer |
 |
| Palace at Jaisalmer |
 |
| Walls of Jaisalmer |
 |
| Walking up cobbled approach road inside Jaisalmer |
Notes from now on completed at home on 3 March 97!
Sharma visited us at the hotel and said he considered the price we had paid for the safari to be reasonable, but at the time he thought we had paid 1300rp for two. We walked up and around the small fortified walled town with him.
 |
| Street of Jaisalmer |
 |
| Street of Jaisalmer |
 |
| Jaisalmer from New Town |
 |
| Joan with my barber, Jaisalmer |
 |
| Palace Jaisalmer |
The following midday we set out on our safari with two French girls and the Samrat manager. On our way out to the desert he took us to a couple of temples and a deserted village before the rendezvous with the camel drivers, but only three camels, they said there would be another in the morning and was as good as his word.
We had a short ride for perhaps one hour to our overnight camping spot in the dunes. It looked just like our preconception of a sandy desert. It was dark before we ate our first camp meal and after a photo session we laid down on blankets in the sand with only our sleeping bags to keep us warm and isolate us from the great outdoors. It felt like a great new experience, one we were going to enjoy. We slept well but it was a little chilly when I wandered off a little to pee. The long shadows in the early morning sunlight were quite magical, ones which would make this small area of shifting sand look normal, though it clearly was anything but normal.
 |
| Camel first stage of getting up, Jaisalmer Camel trek |
 |
| Ready for Bed, first night on ert |
 |
| Ready for Bed, first night on desert |
 |
| First Dawn, bedding packed up again |
 |
| First desert breakfast |
 |
| Ready for Off |
 |
| Greenery at Last, Trekking in line |
 |
| Return to Civilisation |
We were friendly with the French girls, around 35 years, and they with us, but never got the feeling it was more than politeness. They were both nurses, one worked in Rwanda for Action Contre la Faim, a rough equivalent to the better known Medecin Sans Frontiers. Maybe there was a sad/serious side to their nature, they seemed happiest the second night when we n met up with another camel party an a French male. It was then we realised how much more English other drivers could speak. Our driver was pleasant enough but verbal communication was not his scene.
By the end of this second camp I had become obsessed with destroying the plastic water bottles which were simply discarded in the desert. A more tangible confirmation of the return to civilisation was the endless stream of women carrying water home in pottery jars on their heads, whilst the children went off to school. Their possessions are few so perhaps for the moment plastic bottles are a help.
Towards as if to ensure we felt the maximum pain the drivers were forcing the camels to trot causing us to bounce on the saddle. It was also exhilarating and illustrated that we were now more confident in the saddle. In fact I tried to make the camel trot by myself by holding the reins high and puling his head back but it did not work, the impetuous always came from behind perhaps the forced trotting of Joan's camel.
The last day was broken up as we visited temples and villages before arriving back in Jaisalmer just as the exodus was on from their first camel fair at this time of year. It was scheduled to be just after Pushkar which they hoped would encourage visitors to come further west.
Back at hotel Samrat we were met by Sharma who was to take us home for dinner. We met his wife and one daughter, the other was away at college.
 |
| Dinner at Sharma's, met in Manali |
We showed him how to use his new camera and left two films as a present. He told us of his other English friend who he had recently discovered was involved in the drug trade, buying in Manali, storing in locked deposit boxes in Dehli hotels and selling in Goa. Apparently all the carrying was done by Indian nationals. He didn't seem too worried by the morality of it and seemed to adopt an Indian attitude and accept that people had to make a living.
He had made several business ventures most of which had failed because he drank the profits - though he no longer drank. He had greeted us with the fact that his nephew and cook had absconded fro y the Shiva restaurant in Old Manali with the takings, so he did not expect to be opening next year for he had enough. Those two had appeared to get along well in Manali so the news was a shock, the lad will be a big success in Goa given his energy and talent as a cook. Sharma has a plot of land in Jodpur on which he expects to build a house for his retirement, but for the present is hoping for promotion which could well involve moving to a city with a government college. He was scathing about the quality of lecturers, 60% of whom are local appointees who knew little about the subject and are not even prepared to give lectures for fear of displaying their ignorance.
No comments:
Post a Comment